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

As I write this, I'm growing barnacles at the San Francisco Airport while I pretend to patiently wait to board a flight home. I was reviewing Photoshop keyboard shortcuts in my head, and at first I thought this would be way too dreary and rudimentary for you tiplist readers. But then it occurred to me that there might be some folks out there who are still shortcut-shy, and could use some encouragement on this subject. If this describes you, I urge you to take on this shortlist so you feel like you're really cooking at the keyboard. I'll list all the ones I can think of in the off chance that at least a few of them will help you. Then in hopes of surprising you, I'll list in brackets (][) what happens if you add the Shift key to each command. Since I'm on a Mac you should know the Command key is the same as Control on Windows and Option is the same as Alt.

Command-A = Select All
Command-B = Color Balance [Auto Color]
Command-C = Copy [Copy Merged]
Command-D = Deselect [Reselect]
Command-E = Merge Down [Merge Visible]
Command-F = Apply last filter [Fade]
Command-G = Group with Previous [Ungroup]
Command-H = Hide Marching Ants, etc. [Hide Path]
Command-I = Invert Image [Inverse Selection]
Command-J = Jump to a new layer (New Layer Via Copy) [New Layer Via Cut]
Command-K = Preferences [Color Settings]
Command-L = Levels [Auto Levels]
Command-M = Curves [Jump to ImageReady]
Command-N = New Document [New Layer]
Command-O = Open [Browse]
Command-P = Print [Page Setup]
Command-Q = Quit
Command-R = Show/Hide Rulers
Command-S = Save [Save As]
Command-T = Free Transform [Transform Again]
Command-U = Hue/Saturation [Desaturate]
Command-V = Paste [Paste Into]
Command-W = Close Window
Command-X = Clear [Liquify]
Command-Y = Proof Colors [Gamut Warning]
Command-Z = Undo [Step Forward]

Sorry, but the smell of jet fuel has addled my brain and in my airport stupor, I can't remember what Shift-Command A, Q, R or W does...

Ok, they are finally ready to board my flight, so I'm going to sign off. For those of you who felt like they were being sent back to first grade, hang in there, I'll get to some juicy stuff in the future installments. And for those of you who are still dragging through menus instead of using your keyboard as the Adobe god intended, I challenge you to go forth and practice your shortcuts! You'll be a better Photoshopper because of it.

-Ben