Quick Tip #3 – Photoshop Auto-select

Reading time: < 1 minute

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!

20 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

mark says:

boring..really

December 10th, 2008 at 9:47 am

maxim_man says:

Great nice tip. Thanks

December 14th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

DIsco Parrot says:

I didn’t know about this, only command click. So thanks!

December 16th, 2008 at 7:53 am

Bek says:

SO helpful. Thanks!

December 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

Donny says:

I use this feature occasionally, but it's not great whenever you have layers with transparency or layers with areas that are difficult to select (a soccer net that's cut out for example). Thanks for the post!

March 29th, 2010 at 5:37 pm

Kennedy says:

Damn you for not showing me this years ago! I guess now is better than never. Thanks!

March 29th, 2010 at 5:43 pm

Quick Tip #3 – Photoshop Auto-select