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Inspiring
March 23, 2021
Question

How do you select all layers within a group?

  • March 23, 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 3665 views

I have four groups, but all the layers inside them are hidden. How do I select all four of these groups and have it automatically select all the layers inside them? That way I can show all the layers within those groups at once using the key combo: [CTRL ,]

 

Just to clarify, when I select a group, I also want it to auto select all the layers inside that group. 

 

(I've found an annoying problem when switching between Layer Comps; it'll hide all the layers in a group instead of hiding just the group! That's annoying.)

This topic has been closed for replies.

7 replies

andrander
Participating Frequently
September 20, 2024

I guess the best way possible would be click on the first one with lb and than last one and press shift, but OMFG the fact there is NO just-a-hotkey to do such an action is borderline MORONIC, so adobe is still adobe

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 20, 2024
quote

I guess the best way possible would be click on the first one with lb and than last one and press shift, but OMFG the fact there is NO just-a-hotkey to do such an action is borderline MORONIC, so adobe is still adobe


By @andrander

 

You can select the first layer, then hold down shift and select the last layer and then release shift to select the continuous layers.

 

The problem with that for automation is that actions record the absolute layer names when clicked with the mouse.

 

One can do this with relative keyboard shortcuts, with the top layer in the group selected:

 

Opt/Alt + Shift + [

 

Repeat as many times as necessary to select all continuous visible layers.

 

Again, I agree with @hen5FD8 that it would be great to have a native command for Select All Layers in Group.

 

 

andrander
Participating Frequently
September 20, 2024

No way to select all layers in a group ANY way without the third party software? Great thinking!

Thanks adobe, you (removed)

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 22, 2022

 


@hen5FD8 wrote:

"Just to clarify, when I select a group, I also want it to auto select all the layers inside that group. "


 

I'm not sure if this part of your question has been answered. In the options bar for the Move tool, you can choose Group instead of Layers to Auto-Select the entire group.

Jane

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 23, 2022

I just tried Jane, sadly the child layers inside the group are not selected, just the group.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 23, 2022

Thanks @Stephen Marsh !

Jane

Nancy 023
Participant
March 25, 2021

Hi,

Could you try this?

Select > Select All Layers

Layer > Show Layers

(optionally, Select > Deselect Layers)

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Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 25, 2021

I hacked at a different script and this is what I have:

 

// Make all layers visible in selected layer set.jsx
// Stephen Marsh - 2021
// Hacked from the following:
// https://gist.github.com/joonaspaakko/013a223e94ba0fb9a2a0
// https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2051737

#target photoshop

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var group = doc.activeLayer;
var groupLength = group.layers.length;

for (var i = 0; i < groupLength; i++) {
    group.layers[i].visible = false;
}

for (var i = 0; i < groupLength; i++) {

    var layer = group.layers[i];
    var layerIndex = i + 1;

    layer.visible = true;

}

 

Target/select the layer set/group and run the script (you can assign a keyboard shortcut to the script or you can record or insert the script into an action if you like).

 

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

 

Inspiring
April 22, 2022

This is great, but how do I get it to turn on layers within nested groups?

 

Inspiring
April 22, 2022

No edit button?

Anyway, this seems to be an issue with Layer Comps. If you add layers/groups and wish to add them to various Layer Comps, the groups are all visible but the layers are turned off. For deep, complicated files, this is a headache, trying to drill down into every single group to turn on layers....

 

This always necessitates having to rebuild a Comp, which can be complicated, depending on the files.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 23, 2021

You could try recording an action:

 

Select > Select All Layers

Layer > Show Layers

(optionally, Select > Deselect Layers)

 

hen5FD8Author
Inspiring
March 25, 2021

The problem is that [select all layers] selects every single layer in the entire project, instead of selecting every layer within the [group].

 

IMO, there should be:

[select all layers] which already exists

[select all layers within selected group] which doesn't exist, probably be added in a future version?

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 25, 2021

Well, I was addressing your OP where you said you had 4 groups and that is what I tested when mentioning the simple action steps. If you have other layers and groups that you don't want affected then it wouldn't work.

 

How many layers in the group? Is it always the same quantity?

 

Scripting could likely do what you want in selecting all child layers inside the top level parent set. I'm not aware of an event based on simply clicking on the set to trigger your desired result.

 

But what about Russian doll structures, with nested sets within sets and layers within nested sets etc?

 

 

Bojan Živković11378569
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 23, 2021

The first part of question does not have built in solution, as far as I know.

 

(I've found an annoying problem when switching between Layer Comps; it'll hide all the layers in a group instead of hiding just the group! That's annoying.)

 

Which version of Photoshop? I am testing Layer Comps 21.2.6 and everything works fine, if you hide group and create layer comp that comp will remember state and hide only group eyeball in front of layers will be on but dimmed out. Selecting layer comp with previous comp will show group and all layers inside.