Photoshop User - USA (2020-10)

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Q: I pressed something and now all my menus
and panels are gone. What did I do and how
do I get everything back?

A: It’s likely that you pressed the letter F a couple of times
(while not in the Type tool), which changed your display
to Full Screen Mode. In that mode everything is hidden
except for the image. Just press F again to cycle to
Standard Screen Mode.

Q: I have several photos that I want to turn into
layers in one document. Is there a simple way
to do this?

A: There are a couple of options to automatically create
a new document made up of layers from different
photos. In Photoshop go to File >Scripts >Load Files
into Stack, and in the dialog that appears, c lick Browse

The other option is to use Bridge, where you can

see previews of the images and select the ones you

want. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key to

select noncontiguous files. Then go to Tools >Photo-

shop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers. The result of

either method is a new document with layers made

up of the files you selected.

Q: I’d like to rotate the Clone Stamp tool

as I’m using it. Is that possible?

A: Yes, you can rotate the brush shape of the Clone Stamp

(S) and the Clone Source. Here’s the difference: If

you’ve chosen a brush shape (from the Brush Preset

Picker) that’s not round (e.g., an oval), you can rotate

the brush by pressing the Arrow keys on your key-

board. When you rotate the brush shape, you’re not

affecting the source of the Clone Stamp, only the

angle of the brush itself.

You can also rotate the Clone Source, i.e. the pixels

you’re cloning. You can do this in the Clone Source

panel (Window>Clone Source) using the Rotate field:

Either enter an angle, or position your cursor over the

angle symbol and use the scrubby slider to change

the angle. If you’ve already Option-c l ic ked (PC: Alt-

c l ic ked) to set your sample point, when you use the

scrubby slider, you’ll get a preview of the angle in

your image. There’s also a keyboard shortcut to rotate

the Clone Source angle: Option-Shift-> or < (PC: Alt-

Shift-> or < ) to change the angle.

Q: How can I create a shape that’s a circle

with many points, like a certificate seal?

A: Depending on your version of Photoshop, you may see

that as a built-in custom shape. If you do, switch to the

Custom Shape tool (nested below the Rectangle tool [U]

in the Toolbar), select the shape in the Custom Shape

Picker in the Options Bar, and c l ic k-and-drag with the

Shift key held down to create the shape. Just keep in

mind that this is a set shape that doesn’t allow editing of

factors such as the number of points.

If you have Photoshop 2020, you probably won’t

see this as one of the default shapes, but it can be

loaded. Go to the Shapes panel (Window>Shapes) and

use the flyout menu at the top right of the panel to

and navigate to the files that you want to add into one

document. The only downside to this method is that

you have to choose the files based on their names since

there’s no built-in preview (although you could use your

operating system to preview, albeit in an additional step).