Digital Scrapbooking Tips

Now that it is spring, the local park is full of children enjoying themselves on the playground equipment. The slide seems to be a favorite year after year.  Some children like to fly down them as fast as they can, while others use their sneakers as brakes and scoot down the incline in slower increments.

The Photoshop and Elements sliders can be navigated in this fashion, too.

Any of the sliders like the Opacity slider above the Layers Panel can be moved using the arrow keys on your keyboard.  The left and down pointing arrows move the sliders to the left while the right and up facing arrows move the sliders to the right.  The arrow moves the slider in 1% increments each time you press it. This is helpful when you are working on extremely detailed projects that require precision. Holding the Shift key as you press the arrow keys increases or decreases the slider values by 10% increments instead.

For you speedy sliders (and you know who you are!) pressing and holding the arrow key moves the slider quickly.  But pressing and holding the Shift key and the arrow key make the slider fly across quickly.

Many of the tools in Photoshop and Elements are adjusted with sliders in the Options Bar, including the Brush and Pencil tools, the Paint Bucket, Dodge and Burn, and Gradient tools.

So whether you need to move your slider in 1 or 10% increments or make that slider fly like the wind, the arrow key can help you customize the way you control the sliders in Photoshop and Elements.