CS4 Brings Some Upheaval to Familiar Photoshop Shortcuts

If you've already tried out Photoshop CS4, you've probably noticed that some old familiar shortcuts have changed. If you haven't checked it out yet, depending on your reliance on keystrokes over mousing around, you may find yourself frustrated until you get used to it. John Nack, Adobe Senior Product Manager and all-around user-compassionate guy knows this will be a burden to some:

"Mature tools are like musical instruments, and you don't go moving the piano keys or cello strings without a great need to do so. It's painful. We know."

But he goes on to explain in this post some of the reasons for the changes, many of which are designed to bring Photoshop shortcuts in-line with those of other apps, both in and beyond the Creative Suite.

Personally, the one I'm really grateful for is that Ctrl or Command+~ now cycles through open documents. I can't tell you how many times in the past I've pounded on those keys in vain to get to the next window. But for someone like Channel Master Deke McClelland this means he's now pounding those keys to get his RGB composite view back. And the ramifications have a domino effect because every channel shortcut has been moved down two spaces (Ctrl/Command + 1, 2, 3 to cycle through the R, G, and B channels of an image are now designated by Ctrl/Command + 3, 4, 5.)

If all this is change is more than you can handle, read John's entire post and you'll find a plug in that remaps the channel keys, but you give up those "universal" commands of Ctrl/Cmd + ~ to toggle windows and Ctrl/Cmd + 1 to zoom to 100%. If you're not spending a lot of time working in channels, then I think the new arrangement will treat you well.