How do I select more than one layer in PS to all resize them at the same time?

[France]

Can I even do that? I want to add alphas, sort of place them approximately where I want them, then I would like, if possible, to select all the letters and resize them in one bunch. Can I do that in PS8?

I've tried a trick others have explained in another post but it didn't work (I think my terminology when I asked the question, wasn't quite perfect!).

In the other program I use I just CTRL+click on the images I want to temporarily group, then resize, and voilà!

Thanks!

[Joyce Paul]

I hope that this works in PS8 as well ... I use CS5

Go to your layers pallette on the right handside (if it's not showing up, click "window" ---> "layers"), in the layers pallette, click on one of the layers that you would like to select, hold ctrl and click on all of the other layers that you would like to select/resize.
Then go to your file/document and you should be able to resize them all at once.

Crossing my fingers that this will work in PS8, I have never worked with PS8 before :glis:

[Scrapporreia]

Adding on to Joyce's advice. If these are items that you want to move and/or resize as a group regularly, you can create a folder to drop them in.

at the bottom of the layers palette, there is a 'group' button. Click on that, and a new 'line' appears on your layers palette. Dragging and dropping the layers you want into this folder group puts them all together in a tidy bunch. You can then rename the folder to like: Frame Elements or whatever it is. and if you ever need to move them you can access them all quickly.

:)
Linda

[France]

hmmm, Linda, do you use PS8? I don't see that "Group" button.... It's like there's not that nifty thing where you can drop your papers and elements you bring into the PS window to do your layout. Maybe I should swap to CS5! :)

[Scrapporreia]

Let me do a screen grab. I was typing from memory. :)
I'm on CS... ummm... 3(?)

[Scrapporreia]

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5665130636_8752bf85f5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindatsecorreia/5665130636/)
group snag (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindatsecorreia/5665130636/) by Linda T Correia (http://www.flickr.com/people/lindatsecorreia/), on Flickr

The Group folder area is the part I circled in red. Hope that helps. :)

[heathert]

Yeah, PSE doesn't have folders. Found that out when I made a template with folders to contain all the images in a row!

Ctrl+click on the layers should work, though, France. Just make sure to click just right of the layer name.

[Romy]

you can select all layers if you got from the MENU bar -> SELECT -> ALL LAYERS

[jennyf92]

You can also link them together temporarily and resize them that way. Well, at least you can in CS - the original.

[Romy]

You can also link them together temporarily and resize them that way. Well, at least you can in CS - the original.

ooooh yeah, LOVE linking!!

[wombat146]

yep, no folders in PSE8 :( but Shift + click the layers to select a group of layers (all of them right next to each other) or Ctrl+ click to select individual layers.

[France]

Oooh :worship: Thanks Ona! I'll try this when I get home. (sneaking a peek at the forum, for work.)

[France]

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5665130636_8752bf85f5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindatsecorreia/5665130636/)
group snag (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindatsecorreia/5665130636/) by Linda T Correia (http://www.flickr.com/people/lindatsecorreia/), on Flickr

The Group folder area is the part I circled in red. Hope that helps. :)

Hey Linda! Thanks for posting a screen capture! I can see that icon in my PS8.....
It makes "sets", I've been able to move layers in the "sets" but that's as far as I went and I got a headache!!! :rofl2: (April's been very stressful and it doesn't take much to completely baffle me!) so I'll look into that a bit more!!! (the headache is fine, it's just that there's 100 things I should be doing now instead of scrapping, so it's my brain reminding me to do what I have to do, and I can relax later! :biggrin8: )

[France]

Update (ooh, my post count is going up and up and up! :rofl2: )
i can't do ctrl-click or shift click either, or alt click..... I think I have a setting that's set wrongly.
If anyone knows where to find it, let me know, in the meantime I'm going to look around (I even watched a youtube video to see how the guy did it, and he shift-clicked and wow, I can't do it :dumbputer:

now, My photoshop says "adobe photoshop CS version 8". that's PS8, right? :dumbputer: or maybe i should shake myself!

[mum2gnt]

Ooooo I do this frequently!

Here's what I do:
hold Control and click on layers you want to resize or move. When they are highlighted still with control held down hit the T button for transform. Hold the Shift button so it retains it's portions and push/pull the corners or rotate/whatever!

You can also group them really quickly by control G.

You can link them too but linking and me have a pet hate! Me and Group have a love relationship! That's how I oprganise my layers rather than linking. Like if you have a template and clip a paper too it you then have 2 layers. I then highlight them both and ctrl G and rename "BROWN PAPER STRIP" or something! Always in CAPS too as you can see what bit of the template you have/haven't done!

Also, (whilst on) - you know how I love my shortcuts!!- if you need to clip say a paper to something just hit alt and hover the mouse between the 2 layers and a funny circle appears and just click and voila! Clipped!

CS = Creative Suite. I believe this is the big brother PS rather than Elements - but not sure!

Hope that helps hun!

