HANGING PUNCTUATION
With paragraph text, make quotation marks look better by using hang-
ing punctuation so that the quotes appear outside the paragraph box.
To create a paragraph box, click-and-drag with the Type tool (T). Then
go to the flyout menu in the Paragraph panel (Window>Paragraph) and
choose Roman Hanging Punctuation.
FAVORITE FOREGROUND
AND BACKGROUND COLORS
If you have a set of Foreground and Background colors that you
use frequently, make an action to select the colors. First, write
down the hexadecimal value for both colors (the highlighted field
next to the number sign at the bottom of the Color Picker). At the
bottom of the Actions panel (Window>Actions), click the Create
New Action icon, name your action, and click the Record button
in the New Action dialog to start recording the action. Click on the
Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Toolbar and enter
the first hexadecimal value. Click OK to close the Color Picker.
Press X to swap the Foreground and Background colors, and repeat
the operation: Click on the Foreground swatch, enter the second
hexadecimal value, and click OK. Click the Stop Recording button
at the bottom of the Actions panel. From now on, if you need those
colors, just play the action. [Credit to Terri Cleary for this idea.]
LAYER AND MASK SHORTCUTS
If you have a layer with a mask, it’s important to make sure you’ve
highlighted the appropriate thumbnail before taking your next step.
If you want to activate the mask, press Command-\ (PC: Ctrl -).
To activate the layer, press Command-2 (PC: Ctrl-2).
“HIDDEN” LAYER STYLES
Layer styles often suggest effects such as Stroke, Inner Shadow, and
Drop Shadow, but there’s more: Blend Modes, Opacity, Fill Opacity,
Blend If, and Knockout are all part of that dialog, and that means
these functions can be copied-and-pasted between layers. Just
Right-click on the layer and choose Copy Layer Style, then Right-
click on another layer and choose Paste Layer Style.
GROUP BLEND MODES
Groups can change the way that blend modes are applied. If you
have three layers, each in Multiply mode, each layer interacts with
all the layers below it, including the Background layer. Instead, if you
change the individual layer’s mode to Normal, place them in a layer
group, and change the mode of the group to Multiply, the layers don’t
interact with each other but only with the Background.
