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How do you select all layers within a group?

Explorer ,
Mar 22, 2021 Mar 22, 2021

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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.)

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Adobe
Community Expert ,
Mar 22, 2021 Mar 22, 2021

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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.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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You could try recording an action:

 

Select > Select All Layers

Layer > Show Layers

(optionally, Select > Deselect Layers)

 

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Explorer ,
Mar 25, 2021 Mar 25, 2021

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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?

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Community Expert ,
Mar 25, 2021 Mar 25, 2021

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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?

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Apr 22, 2022 Apr 22, 2022

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@hen5FD8 wrote:

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?


 

Despite this post being old, it has recently been bumped and brought to my attention... There is a script for this – Select Child Layers:

 

https://gist.github.com/joonaspaakko/1add5c6a905216740c9c922a657636e1

 

Select the target group, then run the script.

 

All top level layers inside the group will be selected, also, all nested groups and their layers will also be selected. Bonus, layer visibility does not affect the result!

 

Thanks to the forum's Joonass!

 

 

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Mar 25, 2021 Mar 25, 2021

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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

 

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Participant ,
Apr 22, 2022 Apr 22, 2022

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This is great, but how do I get it to turn on layers within nested groups?Screen Shot 2022-04-22 at 12.05.09 PM.png

 

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Participant ,
Apr 22, 2022 Apr 22, 2022

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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.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 22, 2022 Apr 22, 2022

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@seanwickett 

 

The code would need to be changed to loop into nested layer sets, easier said than done (for me). I'll see if I can find some code to hack, however, one of the other scripting regulars could probably do this faster and with less code!

 

Edit: To turn visibility on for everything, Select > All Layers and then use CMD/CTRL , (comma) for Layer > Show layers/Hide Layers toggle.

 

Or you can use the script posted earlier from Joonas to ony select all content under the single selected layer group, then toggle the show/hide layers.

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New Here ,
Mar 25, 2021 Mar 25, 2021

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Hi,

Could you try this?

Select > Select All Layers

Layer > Show Layers

(optionally, Select > Deselect Layers)

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Community Expert ,
Apr 22, 2022 Apr 22, 2022

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@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.

janee_0-1650648301066.png

Jane

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Community Expert ,
Apr 22, 2022 Apr 22, 2022

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

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Community Expert ,
Apr 23, 2022 Apr 23, 2022

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LATEST

Thanks @Stephen_A_Marsh !

Jane

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