Below are a few quick tips on how to make photoshop easier. Check out about our Photoshop workshops to learn more.
The Reset Button
If you have ever been in a situation, and if you haven’t you probably will one day, where you’ve tweaked and twiddled with your settings so much that you’ve completely lost track of your original settings?
Despite all seeming lost, however, salvation is never far from hand in the form of the reset button. When you select a tool, regardless of which one it is, the reset button is the first one in the row of options, at the top left hand side of the screen. When you click on this icon, you will be given two options: these are to either reset all your tools or just the one you are using.
With the reset button at your side you need never again fear getting hopelessly lost and feel free to muddle about with the settings as much as you like.
A Straight Line
Drawing a straight line with a pencil or brush is not as easy as one might expect, however here are some tips that might help achieve this more easily.
One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to hold down shift when you try to draw your line. That way the computer will have any marks you make become a straight line relative to your original point. To help you get a feel of how this works it is perhaps worthwhile just to practice with it for a few minutes, pressing and releasing the shift button randomly and making different movements with your mouse. (However bare in mind that you can only use this method if your line only goes vertically or horizontally.)
An alternative method that you can use, one which is not just restricted to going up and down, is called the point to point method. You do this by instead of drawing the line by dragging you mouse where you want the line to appear you, as well as holding shift, click where you want your line to end and begin, leaving the computer to fill in the blanks.
Switching From One Document To Another.
It is not uncommon, when using Photoshop, for images and documents to pile up and can quickly become a burden or unmanageable. Never fear though, with these tips you should soon by finding it easier.
One way Photoshop tries to help you manage with the document load is by having what is called a “photo bin.” What this does it to display thumbnail pictures of any documents that you may have open. This then allows you to more easily decipher which document you are looking for. The photo bin can be found at the bottom of the editor window.
Another method is to hold the “ctrl” and tab key at the same time, much like in windows, were the buttons are shift and tab, Photoshop will cycle through any open documents, and, if you press shift also, you will cycle the other way.
