- Getting Started with Layers
- Blending Two or More Images (Intro to Layer Masks)
- Getting Started with Layer Blend Modes
- Five Layers Things to Know Before We Move On
- Adding Drop Shadows and Other Layer Effects
- Resizing Something on a Layer
- Organizing Your Layers
- Adjustment Layers
- Smart Filter Layers
- Making a Simple Composite
- Four MORE Important Layers Techniques
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Organizing Your Layers
When you create a bunch of layers, your Layers panel starts to get really long, and you’ll end up scrolling up and down a long list just to find the layer you want. But, there’s a very easy way to cut down on all the clutter and bring some sanity back into your Layers panel when you have a bunch of layers in there.
Step One:
There are 21 layers in the document I’m working on here. If you look at the Layers panel on the left, you can see the long, scrolling list of layers, and believe it or not, it doesn’t take long to wind up with 21 layers—I’ve had documents with 50–60 layers. Luckily, just like we have folders on our computers to stay organized, we can have folders for layers, too, but they’re called “groups.” So, a bunch of layers in a folder is called a “layer group.” To create one, select the layers you want in a group by Command-clicking (PC: Ctrl-clicking) on them in the Layers panel. Then, at the bottom of the panel, click on the Create a New Group icon (it looks like a folder), and it puts those selected layers into a group (as seen here, in the middle, where I selected all my graphic layers and put them into a group). By default, it’s named “Group 1,” but I recommend renaming it something more helpful (just double-click directly on Group 1, and it highlights the text, so you can type in a new name). Look at the Layers panel on the right, and you can see what it looks like once I also put all my Type layers in a group and renamed it. It’s nice and easy to get around now. To look inside a group (to see all its layers), just click on the little right-facing arrow to the left of its name to expand it. To remove a layer from a group, just click on the layer and drag it out of the folder.
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