Cheat Sheets
Hot Keys. For years I used the drop down menus and interfaces in PhotoShop. When I started using hotkeys my workflow was cut in HALF. Yes, I’m serious. I became twice as fast at editing when I learned them. At first hotkeys are a pain in the ARSE. You have to stop, pull out your cheat sheet, find your action or tool, decipher it (some of the symbols on the cheat sheet are not so easy to decipher) and then twist and turn your hand so you can hit the key combination to use it. Then the next time you use it, you have to stop and look it up again because you can’t remember what it was. Let me assure you this growing pain is WORTH IT. Why? Because it saves you time, which translates into making money, which is the whole reason we are doing all this. It is important you become proficient at using PhotoShop. If you cannot work quickly and efficiently in PS you will have problems meeting your goals. The following link is a list of all the default hotkeys in PhotoShop. This useful reference was created by Marijan Tompa from the Photoshop user community and it’s the one I use. Thank you Marijan!
Take me to the Adobe HotKey Reference page!
Create your own Hot-Keys
There are hundreds of hot key combinations already set up in Photoshop, but there will be times where you want to set up your own. Some of the hotkeys I never use therefore, if I find there are tools I do need to create, I will take the hot-key combination off of one of those and use it for my own. There are a thousand websites out there who teach you how to create your own hotkeys. Here is one of those thousand…
Show me how to create my own hot-keys!
The Trick to Creating Hot-Keys for Brush Presets
The other day I noticed I was constantly choosing the same brush settings over and over again. I decided to set up a hotkey for selecting a brush preset. This is not standard default and it was a little hard to figure out. I did a lot of searching on the internet and I ran across this method by firedudewraith on DeviantArt.com. After researching a bunch of different ways to accomplish this, I found I liked this method the best. Thank you Fire Dude!
Take me to this man’s brilliant tutorial!
If any of you amazing “Sharing It Forward” community members have a great way to set up hot-key’s or make any workflow in PhotoShop more efficient, shoot me an email – rutland.caroline@gmail.com. I may feature your conceptual work and share forward your amazing workflow right here, on the Sharing It Forward Blog!
Keep learning and keep #SharingItForward!
Caroline
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Want to contribute? Shoot me an email! rutland.caroline@gmail.com – I’m always looking for like-minded artists who are willing to share what they have learned. If it is something we have not covered before I will share it on this blog, with a link back to your portfolio, website and social media!
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#SharingItForward 
Funnily enough I only used hot-keys in Photoshop for the first time today. An hour later I open WordPress and here is your excellent guide. Thanks 🙂
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Ha! I am happy to hear my timing was perfect!
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