[France]

Hi Suzie, thanks I'll give it another try. :cool:

[France]

Ok, I tried, this is still not working.
On the right of the icon in my layers pallette, the icon being the layer in question, there is, on the far left, an eye, to make layers invisible, then there's a little square that you can tick, and it sort of "paperclips" the layers together, and I can resize them like that, so now I've learned that.
BUT....
I have a template, and I wanted to clip an image to many layers, last time I did that, I duplicated the photo layer and added it above each template layer, and clipped them all individually, but there must be an easier way of doing this, and this is what I can't "GET"!!!

So I want to select a few layers of the template (on this template they are all in order, the layers, they are all together, one above the other, in my layers pallette -- does that make sense? if not I'll have to get images in here!)
So i want to select a few layers (CTRL+click, shift+click, ctrl+shift+click ETC do not work for me, not at all, and I'm not sure why!)... and then CTRL-G a picture so it's separated in between all the layers, but the picture would still be ONE layer itself...
:rolleyes:
am I making any sense? does anyone understand what I'm trying to achieve? and is there a solution or am I asking the impossible (possible in my other program, Xara, but not here) of PS8?

can anyone help? I'd be forever :worship:!
thanks!! (PS Ona, I'm thiiiiiiiis close to PMing you! :25r30wi:)

[DoggiNo]

France, what I do in that case is merge the template layers first so that they become one layer and then clip my photo, papers, etc to that one layer. Of course you will loose the individual layers, so make a copy (you can hide those) if you still want to be able to use them later, in case you change your mind.

[Romy]

France, I don't know why ctrl-click doesn't work, are you clicking on the layer name and not the layer thumbnail?
also check that the layers are not locked

If you want to clip one photo to a several layers/layer shapes - Katja's advice is the way to go

also, even after you clip the photo, it will stay as a separate layer, only connected to and reduced in the shape of the layer underneath

any chance you could post a picture of your layer palette, like Linda did?

[France]

maybe I'm not quite getting the difference between merging and CTRL+G (when I did CTRL+G on a few layers, they would disappear, so I'm assuming MERGING is different?)...

Yes Romy, what a great idea! I'm sure there's a weird setting somewhere, that happens to me all the time.
here's a close up of my layers toolbar's bottom :25r30wi:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w178/acanuckinoz/Digiscrapping/closeup.jpg

and this is my layers toolbar (template by busy bee)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w178/acanuckinoz/Digiscrapping/layers.jpg

do you need to see anything else?
I also had this funky experience when I opened a new set of templates today:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w178/acanuckinoz/Digiscrapping/funkylayerIgotforthefirsttimetoday.jpg

weird stuff is going on here :) but I like the colours on that new template!

Does this help at all?

Thanks for any insight.

[DoggiNo]

Ah, the colors ... you can color each layer (right click on the part with the eye in). This template designer uses a different color by type : one for paper, one for photo, etc.
This does not affect the way you use the template at all.

I don't see anything strange here ... when I clip a photo / paper whatever to a template layer, I make sure my photo is just above the layer I want to clip it to and then alt-click in between them. The mouse then changes to two circles.
When you want to clip one photo to two template layers you need to merge these template layers first.

Does this help at all ?

[France]

Hi Katja!
Thanks so much for trying to help, really I think i need to go back to basics and learn, but it's so much fun to skip steps :giggle:

Ah, the colors ... you can color each layer (right click on the part with the eye in). This template designer uses a different color by type : one for paper, one for photo, etc.
This does not affect the way you use the template at all.

ooh, neat trick to know though. I didn't think it changed the template, but it was the first time I'd seen it and I thought it was really cool.


I don't see anything strange here ... when I clip a photo / paper whatever to a template layer, I make sure my photo is just above the layer I want to clip it to and then alt-click in between them. The mouse then changes to two circles.
When you want to clip one photo to two template layers you need to merge these template layers first.

Does this help at all ?

I'm going to try clipping like you did. I think I might have been doing something different. I would put the picture above the shape I wanted to clip it to, and then do CTRL-G (I know you can also after that do CTRL-E to flatten that layer, if you want to, but you can't undo that).

I just tried your ALT+click trick and it worked great. I guess that and CTRL-G work similarly. I may have to go and watch some videos, after iNSD:happydance: !

Thanks for this trick (alt+click!)

