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Many times Photoshop files can get to many layers. This can be almost impossible to manage if you work only within the layers pallet. First off, let me say that I am a big advocate of naming layers. Not only it is more descriptive than Layer 1 or Layer 2. It gives other designers the ability to sort through your mess and hopefully call you a few less dirty names. With that said, using this next tip can greatly improve your speed when selecting layers.

Have you ever made a selection like a square and tried to use the Select /Modify /Expand method to enlarge the selection? If you have, you noticed that you did not get a square at all. It will clip the corners off your selection. If you want to get accurate results you will need to jump to quick mask mode by clicking the quick mask icon in the tool bar or by pressing the letter "Q". Once in the quick mask mode you will need to use Filter /Other /Maximum or Minimum.

This time of the year, just before Christmas is the time for the annual reports. You migh often need to use dummy copy to fill up the areas designed to hold text. Traditionally the dummy copy called lorem ipsum was used. It has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s. It has been popularised 'recently' with desktop publishing software and in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing 'lorem ipsum' passages.

Often when I am searching for that perfect font for a logo I will try hundreds of font faces. I used to change them one by one in the font pallet. However you can speed things up a bit if you just put your mouse in the font drop down box to select it and use the up and down arrow keys to tab through all your fonts. It makes quick work of the task and you can even find a few fonts that you never would have tried otherwise.

Thanks for the great tip Mark!

To follow up on THIS TIP about drag & drop with InDesign – You can copy an Adobe Illustrator object from AI and paste it right into ID which makes it an InDesign object where you can color it, give it a stroke, or further adjust the bezier curves. ID will not however accept objects with a gradient, it just removes the gradient when you paste the path into your document. You just need to make sure that you have a few preferences set correctly.

Everyone knows you can use the Apple + or Apple - keys to zoom in and out on an image in Photoshop - or, at least I HOPE you know that.

But sometimes that can be tedius to hit the key combo several times back and forth to zoom in and out when making adjustments. There is an easier way.

I was talking with our intern and I was surprised she did not know a few old hat tricks for Photoshop. After a short discussion I was able to put together the top 10 tips that all designers need to know.

When Photoshop opens most of it's dialogue boxes it offers you the ability to click OK or Cancel to accept or cancel the task. Some of Photoshop's dialogue boxes offer a hidden "Reset" option. Items like Levels, Curves, and Hue & Saturation. Holding the Option key changes the Cancel to a Reset, allowing you to reset the dialogue box without having to cancel, and re-open the box every time you want to start over.

Thanks for the tip Mark.

Did you know that you can drag any file ID can place normally right from an application, or the finder?

If you have a folder full of images and text, select them all and drag them to an open ID window. Wherever your mouse is when you let go, that's where ID will start displaying the images/text (it will cascade them down the page). As you are dragging the files from the finder, you should notice a ghosted icon for each file over the ID window as you drag it around.

Here is a handy time saving tip I found very useful within my own work flow. Many times when I am working I create elements all on separate layers. Well then I decide much later on that I want to apply a style to those layers. Normally, you may just recreate the effect over and over again on each layer individually. What if you have 20 layers with 4 or 5 layer effects?! Thats more work than what I am up for.