Keyboard shortcut for moving up or down a layer in timeline?

[jeffc96039282]

Does anyone know of a way to navigate between layers in the timeline with keyboard shortcuts? I know the ways to more "horizontally" with "," and "." but would like to be able to navigate "vertically" with the keyboard as well.

[JoãoCésar]

Hi.

There are no default shortcuts for moving layers up and down in a timeline as far as I can tell. But you can create JSFL scripts for theses taks and assign shortcuts to them.

Here I have two scripts that you can assign to two different shortcuts to reorder the layers up and down:

Move Current Layer Up.jsfl

function main()
{
	var dom = fl.getDocumentDOM();

	if (!dom)
	{
		alert("Please open up a document first.");
		return;
	}

	var timeline = dom.getTimeline();
	timeline.reorderLayer(timeline.currentLayer, Math.max(0, timeline.currentLayer - 1));
}

main();

Move Current Layer Down.jsfl

function main()
{
	var dom = fl.getDocumentDOM();

	if (!dom)
	{
		alert("Please open up a document first.");
		return;
	}

	var timeline = dom.getTimeline();
	timeline.reorderLayer(timeline.currentLayer, Math.min(timeline.layers.length - 1, timeline.currentLayer + 1), false);
}

main();

1 - You can just copy and paste the scripts in any text editor and save the files with the .jsfl extension or just grab the files from the link below [1];

2 - Place them in the Commands folder:

Windows:

<boot device>\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Animate <version>\<lang>\Configuration\Commands

E.g.:

C:\Users\joaoc\AppData\Local\Adobe\Animate 2021\en_US\Configuration\Commands

3 - Then go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and assign shortcuts for the two scripts that should be listed under Commands. In my test scenario, I assigned Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Arrow Up for moving the current layer up and Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Arrow Down for moving the current layer down.

JSFL files / code / source [1]:

https://github.com/joao-cesar/adobe/tree/master/animate%20cc/jsfl/reorder_layers

More infos about commands here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/using/automating-tasks-commands-menu.html

I hope these help.

Regards,

JC

[jeffc96039282]

Thanks for this. I mean just changing focus rather than reordering layers but I'll keep this in mind as well. 

Many thanks!

[mark2ain]

Hello Jeff,

Did you ever get an answer to this? I too want a keystroke to move layer selections up and down. I'd also love a way to rename the layers sequentially so each new layer name automatically adds a +1. I'm new to Animate and it seems to force way too much mousing around.

[kglad]

you could probably use jsfl to do both