Participating Frequently

Answered

Keyboard shortcut for moving between tabs?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 14, 2023
5 replies
13518 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

Wow. Thanks. Did you write this script specifically or maybe you found a ready one and modified it?

I think that the easiest way would be to disconnect two tabs that are currently used more often (when using MockUps, you need 2 tabs to quickly preview changes) to disconnect them from the PS window and a second and third PS window will be automatically created and you can freely switch between them using a Windows Alt shortcut. +TAB. But thank you very much for these scripts. They will definitely be useful to someone! How convenient it is to switch between two tabs in a web browser (it speeds up work sometimes by 200%) can be experienced in the Opera browser, where in the shortcut settings the shortcut is called "Select a previously active tab". Once I got used to it, I later had to install plugins to configure shortcuts for Chrome and Maxthon to be able to quickly switch between tabs there as well. I often have over 100-150 tabs open and I often use specific ones at a given time (transferring content between them, comparing something, etc.) and this shortcut speeds up my work several times compared to searching for the right tab with the mouse cursor, which is sometimes 2 mm wide on the monitor with this number open cards.

Now the worst thing in PS that most disturbs my work is the width of the tabs, they don't fit and the need to use the tabs drop-down list. If you want to drag a given object or layer to another project and this one is on the drop-down list, this is not possible. It would be useful to have a script/way to change the default width of cards to a much smaller one.

Wow. Thanks. Did you write this script specifically or maybe you found a ready one and modified it?

I wrote the script specifically on your previous comment, however, like most scripting projects, it's a combination of modifying existing code and adding new code to achieve the task.

But thank you very much for these scripts. They will definitely be useful to someone!

By @PeterSHarps

Perhaps they will be useful to someone if not you, I write scripts just as much for myself as for others, even if I have no use for the script itself. It's not about the destination, but the journey!

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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