why are there undocumented keyboard shortcuts? >-(

BS
Posted By
Brad_Stiritz
May 23, 2007
Views
458
Replies
5
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Closed
Hi everyone,

Could some super-experienced someone please explain to me why there seem to be so many undocumented keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop? I fail to get why this is a cool or helpful thing.

For example, in one of Deke McClelland’s awesome PS tutorials on lynda.com, he shows how you can make a selection within a mask/alpha channel, then hit Backspace to erase that part of the mask. Very cool! But how would one know to hit Backspace otherwise?

Edit / Clear doesn’t show any keyboard shortcuts assigned. I generated the shortcuts summary, and there’s no mention of backspace used as a shortcut. What gives?

Scott Kelby’s "CS2 Killer Tips" has a couple of other examples of keyboard shortcuts that apparently aren’t officially documented by Adobe, as do various web pages, such as this one (scroll down to "the undocumented fill shortcut")–

< http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/05/05/10.html>

Looking forward to all helpful comments,

Thanks,

Brad
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John_Gregson
May 23, 2007
Go to Edit–>Keyboard Shortcuts and select summarize. It will generate an HTML with all of the shortcuts.

John Gregson
EH
Ed_Hannigan
May 23, 2007
Backspace is generally "Delete" in a number of applications. But in that particular instance it can also be interpreted as filling with the background color. Switch the two colors (hit X) and see. So what would you have them do?

My guess is that there are so many ways to achieve any given effect with Photoshop that they only give the basics (many of which I never use). And since you can customize the key commands, documenting becomes even harder.

Funny, I’ve been using that "undocumented" fill shortcut for so long I just figured it was common knowledge. You should check out the many Transform commands that can be used.

Here’s about as complete a list of keyboard shortcuts as you will find anywhere: <http://user.fundy.net/morris/photoshop01.shtml>
CC
Conrad_Chavez
May 24, 2007
It does turn up in the Help file, so technically, it’s documented. If what you want to do is delete those mask pixels, and you were to reach the topic "Delete selected pixels" in Photoshop CS3 Help, it says "Choose Edit > Clear, or press Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Mac OS)."

You don’t have to use Backspace, either. If you were to press the Delete key on the keyboard (the one normally to the right of the \ key), you’d delete the mask pixels just as the key label implies.

The key to press isn’t actually the most critical piece of information here; that’s built on top of the other important concepts: that the mask only applies where you have white pixels, and that any form of deleting reveals the background color. Once you know that, you can figure out that as long the background color is full black, any form of deletion (Cut, Backspace, Delete, etc) on a mask is going to achieve the result Deke got.

(The Backspace tip only fully reveals the underlying layer if the background color is currently set to 100% black; see what happens when you delete when the background color is 50% gray, or white.)

I’m pretty sure that this type of thing is the case with most other "undocumented" shortcuts. They’re not really undocumented, but if you don’t yet know what you’re looking for, it won’t be obvious how they’re documented. It’s hard, because so many keys and tools do more than one thing in more than one context, and you can’t cram long descriptions into a menu. For example, it wasn’t until I saw one expert’s demo that I learned that the Dodge and Burn tools are great for masking out hair. That’s not what they were designed for, therefore it isn’t how they’re labeled, presented, and documented, but it’s a perfect byproduct of their behavior.
C
chrisjbirchall
May 24, 2007
You can download Trevor Morris’ Shortcuts PDF and if you wish, his ready-made modified Keyboard Shortcuts file to use on your own system.

<http://user.fundy.net/morris/?404.html>
BS
Brad_Stiritz
May 25, 2007
Ed and Chris — Thanks very much for posting links to Trevor Morris’ excellent PDF summary of PS keyboard shortcuts. This is exactly what I was looking for 🙂

Ed– sorry, I didn’t understand the point of your comment–

Backspace is generally "Delete" in a number of applications. But in that particular instance it can also be interpreted as filling with the background color. Switch the two colors (hit X) and see. So what would you have them do?

— the obvious answer to "what I would I have them do" is "document the keyboard shortcuts!" In the particular example we’ve been discussing, the command Edit/Clear is assigned a default shortcut of Backspace/Delete. Trevor Morris duly notes this in his PDF.

Conrad– thank you for pointing out the help file info. Yes, you’re right–

It does turn up in the Help file, so technically, it’s documented.

–but as you pointed out, you have to know what the command actually is to be able to find it in the documentation.

I’m pretty sure that this type of thing is the case with most other "undocumented" shortcuts. They’re not really undocumented, but if you don’t yet know what you’re looking for, it won’t be obvious how they’re documented. It’s hard, because so many keys and tools do more than one thing in more than one context, and you can’t cram long descriptions into a menu.

Very well stated description of my problem 🙂 Personally, though, I wouldn’t agree that this is a "hard" problem for Adobe, certainly not compared to the hard-core technical implementation of program functionality. How much work would it have been to create the kind of document that Trevor Morris created? Obviously, within Adobe, every single shortcut is fully documented backwards and forwards.

As far the question of whether there truly are undocumented keyboard shortcuts, I’m pretty sure that Scott Kelby has said so in "CS2 Killer Tips".

The key to press isn’t actually the most critical piece of information here…

I totally agree, and that’s why this whole thing is so frustrating to me. I am completely into understanding things conceptually, and not just memorizing keystrokes. But for whatever reason, a lot of PS gurus seem to really be into maximum possible timesavings, leading to super-compressed tutorials / demos. People like me then get stuck cross-referencing these brief mentions of what keystroke to press, back to what’s actually being done!

Brad

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