Making the focal part of the template smaller

[SusanD]

I am looking for the thread from a couple months ago about making the focal part(s) of the template smaller. I do remember one participant Kayleigh. I also think LoriS and Mymalloryboys had comments in the thread.

I have done a couple searches , but cannot find the thread.

I would appreciate direction.

Thank you.

[earlofoxford]

If I want to make everything above the background paper smaller, I just highlight all those layers, click on one of the corner bounding boxes, and reduce the size by a percentage, say to 80%. If it's only one item whose size you want to reduce, you can just highlight that particular layer and adjust with the bounding box and the two-headed arrow. Hope I'm understanding you correctly.

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

I'm not sure about the thread, but maybe I can help you accomplish the effect you're looking for. Do you just want to make the elements ona template smaller (as a group)? You can select multiple layers at once and then transform them together. I often just lock my background layer, select the Move tool and draw a box around everything on the page to quickly select all the elements then I resize them. Since the background is locked, it will not be affected.


ETA: Linda and I posted together. . You can absolutely select things directly in the layers palette. It's just a matter of personal preference.

[SusanD]

Cassie & Linda,

Exactly the information I needed. Thank you 2 for your time.

SusanD

[mymalloryboys]

I am glad you found what you needed Susan! Happy scrapping and I'll be looking for you in the gallery!!!

[ValerieP]

Recently I discovered the link layer option-it was like a miracle! easily holds layers together and easily unlinked-especialy useful for the photo clusters- to move them from their original file to my page linked and then unlink to put in the photos and relink to resize. Most wonderful!
I know that most probably know about this, but since I pretty much figure things out by trial and error, or I should see click and re click, this discovery has really made my scrapping life much better!

[kdif]

I like to select the layers I want to transform and them make a stamped copy of it so that I can play with it and adjust it but always have the original layers in case I want to go backwards.

Here's how:
Stamp all visible layers
Turn visibility on for the layers you want to merge.
Press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Windows) or Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac OS).
Photoshop creates a new layer containing the merged content.

[SusanD]

Thank you all for so much help! I really appreciate your time.

SusanD

[maureenreynolds]

Kathleen, I'm not sure what you mean by 'stamp' the visible layers. I'm in PSE8 fwiw, but most likely I'm missing something pretty obvious in your comment. Do you mean actually making a duplicate layer of each one you want to transform? (Cntrl or Cmnd J )