Photoshop CS Type Tool/Layer problem

FA
Posted By
Fredrik_Aslund
Jan 19, 2004
Views
238
Replies
3
Status
Closed
So, I’ve been struggling with this for a while now and see no solution good solution yet. Searched the forum and couldn’t find any answer.

I have a 1280 by 1024 .PSD for a kiosk/web-project that I am working on. There’s loads of text’s to be put out in all sorts of manners so I thought that using sub-levels of Layer Folders would be a good idea. So far so good, I love being able to sort things in that way.

Now for the trouble. Even though i mark some Layer Folders (the first in a hierarchy of 2, sometimes 3) as hidden, even locked, the type tool still thinks that it can edit them. If the first (root) level Layer Folder is locked it just says that ‘You cannot edit the layer as it is locked’, otherwise I’m in edit mode on the layer i just hid :/

Conditions for the error:
You have one text layer two levels down in a hidden or hidden&locked Layer folder structure (i.e it’s hidden at root level).
You want to edit a Text Layer that exists in another Text Layer that resides in another Layer Folder structure.

Something like this:

.. Layer Set 1 (Hidden or Hidden & Locked)
^ Layer Set 2
– Text Layer

– Text Layer (This I Want to Edit)

Solution:
Move the whole Layer Set structure that you have your text layer within up to the top of all layers and then edit it.

I’d also like to clarify that if the folder structure in my current .PSD document was as small as the one I gave an example of, this wouldn’t be a problem but as of right now it consists of something like 10 root folders (and growing) with each root folder including in between 2 to 10 sub-folders.

Is there some way to end these troubles? I _really_ don’t want to change the layer order all the time, even though it’s just a matter of moving the layer folder i want to edit thing in to the top of everything. Can anyone else replicate this problem?

My setup is this:
Pentium 4 @ 1.8 Ghz w/ 768 MB Ram
Win XP Pro w/ latest SP’s applied.
Photoshop CS (Creative Suite Premium)

I hope I have been as clear as I can describing this problem, otherwise just shoot away and I’ll try to clarify as much as possible.

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SB
Scott_Byer
Jan 19, 2004
Well, shoot. I *did* fix the hidden layer problem in Photoshop CS, just not for so many nested layer sets :-). You caught me. If you move the text layer up one level (into Set 1) it works as expected. The type tool is only checking the immediate layer set’s visibility, and not walking all the way up the chain.

Rather than moving around the type layer, you could also hide the layer set containing the text layers before hiding the top level layer set. You could use Layer Comps to make this easier.

-Scott
FA
Fredrik_Aslund
Jan 20, 2004
Scott:

Thanks for a fast answer!

This is all good if the file your’e working with looks as the example above, but consider the files I work with daily i’ll have to do the "put layer at the top" -routine 50+ times a day (of course, not with the same layer either) and that’s one habit I’d like to get rid of 🙂
I’d love to show you my structures but I can’t since I’d brake the NDA for the work I do. Trust me there are tons of layers sorted in quite some amounts of Layer sets and sub-layer sets and so on.

Will there be a proper fix for this someday (soon)?
SB
Scott_Byer
Jan 21, 2004
A proper fix, yes, soon, no.

-Scott

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