Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Managing Layers

If one thing’s for certain in Photoshop, it’s that your Layers panel will get long and unwieldy in a hurry. Now that you’ve seen a smidgen of the increased editing flexibility layers give you (moving, resizing, and so on), you’ll want to put everything on its own layer—and you should. However, learning a wee bit about organizing layers can keep you from spending ages digging through the Layers panel to find the layer you want. This section gives you the lowdown.

Tip

Photoshop’s layer-filtering feature is one of the best ways to manage a long Layers panel; it’s covered back on Activating Multiple Layers.

Naming and Color-Coding Layers

The simplest way to organize layers is to name the darn things something other than Layer 1, Layer 2, and so on. If you didn’t name them when you made ’em, you can always double-click a layer’s name in the Layers panel and rename it right there (Photoshop highlights the name when you double-click it, so you can just start typing). When you’re done, press Return (Enter on a PC).

Tip

If you double-click in the Layers panel near the layer’s name but not directly on it, Photoshop opens the Layer Style dialog box (shown on Zapping Backgrounds with Blending Sliders) instead of highlighting the layer’s name. No problem: Just close the dialog box and try again.

Another renaming maneuver is to choose Layer→Rename Layer. When you do, Photoshop highlights the name of the active layer; just type some text to rename it. To rename additional layers, press ...