[Romy]

oh France, I'm sorry!! when I said CTRL-click doesn't work for you - I mean ALT-click!!
(I get sometimes confused when translating from Windows keyboard ..on the Mac, we have different names for ALT and CTRL, sorryyyyy)



I think we are addressing several things at the same time, we need to summarize some terms:


clipping is different from merging and from grouping, it sorta connects two layers where top layer assumes the shape of the bottom layer, I think you already got that - ALT click

merging is when two or more layers are made into one, indefinitely - CTRL-E

grouping (making set in your case, I think) is when you "tie" layers together, it can be only one layer or 50 in a group...in CS, it's CTRL-G
when you said the "grouped layers disappear - I thing they just went into the group, you just have to look into the group, in CS, there is a little arrow before the word GROUP (you can rename it, of course), I click on it and see the content of the group
(grouping is for moving and resizing layers at the same time, also it reduces the number of layers in your palette)


linking is like tying the layers altogether without creating a group, in CS, there is a little chain-link icon on the bottom (next to to STYLE icon) that does that
I think there is no keyboard shortcut but Suzie is the Queen of shortcuts, she needs to confirm :-)
(linking is also for resizing and moving several layers at once, you can always unlink or just to remove one layer...)
again, I don't see the icon on your photo, I don't know how it works for PSE

then there is CTRL-click on the thumbnail of a layer, not the name of the layer - this selects the active pixels
(I use it - sometimes - for recoloring or distressing a brush for example...)


I'm not sure about the right one of the two tick-boxes on the left from the layer thumbnail - those for selecting=highlighting of layers, right? that would be selecting several layers
(also used for resizing and moving of more layers at once)



so if I go back to your clipping a photo to several pieces/shapes of the template - you need to MERGE (irreversibly) those pieces first (good to make their copies before that, just to be safe), move the photo above the merged layer and then CLIP
(!! grouping is no good for this, you can't clip to a group)


and France, no one would have a problem to answer your questions so don't hesitate to ask!! :winking0071:

[France]

Just wanted to say that I finally got this, I can do it now! :worship: to all who helped, for your patience! I don't know why but all of a sudden, it worked!

[Scrapporreia]

Hey Linda! Thanks for posting a screen capture! I can see that icon in my PS8.....
It makes "sets", I've been able to move layers in the "sets" but that's as far as I went and I got a headache!!! :rofl2: (April's been very stressful and it doesn't take much to completely baffle me!) so I'll look into that a bit more!!! (the headache is fine, it's just that there's 100 things I should be doing now instead of scrapping, so it's my brain reminding me to do what I have to do, and I can relax later! :biggrin8: )


You're welcome. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? lol

[aichaku]

:worship:

now, does anyone know the similar tips for GIMP? :rainbowf:

:giggle: (trying my luck here. i've not searched the GIMP forums yet though. these tips would certainly help speed up my super slow poke scrapping) :flower2:

[Scrapporreia]

I've never used Gimp, but apparently it comes with all the kids school computers these days, so I should take a look at it.

[mum2gnt]

This thread still going? Glad you worked it out France hun!

[fruitysuet]

then there is CTRL-click on the thumbnail of a layer, not the name of the layer - this selects the active pixels
(I use it - sometimes - for recoloring or distressing a brush for example...)
[/LIST]



I am SO glad someone referred back to this thread! I love when I learn something new (I sort of skipped over it the first time because I use PSE and a few of these tips don't work, but this one does and I can't believe I didn't know it, that will be big timesaver!).

Thanks.

[France]

my turn to thank Suzanne for bumping this thread, Romy! ROOOOOMYYYYYYY!!!! I never said THANK YOU for this fabulous lexicon!!!!!
:thanks:

oh France, I'm sorry!! when I said CTRL-click doesn't work for you - I mean ALT-click!!
(I get sometimes confused when translating from Windows keyboard ..on the Mac, we have different names for ALT and CTRL, sorryyyyy)



I think we are addressing several things at the same time, we need to summarize some terms:


clipping is different from merging and from grouping, it sorta connects two layers where top layer assumes the shape of the bottom layer, I think you already got that - ALT click

merging is when two or more layers are made into one, indefinitely - CTRL-E

grouping (making set in your case, I think) is when you "tie" layers together, it can be only one layer or 50 in a group...in CS, it's CTRL-G
when you said the "grouped layers disappear - I thing they just went into the group, you just have to look into the group, in CS, there is a little arrow before the word GROUP (you can rename it, of course), I click on it and see the content of the group
(grouping is for moving and resizing layers at the same time, also it reduces the number of layers in your palette)


linking is like tying the layers altogether without creating a group, in CS, there is a little chain-link icon on the bottom (next to to STYLE icon) that does that
I think there is no keyboard shortcut but Suzie is the Queen of shortcuts, she needs to confirm :-)
(linking is also for resizing and moving several layers at once, you can always unlink or just to remove one layer...)
again, I don't see the icon on your photo, I don't know how it works for PSE

then there is CTRL-click on the thumbnail of a layer, not the name of the layer - this selects the active pixels
(I use it - sometimes - for recoloring or distressing a brush for example...)


I'm not sure about the right one of the two tick-boxes on the left from the layer thumbnail - those for selecting=highlighting of layers, right? that would be selecting several layers
(also used for resizing and moving of more layers at once)



so if I go back to your clipping a photo to several pieces/shapes of the template - you need to MERGE (irreversibly) those pieces first (good to make their copies before that, just to be safe), move the photo above the merged layer and then CLIP
(!! grouping is no good for this, you can't clip to a group)


and France, no one would have a problem to answer your questions so don't hesitate to ask!! :winking0071: