Creative Tip: Shortcuts for Photoshop's Layers Palette.

It's a sign you know your way around Photoshop when you've mastered the keyboard shortcuts for the Layers palette. Here are the basics. Use the [ or ] bracket keys. Hold Option/ALT to select the layer above or below; Hold Command/Control to move your selected layer up and down.

Adobe has a full list of shortcuts on their Help Resource Center:

Adobe: Keys for using the Layers palette.

Source: This tip inspired by two Layer-related workshops this week at CreativeTechs. Wednesday morning, Jason Hoppe presents his popular workshop CS3 Layers: InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Etc. followed by Photoshop CS3: Mastering Layers on Thursday.

Tech Tip: Leopard vs. InDesign CS3 Bugs & Fixes.

For this week's tech tip we'd like to address a couple annoying Leopard-vs-InDesign bugs we've run into at clients over the last several months.

Bug 1 — Hiding InDesign: A common complaint from designers on Leopard is not being able to hide InDesign using the old Command-H shortcut. Worse, if they use the "Hide Others" option from another application, they can't get InDesign back. Happily, this problem has a quick and easy fix:

Leopard vs. InDesign: Can't Hide InDesign.

Bug 2 — InDesign Crashes: The most frustrating issue we're seeing at clients is a bug that causes frequent crashing when using InDesign's Open, Place, Import, Export, or Save dialog boxes. Until Adobe or Apple fixes this issue, we have an odd work-around culled from various online forums that has helped improve stability at several of our clients:

Leopard vs. InDesign: Crashes on Open, Import, Export, Save and Print.

Source: This tip inspired by recent InDesign troubleshooting at many clients including Creature Advertising, Electric Pen Design, and others. With special thanks to Jay Nelson at Design Tools Monthly for writing this tip up.

Seattle Training: Upcoming Workshops.

Wed, May 7 - CS3 Layers: InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Etc.
Thu, May 8 - Photoshop CS3: Mastering Layers.
Wed, May 14 - Using Adobe Bridge CS3.
Thu, May 15 - Photoshop CS3: Camera RAW.
Wed, May 21 - Studio Management with OS X Server. [FREE]
Wed, May 28 - Marketing with HTML Email Newsletters.

Would you like to recommend or suggest a topic? Please send an email to training@creativetechs.com.

Your referrals wanted! Referrals from our clients and readers are what keeps CreativeTechs healthy and in business. As a small thank-you, every week we send a Free Mini-Workshop Pass to new Seattle-area subscribers, plus the friend or colleague who referred them:

CreativeTechs QuickTips is a free weekly newsletter for creative professionals who use Macs. Each week we publish a fresh mix of left-brain and right-brain tips based on our real world experience supporting hundreds of creative teams in the greater Seattle area. For a complete archive of previous tips, visit www.creativetechs.com/tips

For IT Professionals supporting Mac users, visit Make Mac Work. This weekly technical blog focuses on IT issues facing Macs in Enterprise environments. It is written by CreativeTechs' lead enterprise engineer, Jordan Bojar. For an archive of previous topics, visit www.makemacwork.com

Your referrals wanted! CreativeTechs relies on word-of-mouth introductions. If you know a Seattle-area creative team who might benefit from our unique expertise providing computer support for creative professionals, please introduce us. We are never too busy for your referrals. Email help@creativetechs.com, or call us at 206-682-4315.

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