Solution: Customizing Shortcuts and Menus

Photoshop provides a tremendous amount of power by including feature after feature after feature. Unfortunately, that means Photoshop also had to include menu after menu after menu. With the sheer number of menus and tools that Photoshop has to offer, you can quickly find yourself spending more time finding tools than using them. The solution to that problem is to customize your menus and to use keyboard shortcuts.

Tip
You can create and name several customized shortcuts or menu sets. You may want to create different sets for the type of editing you are doing and then load the set that best matches your workflow.

Customizing menus
Photoshop allows you to customize the menus in two ways. You can hide menu items that you do not intend to use, or you can color code menu items to make them easier to find. To customize Photoshop’s menus, select Edit ➪ Menus from the main menu to display the Menus tab of the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box, shown in Figure 2.26.

FIGURE 2.26
The Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box allows you to create custom menus that hide unwanted items and display important items in organized colors.

From the Menus tab, you can use the following options to create and manage customized menu sets:

Set: The Set option allows you to select the default menu set or a saved menu set from the drop-down list. The Save Set icon next to the Set list allows you to save changes to the currently selected set. The New Set icon allows you to save the current menu configuration as a new set that is displayed in the Set list. The Delete icon removes the currently selected set from the list. To create a new custom menu, make all adjustments to the menus, click the New Set icon, and name the set. You can then reload that set any time you like.
Menu For: This allows you to select whether you want to edit the application menus or the panel menus. When you change this option, either the application or panel menus are displayed, depending on which option you choose.
Menu list: The menu list displays a list of menus that can be adjusted. You can expand and collapse a menu in the list by clicking the triangle next to the menu name. When the menu is expanded, you can customize each menu option by doing the following:

Change Visibility: Use the mouse to toggle the eye icon to hide or show the menu item in Photoshop. Figure 2.26 shows that the Group from Layers option is hidden while the others are visible.
Change Color: You also can change the color used for the background of the menu item. This allows you to color code certain menu types or highlight important menu items so you can more easily find them. To change the color, select a color from the drop-down menu shown in Figure 2.26.

Customizing shortcuts
One of the best features Photoshop has to offer in improving your workflow speed is the use of keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to use a key sequence to quickly perform tasks, select tools, and open panels. Throughout this book, we describe the important keyboard shortcuts when describing various tools. If you take the time to learn and use these shortcuts, you can be much faster at using Photoshop.
Photoshop also allows you to customize the keyboard shortcuts. To customize Photoshop’s keyboard shortcuts, select Edit ➪ Keyboard Shortcuts from the main menu to display the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box, shown in Figure 2.27.

FIGURE 2.27
The Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box allows you to customize the keyboard shortcuts that you use to perform common tasks in Photoshop.

From the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, you can use the following options to create customized keyboard shortcut sets:

Set: The Set option allows you to select the default shortcut set or a saved shortcut set from the drop-down list. As with the customizing menus, the Save Set icon next to the Set list allows you to save changes to the currently selected set. The New Set icon allows you to save the current keyboard shortcuts as a new set that is displayed in the Set list. The Delete icon removes the currently selected set from the list. To create a new custom shortcut set, make all adjustments to the shortcuts, click the New Set icon, and name the set. You can then reload that set any time you like.
Use Legacy Channel Shortcuts: This changes the channel switching shortcuts back to the pre-CS4 form for users who are used to those options.
Shortcuts For: This allows you to select whether to edit the shortcuts for application menus, panel menus, or tools. When you change this option, the list below changes to reflect the option you choose.
Item list: The item list displays a list of shortcuts for the type selected in the Shortcuts For option. You can expand and collapse items in the list by clicking the triangle next to the item name. To change or add a shortcut to an item, click in the Shortcut column of that item. A text box appears with a cursor. When you type a key sequence into the text box, that key sequence is added to the text box. Figure 2.27 shows an example of the text box and key sequence for the Open menu item. To apply the key sequence as a shortcut, click the Accept button. To undo the change you made, click the Undo button. To revert to the Photoshop default, click the Use Default button.
Add Shortcut: This adds an additional shortcut to the item so it has two. This may help if you are used to different shortcuts from another application.
Delete Shortcut: This removes the selected shortcut from the item.
Summarize: The Summarize button launches a file dialog box that allows you to select a location to store an HTML summary of the keyboard shortcuts. After the file is saved, the summary is automatically displayed in your default Web browser, as shown in Figure 2.28. This is a good way to review the settings that you made.

FIGURE 2.28
The Summarize option of the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box generates a viewable HTML document that displays the current keyboard shortcuts.

In this tutorial:

Solution

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Customizing Shortcuts and Menus

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