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I
IamZoot
Participant
March 2, 2021
Answered

Turn off shortcut for select next layer

  • March 2, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 780 views

Hi everyone

This has been irritating me for years, can anyone tell me how to solve it?

I use a Cintiq and a Mac and I've always set the button on the pen to act as 'Alt' for eyedropper. When painting I always have my left hand hovering over the '[' and ']' keys as I'm constantly  sampling colors and moving the size of my brush up and down.

 

The problem is that if I'm a bit quick and hit the bracket keys while sampling, I select the next layer, which as you can imagine causes many problems especially when I don't notice straight away!

 

I don't really want to change the shorcuts on the cintiq as its all in my muscle memory, and I do lock the layers I'm not using but this just brings up 'locked layer' errors and pauses my flow. What I really want to do is change or turn off the 'select next layer' keyboard shortcut, however that's not in the shortcut menu.

 

Please help!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer jazz-y

You can use programs to remap keys at the operating system level - this will help to exclude the processing of certain keyboard shortcuts (they will be intercepted by such programs before photoshop receives them). You can reassign to empty commands (do nothing), or to the same [ ] keys, so that the brush size also changes.

(many programs allow you to choose for which program the new keyboard shortcuts will work - that is, what you set up in Photoshop will work only for it)

3 replies

J
jazz-yCorrect answer
Legend
March 3, 2021

You can use programs to remap keys at the operating system level - this will help to exclude the processing of certain keyboard shortcuts (they will be intercepted by such programs before photoshop receives them). You can reassign to empty commands (do nothing), or to the same [ ] keys, so that the brush size also changes.

(many programs allow you to choose for which program the new keyboard shortcuts will work - that is, what you set up in Photoshop will work only for it)

    Dan Rodney
    Community Expert
    Dan RodneyCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 3, 2021

    I looked over all the definable keystrokes and you are correct I couldn't find one for selecting the next layer. So within the UI I don't see a way to change. Not sure if scripting can, but I'd doubt it.

     

    @r-bin 's suggestion is a way to avoid the conflict, but requires new muscle memory. You could use another method for sizing the brush:

    • WIndows: Hold Alt and Right Mouse Button. and drag left or right.
    • Mac: hold down Control and Option while you drag left or right.
    — Adobe Certified Expert & Instructor at Noble Desktop | Web Developer, Designer, InDesign Scriptor
      R
      r-bin
      Legend
      March 3, 2021
      Look from the other side.
      Maybe you'd better change the hotkey "[" and "]" for the brush size?
       
      )
       
       
       
        I
        IamZootAuthor
        Participant
        March 3, 2021

        Thats actually a good idea, especially if it was close top the brackets, like the + and - keys... I don't know why I didn't think of that, thank you!

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