Updated 08/24/21
Most people have a love / hate relationship with Speed Keys, regardless of the software program. But they’re called Speed Keys for a reason – they can save you lots of time with repetitive functions.
You should get into the habit of using a few basic Speed Key Combinations: Once you start to memorize these, you’ll significantly increase the speed with which you work.
There are hundreds of speed key combinations — Don’t be over-whelmed, as you only need a handful. The 10 shown below are the ones that I believe you’ll find the most useful – and to me, essential.
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Here are the 10 Essential Speed Keys (Mac in Parentheses), and what they do:
To Save your File:
• Control (Command) + ” S “ – Save your File
To View your File:
• Control (Command) + ” + “ – Enlarge Image Size
• Control (Command) + ” – “ – Reduce Image Size
• Control (Command) + ” 0 “ – Fit to Monitor Screen
• “F” Key – Toggle through Standard & Full Screen Modes
• “Tab” Key – Toggle to Show/Hide all Panels
Navigation though your file:
• “Navigator” Panel – Drag with mouse to desired location
• “Space Bar” Key + Left Mouse Button – Drag with mouse to desired location
Overall Process:
• “Arrow” Keys – Use to make small changes in:
a) numerical values in menus
b) position of crop guides while using crop tool
• Control (Command) + “Z” – Undo a History Step -Works in more than just Photoshop!
By the way, feel free to copy this page, or you can print the Speed Keys out (and more!) here:
https://main.wattsdigital.com/images/WattsDigital_Workflow-SpeedKeys.pdf
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… more on the Workflow Chart for Photographers:
https://blog.main.wattsdigital.com/?p=3981
… and here are more free useful downloads for photographic post-processing:
https://wattsdigital.com/free-useful-downloads
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• AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE – for more on my free live & online Photoshop Meetups, click here:
https://wattsdigital.com/free-live-meetups-online
• More Photoshop videos at my YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/wattsdigitalvideos
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• By the way, this is all based on my Photoshop book designed for photographers, “Not just another Photoshop Book”, available as eBook (immediate PDF download) or paperback from Amazon:
https://wattsdigital.com/photoshop-book-e-book
Questions? Please contact me – also, feel free to comment and forward this to your photography friends!
Thx again, and cheers,
John Watts ?
This is a really good tip particularly to those fresh to the blogosphere.
Brief but very accurate information… Thanks for sharing this
one. A must read article!
Some genuinely choice articles on this website, saved to my bookmarks.