I hate it when they change all the keyboard shortcuts. Is there a fix for these?

Brian:

If you look in the CS4 Goodies folder, you will see an optional "UseOldShortcuts.plugin".

If you install that, you will re-enable some (but I believe not all) of the old shortcuts.

However, as this plug-in will probably not be included with future versions, my personal feeling is that it is probably better to just get used to the new shortcuts anyway.

I see. I am still running off the "trial" installer (no Goodies folder), and haven’t got my real install discs in yet. I’ll wait to pass judgment till then.

On my install, cmd-0 gives you Fit to Screen, and cmd-opt-0 gives you actual pixels. Fit to Window is not even available as a menu option.

Select the Zoom tool and look in the Options bar.

Tried that. I’ve got: Actual Pixels, Fit to Screen, Fill Screen & Print Size, but no Fit to Window.

What do you suppose Fit to Screen means?

It resizes the window up to max fit to your screen size.

OK, I just got my Retail DVD set this afternoon and did a complete reinstall. I can’t find that Pug-In, though. Is it in the Goodies folder on the Content disc?

It should be.

If it’s not, you can download extra CS4 plug-ins from:
< http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4047>

yea the new key commands are **horrible**. I’m really looking for a way to get back the control ~ command when I have a channel selected (say, the red channel, but I want to view all channels while only have red selected). I haven’t found a way to do that in CS4. its almost making me want to go back to CS3 I use it so often!

oh, thanks ramon i’ll try it

The reason they turned command 1 into 100% view is apparently to make photoshop consistent with Illustrator and Indesign. Of course, why they feel the need to tamper with a perfectly good piece of software who’s shortcuts have been very well thought out and used successfully for years, just for compatibility with two much less powerful and less complex apps is completely beyond me.

It all goes back I guess to the misguided "SUITE" decision. Fortunately, our heroes at Photoshop have so far held fast against allowing these partially informed Management decisions from completely shafting everything.

Mark – "two much less powerful and less complex apps" is really a matter of opinion, not fact. As the apps all live in the same family, the Suite, making shortcuts consistent between applications is good for those of us who do not only work in one application but in all of them. You do know that you can edit the shortcuts if you are not satisfied with the defaults, right?

Indesign is really only a few years old, whereas illustrator and photoshop have been around for almost 20. Making the 20 year old app change to be the same as a 4 or so year old, with a smaller audience, doesn’t make much sense.

And the command we are talking about can’t be changed in the regard we are talking about. Even though you can change the zoom key command, you can’t reassign the channels view.

Craig, I don’t know how you count the years but InDesign has been around since 1999 when it was released. It is neither a few years or 4 or so… And it is used by a huge number of people around the world who lay out pages.

Illustrator (1.0) has been around even longer, since 1986 (shipping in January 1987).

Photoshop was first released (for the Mac) in 1990. For Win the first version of Photoshop was in 1992.

Apart from that I find it more important to get the shortcuts consolidated to be the same for all the applications in the Suite for the same actions than to appease some Photoshop-users who do not want to change their ways of doing things… 😉 Shortcuts change all the time between versions in all applications. Just live with it and adjust. It is not the end of the world.

yes, I read the Wiki too, but either way, its hard to unlearn 20 years of photoshop training (well, I’ve only been using it for about 16). I hadn’t realized that inDesign was around in 99, although it had nowhere near the users thanks to the fact that it actually had competition with Quark at the time. As I did mention before, I probably wouldn’t care if they changed the commands, but left it as a series that I could control with the editor. You still can’t edit the cmd-1/2/3/~ back to the way it was (or should be!).

Photoshop never really had true competition on a mass market (sure there were options like Quantel Paintbox or maybe Live Picture), whereas Illustrator and InDesign had major heat from other vendors (Freehand and Quark). I could argue that perhaps Photoshop has a larger user base. Obviously this is just speculation, since I have no idea if they can track that (I have CS4 premium, but I only launch Illustrator/Indesign, etc on a rare basis but use photoshop about 95% of the time. I’m probably not the majority, but I can’t imagine that there are more illustrator users than Photoshop users!

Craig:

My suggestion is that you do not use the Old Shortcuts plug-in, but learn the new ones now because I think that it is extremely unlikely that that plug-in will be included in CS5.

I have been using Photoshop for just as long as you have and it only took me a few hours (less than a day) to get used to the new shortcuts.

yea I’m mostly used to using the new ones, but the problem is (and I’m sure its common with alot of photoshop pros) is that I have it on my office computers, but I also freelance at places that haven’t upgraded yet, so I’m having to go back and forth. Also, NON of this addresses the fact that they removed the control-~ command to view the composite channels. I still have to command-3/4/5, then CLICK on the eyeball of the composite. They should at least be consistent with something and not REMOVE functionality. I use(d) the CONTROL ~ ALL THE TIME!

Even though I can get used to using the new ones, I do not like the fact that #1 I’m forced to have to relearn it, and #2 I’m forced to use something that TO ME (and I’m not alone) does not make sense.

Try Cmd Shift 2 to view the composite channel.

Another really nice one: you can raise a Luminosity Selection from any Channel by using Cmd Option Shift # — and clicking on additional numbers while the Cmd Option Shift keys are down ADDS that Channel’s luminosity to the existing Selection.

command-shift 2 selects the composite, not just view it! Shouldn’t it be CONTROL-2 for consistency (I tried it and no, it doesn’t work either)

selecting the luminosity is pretty cool. I saw that on John Nacks blog I think…

Cmd Shift 2 turns on visibility in all Channels — which means you are viewing the composite channel.

