Using Keyboard Shortcuts

It's inevitable. If you're going to take on Adobe products, you're going to get your hands dirty (and your head full) of keyboard shortcuts. The following shortcuts work in Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign.

Knowing the shortcuts for the toolbar is a good start, and then I would commit CMD+Spacebar (for the Zoom tool), and Spacebar (for the Hand tool) to memory. Don't have a CMD key? That's okay, on a Windows computer the shortcut for the Zoom tool is CTRL+Spacebar. Even if you are not a keyboard shortcut person, those two commands are more practical then simply selecting the tools from the toolbar. The “temporary” shortcuts allow you to quickly switch back & forth between whatever tool is active, and navigating the document. You only need to be using the Type tool or Pen tool once to understand the advantages.

NOTE – If you're using InDesign, I suggest using ALT+Spacebar on a PC or OPTION+Spacebar on a Mac for the Hand Tool. This combination allows you to use the Hand Tool even if your cursor is active in a text frame.

To access the program preferences use CMD+K (CTRL+K). To reset the program preferences for Photoshop or Illustrator use CMD+OPTION+SHIFT (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT) as you start the program. You will be prompted to delete the existing preferences, and the application will be reset to the factory default settings.

NOTE – To reset InDesign preferences on a Mac use CMD+CTRL+OPTION+SHIFT commonly referred to as “The Claw.”

You can download a quick Photoshop Shortcut list & InDesign Shortcut list from the Media Cats website.

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