The Photoshop Tip of the Week for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore
(www.digitalmastery.com):

With the introduction of Photoshop 6.0, Adobe added Layer Sets. A layer set is a folder you can use to organize a multi-layered document. It's an awesome feature that takes the agony out of navigating through tons of layers, and now that we have it at our beck and call, let's see how it works.

To create a layer set, click on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Then you can drag a layer onto your newly created folder (a "set" in Photoshop terms) and it will become indented below the folder, indicating that it is part of that set. If you'd like to include additional layers in that set, just drag another layer until it's right above one of the layers in the set, or drag it onto the folder icon for that set and it will be placed at the bottom of the set.

After you have a few layers in your set, you can click on the arrow icon on the set to collapse all the layers into the set, which makes it so that you can only see the set name. Click the arrow again to expand the set and you will see its contents. If you turn off the eyeball icon for the set then all the layers within the set will be hidden from view. Or, you can lower the opacity of the entire set (and therefore all the layers within it) by making the set active and then lowering the opacity setting at the top of the Layers palette. Also, you can use the Move tool when the set is active and you'll end up moving all the layers within the set (regardless if they are linked or not). You can drag the set up or down in the layers stack and all the layers will move along with it. You can also drag a layer out of the set by dragging it above another layer that is not part of the set. To get the bottom layer out of a set, just drag it's thumbnail preview into the empty space directly to the left of it.

Ok, now that you know the basics, let's delve a little deeper.

You can quickly get a bunch of layers into a set by linking them (do that by clicking in the square area just to the left of the preview thumbnail on each layer), and then choosing New Set From Linked from the side menu of the Layers palette.

When the set is active, you can click on the Trash icon (but don't drag the set onto it), and you'll be asked if you want to just delete the set (leaving the layers intact), or if you'd like to delete the set *and* its contents (deleting all the layers that are inside it).

If you drag a set (with the Move tool) onto another document, then all the layers within the set will be copied into that document as well.

You can duplicate a set by dragging it to the set icon (it looks like a folder at the bottom of the Layers palette). Or, if you'd like to create a brand new document that contains the contents of a set, then hold the Option key (Mac), or Alt key (Windows) when you drag the set onto the set icon, and then choose New from the Document pop-up menu in the dialog box that appears.

If you're working on a layer that is not part of a set and you'd like to move it along with all the layers that are inside a set, then link that layer to the set by clicking in the square area just to the left of the folder icon on that set.

I can't say enough good things about layer sets. They are a live-saving feature and they can do even more than what I've described here. I'll give you some more advanced tips in a future installment. In the meantime, give these tips a test drive and then you'll be revved up for more goodies on layer sets.
-Ben Willmore