Holding down buttons as keyboard shortcuts

[Pumpkiinface]

Hey team,

I am trying to customise my keyboard shortcuts to optimise my work flow and have come across something. I want to be able to be able to hold down the shift button to go to the lasso tool like I have in another program (I use the lasso and the brush tool a lot), and to be able to double tap the R button to set the canvas rotation back to 0 degrees (rather than tap the button when the tool is selected). Is there a way to do this?

Thanks,

Keira

[Bojan Živković]

Using only the Shift key to activate the Lasso tool is not feasible, nor is setting up a double tap of the 'R' key as a shortcut in Photoshop.

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

Hi Keira.   You have the right idea, but may have to addapt your plan.

I am sure you know that with tools that share the same shortcut, holding down the shift key allows you to toggle through the options like below with the L shortcut.

This is an option in Preferences, and one that I have not used for as long as I can remember.  For the life of me, I can't think why I would use two keys when one would do.

We can save custom toolbars and shortcuts with custom workspaces.  My toolbar above is from my default workspace.  I have lots of screen space, so I have everything nicely spread out.

We can remove shortcuts, so I like to know that when I hit the B key, I will 'always' get the brush tool,  On the rare occasions I want to use the other brushes, I have to select them with the mouse.

I like to remind people that the Function key defaults are of limited use unless you have a small screen, and we can trigger Actions with F keys, so that's how I use them.  These are the defaults.  Do you ever use them?

The ones I use the most are F12, which I use to create Smart Objects. F5, F6 and F7 which select and reset my three most used workspaces.  We are forever dragging panels about to make screen shots for forum answers, so it's nice to tidy things up with a single key press.

There is no facility to double tap a shortcut in Photoshop, but it's an nexcellent idea, and you should suggest it in an Idea thread.  Have you looked at the spring loaded shortcuts?  They are super useful and can become totally addictive.

Last of all, I'll remind you again that we can save custom toolbars, shortcuts and custom menues, in a custom workspace.  This is incredibly useful.  It means we can reuse shortcuts according to context.

For instance, I use some window arrange shortcuts suggested by Michael Ninness at MAX about 10 years ago, but they prevent Free Transform Step & Repeat from working, so I switch to a modified Essentials workspace (by pressing F6) when I need that function.

I hope I have given you something to think about, and if you have any great ideas, be sure to come back and share them.

[Pumpkiinface]

Hey Trevour,

Thank you so much for your response! I really appreciate your depth. I will go ahead and do that, along with add in more more hotkeys for my Fn lock. Have a great day 🙂