Customizable keyboard shortcuts – YAY!! – well, sort of…

DH
Posted By
Darrel Hoffman
Jan 21, 2004
Views
345
Replies
4
Status
Closed
When I first saw this in the feature list advertised for Photoshop CS, I was very excited. I’m keyboard-crazy in most other programs I use. (In 3DS Max, I use just about every single combination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and every key on the keyboard for something…) But now that I look at it, it seems very limited, compared to other programs that have this feature. When you add up all the currently existing keyboard shortcuts, and then eliminate everything that doesn’t use Ctrl or an F-key, you’re left with a very small number of available shortcuts to apply to things yourself. There’s a grand total of 26 free slots among the letters, most involving the carpel-tunnel-inducing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-key combination. Add in the allowable F-key combos (not counting the ones used for Actions), and you’ve got another 46, but pressing any combination of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift at the bottom and those F-keys way at the top of the keyboard is hardly conducive to a streamlined workflow. Why don’t they allow keyboard shortcuts with just a Shift or an Alt key in them? Add in Shift, Alt, and Alt-Shift combos with the letters, and you’ve instantly added 70 more possible shortcuts that won’t kill your hand to use them. (26 x 3 = 78 – 8 for the Alt-keys to open the menus.) Then add 20 more for Alt, Alt-Shift, and the number keys, (straight number keys and Shift-number keys are already taken by certain tools, but strangely undocumented. See the Brush tool for example. Also, all the Ctrl, Ctrl-Shift, Ctrl-Alt, and Ctrl-Alt-Shift number combos are taken by the Channels settings, though the Shift key in each of those cases is redundant. Ctrl-2 is the exact same thing as Ctrl-Shift-2, etc.) Anyways, it’s a minor gripe, but when I think about how long I’ve been waiting for Adobe to add customizeable keyboard shortcuts, and now they finally do and there’s almost nothing you can really USE them for, it’s a bit disappointing…
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J
jrzyguy
Jan 22, 2004
have you checked out the adobe website…the exchange section? THere is a document you cand dowload that has 2 pages (at very small font size) with TONS of shortcut keys. I imagine that there are not many free combination keystrokes for you to customize as there are so many already built in. Just a thought…check it out. It is a well organized document as it breaks things down rather neatly. It was made for PS6….but they all work with PS7….not sure about CS tho.

Hope that helps

j
"Darrel Hoffman" wrote in message
When I first saw this in the feature list advertised for Photoshop CS, I was very excited. I’m keyboard-crazy in most other programs I use. (In 3DS Max, I use just about every single combination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and every key on the keyboard for something…) But now that I look at it, it seems very limited, compared to other programs that have this feature. When you add up all the currently existing keyboard shortcuts, and then eliminate everything that doesn’t use Ctrl or an F-key, you’re left with a very small number of available shortcuts to apply to things yourself. There’s a grand total of 26 free slots among the letters, most involving the carpel-tunnel-inducing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-key combination. Add in the allowable F-key combos (not counting the ones used for Actions), and you’ve got another 46, but pressing any combination of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift at the bottom and those F-keys way at the top of the keyboard is hardly conducive to a streamlined workflow. Why don’t they allow keyboard shortcuts with just a Shift or an Alt key in them? Add in Shift, Alt, and Alt-Shift combos with the letters, and you’ve instantly added 70 more possible shortcuts that won’t kill your hand to use them. (26 x 3 = 78 – 8 for the Alt-keys to open the menus.) Then add 20 more for Alt, Alt-Shift, and the number keys, (straight number keys and Shift-number keys are already taken by certain tools, but strangely undocumented. See the Brush tool for example. Also, all the Ctrl, Ctrl-Shift, Ctrl-Alt, and Ctrl-Alt-Shift number combos are taken by the Channels settings, though the Shift key in each of those cases is redundant. Ctrl-2 is the exact same thing as Ctrl-Shift-2, etc.) Anyways, it’s a minor gripe, but when I think about how long I’ve been waiting for Adobe to add customizeable keyboard shortcuts, and now they finally do and there’s almost nothing you can really USE them for, it’s a bit disappointing…

DH
Darrel Hoffman
Jan 22, 2004
have you checked out the adobe website…the exchange section? THere
is a
document you cand dowload that has 2 pages (at very small font size)
with
TONS of shortcut keys. I imagine that there are not many free
combination
keystrokes for you to customize as there are so many already built in.
Just
a thought…check it out. It is a well organized document as it
breaks
things down rather neatly. It was made for PS6….but they all work
with
PS7….not sure about CS tho.

Is this just a document that lists all the existing keyboard shortcuts? Or a plugin that actually adds new ones somehow?

CS does give you a mostly-full shortcut breakdown, and I have an Excel chart where I copy everything down (multiple pages for each of the programs I use), so I can see which combos are still free to use. This was how I arrived at the figures I mentionned in the above post.
J
jrzyguy
Jan 24, 2004
"Darrel Hoffman" wrote in message
have you checked out the adobe website…the exchange section? THere
is a
document you cand dowload that has 2 pages (at very small font size)
with
TONS of shortcut keys. I imagine that there are not many free
combination
keystrokes for you to customize as there are so many already built in.
Just
a thought…check it out. It is a well organized document as it
breaks
things down rather neatly. It was made for PS6….but they all work
with
PS7….not sure about CS tho.

Is this just a document that lists all the existing keyboard shortcuts? Or a plugin that actually adds new ones somehow?

CS does give you a mostly-full shortcut breakdown, and I have an Excel chart where I copy everything down (multiple pages for each of the programs I use), so I can see which combos are still free to use. This was how I arrived at the figures I mentionned in the above post.
J
jrzyguy
Jan 25, 2004
darrel….it is just a list of existing shortcut keys….but like i said….it breaks it down so its really easy to reference. Its not a plug-in…but just rather a comprehensive 2 page pdf…..i find it worthy of a look-at even if its not exactly what you or others are looking for

jj

"Darrel Hoffman" wrote in message
have you checked out the adobe website…the exchange section? THere
is a
document you cand dowload that has 2 pages (at very small font size)
with
TONS of shortcut keys. I imagine that there are not many free
combination
keystrokes for you to customize as there are so many already built in.
Just
a thought…check it out. It is a well organized document as it
breaks
things down rather neatly. It was made for PS6….but they all work
with
PS7….not sure about CS tho.

Is this just a document that lists all the existing keyboard shortcuts? Or a plugin that actually adds new ones somehow?

CS does give you a mostly-full shortcut breakdown, and I have an Excel chart where I copy everything down (multiple pages for each of the programs I use), so I can see which combos are still free to use. This was how I arrived at the figures I mentionned in the above post.

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