Participating Frequently

Answered

Keyboard shortcut for moving between tabs?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 14, 2023
5 replies
13309 views

Certainly there must be a simple way to move between adjacent tabs in Photoshop without having to click the tab with the cursor, right?

Correct answer Stephen Marsh

You can install a script, then assign a custom keyboard shortcut to the script:

// Select Previous Doc
selectDoc(-1);

function selectDoc(theValue) {
	function s2t(s) {
		return app.stringIDToTypeID(s);
	}
	var descriptor = new ActionDescriptor();
	var reference = new ActionReference();
	reference.putOffset( s2t( "document" ), theValue );
	descriptor.putReference( s2t( "null" ), reference );
	descriptor.putInteger( s2t( "documentID" ), 862 );
	executeAction( s2t( "select" ), descriptor, DialogModes.NO );
}

Or:

// Select Next Doc
selectDoc(+1);

function selectDoc(theValue) {
	function s2t(s) {
		return app.stringIDToTypeID(s);
	}
	var descriptor = new ActionDescriptor();
	var reference = new ActionReference();
	reference.putOffset( s2t( "document" ), theValue );
	descriptor.putReference( s2t( "null" ), reference );
	descriptor.putInteger( s2t( "documentID" ), 862 );
	executeAction( s2t( "select" ), descriptor, DialogModes.NO );
}

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

A

Andreas Mattsson

Participant

Ive tried Stephens script and it works good but is a bit slower than Control + Tab.
I like the speed ofControl + Tab but would just like to use a diferent keybortd shortcut for it. My question is why is this function not available to change shortcut combination for? This option is available for Illustrator under keyboard shortcuts so why is it not in photoshop...

A

Andreas Mattsson

Participant

Used the script Stephen posted in this thread and that works as fast as Control + Tab. THANK YOU!
Still the question remains why you cant just change this in keboard shortcuts. Am i just missing it?

U

unfalse

Participant

For tabs that exceed the width of the screen, this has been such a work-flow bottleneck, super annoying. It should auto scroll or auto-reveal if you hold your mouse there for a few seconds. Even Ctrl+Tab while dragging would be a nice addition. Please fix this Adobe, some of us always have 20 tabs open.

A

asx35672424ctst

Participant

Still you are facing this probelm? Have you tried with ctrl+cmd

John Waller

Community Expert

Ctrl+Tab works too (Mac/Win).

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/default-keyboard-shortcuts.html

Result	Windows	macOS
Cycle through open documents	Control + Tab	Control + Tab
Switch to previous document	Shift + Control + Tab	Shift + Command + `(grave accent)

P

phidlerAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks, John and Stephen! I had looked at that chart and was so focused on the phrase "next tab" that I overlooked it.

I now find that pressing either cmd-Tab or ctrl-~ (I'm running MacOS 13.4) advance to the next open document, and adding the shift key moves to the previous one (i.e. the adjacent tab on the left, not necessarily the previously viewed one).

Followup question: is it possible to create a Keyboard Shortcut to assign a different key combination to this action? I don't see it in PS Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus (which doesn't appear to have a search feature), and MacOS System Preferences' Keyboard Shortcuts tool tells me "You cannot add keyboard shortcuts for the application Adobe Photoshop 2023." I'm not sure why that functionality would be disabled.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Hi. Would you be able to create a script to switch between the last used tab and the current one? Today's browsers have something like this. If you have e.g.p. 30 tabs open and only use 2 at a given stage of the project, a keyboard shortcut to switch between the two tabs used would be VERY easy (just like in browsers such as Opera, Maxthon, etc.). This would make the task VERY easier, because in Photoshop you can only see a few TABS on the screen, to get to the others you have to open a drop-down list of all tabs. This makes it impossible to drag objects to a tab that is not visible at the top of the window because it is hidden on the left or right side. I hope I managed to describe clearly what I mean 🙂

Hi. Would you be able to create a script to switch between the last used tab and the current one? Today's browsers have something like this. If you have e.g.p. 30 tabs open and only use 2 at a given stage of the project, a keyboard shortcut to switch between the two tabs used would be VERY easy (just like in browsers such as Opera, Maxthon, etc.). This would make the task VERY easier, because in Photoshop you can only see a few TABS on the screen, to get to the others you have to open a drop-down list of all tabs. This makes it impossible to drag objects to a tab that is not visible at the top of the window because it is hidden on the left or right side. I hope I managed to describe clearly what I mean 🙂

By @PeterSHarps

Yes, this is possible. You could use a script to "mark" document A as a target and then "mark" document Z as the second target. Then a keyboard shortcut assigned to a script could open or cycle between both "marked" tabs, cycling between documents A and Z while skipping documents B to Y. I haven't used the feature that you mentioned in a web browser, so I don't have any frame of reference apart from your description.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Sure use CTRL/CMD + ` (often called the tilde key: ~)

(upper left before the 1 key, adding SHIFT cycles back)

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