Whenever I try the CMD-SHFT-2 it SELECTS the composite channel, same as hitting just CMD-2. I want to view the composite, not select it

What difference does it make?
Cmd Shift 2 selects ALL Channels (highlights their tiles) and turns on their visibility — which is surely what you want?

actually, no it is not. I want to edit a single channel, but view its effect on all channels. Like, if I use the dodge tool on the green channel to remove magenta-for example- I want to be viewing it in composite while only affecting the one channel

That, you do seem to have to do by clicking directly in the Channels palette.

Ann – any chance you have enough pull with adobe to implement the old control-tilde like CS3 and before?! I’m simple, and can live with just that one tiny fix. I mean, if they are going to ruin all the other commands I’ll have to get used to it even though I don’t like it, but having to click on that is a huge time suck for me!

I don’t think that I do unfortunately … but guess what I have just found:

Shift Tilde …

SWEET?!!!

AWESOME! that’s exactly what I was looking for! I tried pretty much everything but that, obviously…

🙂

Which leaves everybody not using an English keyboard layout without that shortcut as tildes need yet another key on our keyboards…. any shortcuts with tildes in are lost cases for us.

I STILL say there is a need for an ergonomically designed hardware peripheral which would be dedicated to nothing but one handed access to shortcuts.

I designed one out of frustration several years ago, but have no way to prototype it. Have a look and you’ll see what my ideas are all about (yes it’s rough and amateurish, but the seed idea is pretty solid)

I’d be willing to spend upwards of US$250 for something like this.

There are some fairly well-known peripherals that address the issue, but are either geared toward gamers, or just don’t go far enough to put maximum control under the hand of power users.

Logitech’s NuLooq was kind of a good idea, except that I personally don’t like the onscreen menus popping up and disappearing.

There’s a company that makes peripherals along the lines of my design… <http://www.piengineering.com/xkeys.php>
….but they need a cadre of dedicated users to consult with to come up with a new device that will serve the needs of users in graphics, audio and video production.

Heh…found the ad-copy I wrote for AccessPad Pro:You’re a power-user. The applications you work with do your bidding like YoYo Ma’s Cello, like Perleman’s violin, like Bill Evans’ piano.

You’ve customized the way your applications open—all the Tools and Palettes show up right where you like them. You may even have a few custom workspace arrangements for different purposes. You switch between them with a mouse click, and you’re ready to go.

You’ve made brilliant use of Actions, Macros, Scripts and other built-in time- and effort-saving functions.

You know hundreds of keyboard shortcuts, and have spent time reassigning the defaults to more deftly meet your needs. You’ve assigned F-key shortcuts to some of those functions that don’t even have shortcuts.

You’re a power-user, but you’ve run up against a couple things that put a brick wall in front of your ever-increasing efficiency.

First—your keyboard is designed for typing actual text. It’s been that way since the dawn of the first mechanical typewriters. The way the keys are arranged are meant to make it easy for your fingers to find the keys. Even if you use the arguably better Dvorak arrangement for key assignments. Even if you have one of those split-and-angled "ergonomic keyboards, they’re still designed to do one thing well: Let the user type text as efficiently as possible.

Your keyboard—whatever the species—was never meant to be an efficient, ergonomic way to access the shortcuts you depend on. For your current keyboard—nay, ANY keyboard—to perform optimally as a shortcut access device, you’d do well to have a third hand, or a freakishly long set of fingers that could bend 360 degrees in any direction.

Second—Your keyboard only allows a finite number of shortcuts. If you find yourself wishing and begging for just one more F-key, so you wouldn’t have to get rid of some of your old shortcuts just to add a newly discovered "must-have", you’re out of luck. It’s about impossible to find one that has any more than 16 F-keys. Even if you could find a keyboard with more user-assignable keys, there’s still the matter of the first problem, that is: How to reach them easily and quickly?

Forget all of those hassles, starting now.

The AccessPad Pro, by Phosergistics, is a computer peripheral designed from the ground up to allow you—the kings and queens of all power users—to have access to a virtually unlimited number of shortcuts. It sits on your desk, opposite the hand you use for operating your mouse. You rest your hand on it, in a comfortable relaxed manner. Notice where your thumb naturally falls. Right there, under your thumb, you find that there are buttons that replicated the Command & Option keys found on your keyboard. They can be pressed and activated independently or in tandem.

Under the heel of your hand is a somewhat larger button. Press down slightly, and you’ll enable the same behavior as the Shift key on your keyboard.

Using your thumb and the heel of your hand you can enable 6 combinations of modifiers.

Now, look at your fingers. Beneath where they naturally rest on the AccessPad Pro you’ll see six gracefully curved rows of buttons, 4 in each row. These buttons are arranged ergonomically, so the slightest curl of your finger can find and press any of the 24 buttons.

Let’s do some simple math: 6 combinations of modifier keys, multiplied by 24 easily reachable, user-assignable function buttons…The AccessPad Pro gives you comfortable access to a whopping 144 shortcut assignments, all without moving your hand.

But that’s not all. 144 shortcuts isn’t enough for you? No problem. You can have a virtually unlimited number of these 144 shortcut sets, user assignable to work system-wide, or on a per-application basis, and you can load any set, any time you want. And because these custom shortcut assignments are written to a preset file using the industry standard XML scripting language, you can save these sets as tiny text files which you can share and trade with users on either the Mac or Windows platform.

You’re a power-user. Forget about trying to grow a 3rd hand. Forget about wishing you hand foot-long fingers.

Use your mouse for moving your cursor.

Use your keyboard for typing text.

Use AccessPad Pro to speed up everything else you do on your computer. Try it for a week and you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it.