Quick Tip #3 – Photoshop Auto-select

Another quick tip for you guys! This one is about using the auto-select layer. Quite possibly the most helpful checkbox in all of photoshop. Leave a comment and let me know what you guys think!

18 Responses to “Quick Tip #3 – Photoshop Auto-select”

Donald Rush says:

Good tip. I can’t stand auto select though I am always clicking on something I didn’t want to select. I like to command click on the object to select it. Thanks for the tip I floated it.

December 9th, 2008 at 6:41 am

Nice tip. Never thought about clicking the auto-select box. If you don’t use the Auto-select you can control+click (on windows – not sure the mac combo off hand) on anything visible to select that layer too.

December 9th, 2008 at 6:55 am

Janine says:

Great tip! Can’t believe I didn’t know about this feature!

December 9th, 2008 at 9:00 am

Aaron Irizarry says:

Great tip Niki… very useful i use it regularly, helps me get through layers much quicker.

Keep em’ comin’

Aaron I

December 9th, 2008 at 9:04 am

Chris Rossi says:

Nice tip Niki! I knew about autoselect, but for some reason, many people do not. I think it is helpful when you have a great deal of items, but sometimes annoying when it selects things you do not want. I usually toggle between using it and not using it depending on what I am working on.

Thanks for spreading the help love!

Chris

December 9th, 2008 at 9:11 am

frank says:

Niki – Keep these coming!

December 9th, 2008 at 10:35 am

jyl says:

Like Donald I rather use command click than the auto select, just find it easier, but I guess it’s just a question of get use to one or the other. I must say I kinda disagree on the work fast and don’t be organised, there is nothing faster than being organised and you really save a lot of time when client ask for modification or when several people are working on a same file if you have renamed your layer use folder colors and stuff.

But nice tips anyway

December 9th, 2008 at 10:40 am

Niki says:

@jyl i agree about being organized – its very important especially when working in teams.

I’ve spent hours cleaning up messy photoshop files before

December 9th, 2008 at 11:11 am

joyoge says:

nice trick thanks

December 9th, 2008 at 11:52 am

Clarissa says:

Very useful…I didn’t know about this until about two years ago and could have saved ages before then!

One thing I’d like to see is a better placement or keyboard shortcut for this toggle. Then again, maybe there is one and I’m just not seeing it (obviously wouldn’t be the first time. :])

December 9th, 2008 at 11:57 am

Hugo says:

Great tip.. has it’s pro and cons of using it… I love it although sometimes it can be a pain. I find it useful to use it in conjunction with the transformation tool check so I can at-least know what i’m auto selectiong.

December 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

sam says:

great quick tip that I didn’t know about.
selection peeves is one of the main reasons I’ve been using Fireworks more and more, but this makes moving object in PS much easier – thanks

December 9th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Maria says:

Holy crap, Niki. Thanks for making me feel like a complete idiot haha… Seriously, I can’t believe I’ve been using Photoshop for years (semi-professionally, I must admit) and doing this the hard way all the while. Awesome tip.

December 10th, 2008 at 6:53 am