The Extra-Strength Tips for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

We haven't explored layers in over a year and they're such an integral part of the engine that drives Photoshop, I think it's prime time we pay them another visit. If you're new to my tips, be sure to check out the tips archive at www.digitalmastery.com/tips for dozens of additional layer tips.

Whenever you need a new empty layer, try typing Command-Shift-N (Mac), or Ctrl-Shift-N (Win). If you'd rather not give your layer a name (instead, letting Photoshop assign a number), then just add the Option key (Mac), or Alt key (Win) to the new layer keyboard command.

If you ever want to create a new layer and have it appear below the layer that is active (as opposed to above it which is the default), then Command-click (Mac), or Ctrl-click (Win) the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Then, let's say you want to quickly change which layer is active... well, you don't have to use the Layers palette for that, instead, just try holding the Option key (Mac), or Alt key (Win) and then press ] or [. The right bracket will activate the layer directly above the one you're working on, while the left bracket will move down the Layers palette.

When you're moving a layer around (with the Move tool of course), you might notice it snapping to other objects (like guides). You can prevent that by holding the Control key (Mac or Win) AFTER you press the mouse button. Or, if you have snapping turned off (View>Snap), then holding Control is how you temporarily turn it back on.

If you end up using a lot of layers, then you might want to consider turning off the layer thumbnails. To do that, Ctrl-click (Mac), or Right-click (Win) in the empty area between the bottom-most layer and the icons that appear at the bottom of the palette, then choose None from the pop-up menu that appears. You can still use all of Photoshop's features with this more compact layout, and when you feel the need for those thumbnail previews, you can easily get them back by Ctrl-clicking (Mac), or Right-clicking (Win) that same area again and choosing the size of thumbnail you'd like (the default is Small). These settings also work for the Channels and Paths palette by the way, but each one can be set to a different setting.

Finally, you can change the behavior of the trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette by holding down certain keys on your keyboard. If you ever get a 'did you really want to do that' kind of message after clicking the trash, then try holding the Option key (Mac), or Alt key (Win), which should prevent that warning from showing its ugly head. If the active layer is linked to other layers and you want to trash all the linked layers at once, then you can hold Command (Mac), or Ctrl (Win) when you're clicking on the trash icon. And of course you can add Option (Mac), or Alt (Win) to suppress the normal warning dialog box. But wait! There's more! If the active layer has a Layer Mask attached to it, then the trash will throw away whatever is active (layer or mask). You can tell what's active by looking for a double border around either the Layer Mask or Layer preview thumbnail image. And if the Layer Mask is active, you can hold Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Win) to force Photoshop to delete the layer instead of just the mask. And if you think that's enough keyboard stuff, then you just don't know how much the programmers at Adobe love keyboard commands. If a Layer Set is active (it looks like a folder), then holding Option (Mac), or Alt (Win) will delete both the set and the layers within it and holding Option and Command (Mac), or Alt and Ctrl (Win) will delete just the set, leaving the layers within it alone. Whew! That's all I can think of right now... but I wouldn't be surprised if there's even more hiding under that innocent looking trash icon.

-Ben Willmore