Keyboard Shortcuts Basics

How to Customize Photoshop’s Shortcuts

1. Click on Edit in the main toolbar to open the Edit drop-down menu.
2. Click on Keyboard Shortcuts.
3. In the dialog box that appears, click on the New Set icon near the top-right corner. A second dialog box will appear.
4. In the second dialog box, type in a name for your new set of shortcuts. Your set contains a copy of all of Photoshop’s built-in shortcuts, which you can then modify or add to without deleting or overwriting Photoshop’s default set. When you click Save, you’ll return to the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box, which will now display the shortcuts in your set.
5. Click on the arrow to the right of the drop-down menu next to the words “Shortcuts For.” This drop-down lets you select which of the three categories of shortcuts you’d like to add to or edit. The three categories are:
   1. Application Menus: Shortcuts for the commands in Photoshop’s nine main toolbar menus, such as File, Edit, View, and Window.
   2. Palette Menus: Shortcuts for the commands in 15 Photoshop palettes, such as Actions, Brushes, History, and Style. A 16th palette, Tool Options, lists general Tool palette–related commands, but doesn’t show shortcuts for tools in the Tool palette itself.
   3. Tools: Shortcuts for commands in Photoshop’s Tool palette, such as the Magic Wand and the Lasso.
6. If you select Tools, you’ll see a list of commands in one column with their respective shortcuts in a second column on the right. If you select Application Menus or Palette Menus, you’ll see a list of subcategories, such as “File” and “Edit” in the Application Menus cat-egory. Double-click on these subcategories to reveal a complete list of their commands and shortcuts. Note that some Palette menus have no built-in shortcuts, though all palettes have commands for which you can create custom shortcuts.
7. To add a shortcut, click on a command that does not have a shortcut listed in the right column. You can then type in any combination of keys to serve as your new shortcut—as long as the combination is not already used by an existing shortcut. Photoshop will alert you to any conflicts that arise.
8. To modify an existing shortcut, click on its shortcut keys and type in a new combination of keys. Again, Photoshop will alert you to any conflicts.
9. When you’ve finished making changes to a specific shortcut, click Accept.
10. When you’ve finished making all of the changes you’d like to make to your set of custom shortcuts, click on the Save Set icon and then click OK.

How to Use Photoshop Shortcuts on a Mac

• Instead of the Ctrl key: Use the Command key
• Instead of the Alt key: Use the Option key