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Posted on 15/12/10 01:18:57 AM |
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nickp99
* Posts: 13 Reply |
"Undo" changes selected layer -- how to fix?
You've all done it. You switch layers, switch tools, make a brushstroke. Dang. Not what you wanted. Ctrl/Cmd-Z. Try again. Whoops! The "undo" command has unhelpfully reset the selected layer back to the *previous* selected layer, and you are now painting on the wrong layer. The standard advice I've found on the intarwebs is that "undo" is supposed to work like that, and what I really want is "step backward" which does just that, in the history. "Just rebind the key!" they say ... Well, I seem to have gotten used to using repeated Ctrl/Cmd-Z's to "blink" between different versions of something. "Step backward" isn't a toggle. I understand the rationale behind what "undo" does. I just don't ever need something that works that way. I want a toggle that respects my most recent opinion of which layer to target. Does anyone have any suggestions for fixing this? I don't recall earlier versions of Pshop behaving like this and it's driving me out of my gourd. That big fat Z for "undo" is a habit so instinctual that remapping may not be possible. What do you do? |
Posted on 15/12/10 08:03:06 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7025 Reply  |
Re: "Undo" changes selected layer -- how to fix?
It is irritating, yes, but it does make a kind of sense. You can always use opt cmd Z/alt ctrl Z to step backward through the history, if you prefer. |
Posted on 15/12/10 3:41:37 PM |
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nickp99
* Posts: 13 Reply |
Re: "Undo" changes selected layer -- how to fix?
Thanks for responding! But yes, I'd already known about stepping through the history ... Ctrl/Cmd-Z undoes itself, which is what I want. Actually, it's even better than that. It undoes the last thing you did, even if that *wasn't* a full history item. Let's say you are using Levels to get the tones of something just right. You've made a bunch of adjustments already, but then you make one that you don't like. Ctrl-/cmd-Z will undo that, but "step backward" will undo *all* the levels changes back to the thing before you started adjusting levels. C-Z will also let you "blink" between the before and after which ... um ... essential. It's my understanding that pshop is scriptable using Javascript, and I was thinking along the lines of a JS thing that I could bind to C-Z. Looking around the net, *so* many people are complaining about this ...but no one seems to have a solution. Has anyone around here ever used Javascript to change Pshop's behavior with this or any other issue? |
Posted on 15/12/10 10:37:46 PM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7025 Reply |
Re: "Undo" changes selected layer -- how to fix?
With any adjustment, you can hold the alt key while choosing the menu item or pressing the keyboard shortcut to load the adjustment dialog again, with all the previously-used settings intact. Is this closer to what you want to do? |
Posted on 16/12/10 00:07:30 AM |
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Jota120
Ingenious Inventor Posts: 2615 Reply  |
Re: "Undo" changes selected layer -- how to fix?
Hi Nickp99, small comment Yes it is Java Scriptable, but it won't let you change the User interface (as far as I know). Adobe publish the Object Model, Containment, methods etc, for Javascript et all, http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/photoshop/pdfs/photoshop_cs5_scripting_guide.pdf but they are targeted at (in my opinion) automating your actions, with logic and solutions on processing your images using all the PS tools/filters etc You cannot see PS's full Engine object model, change things like you might like. I guess key point it is not opensource. Most things work very well for me, I just save as new version, when I've done some work of value, workflow thing.... We all work different ways and good share issues |
Posted on 16/12/10 7:57:25 PM |
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nickp99
* Posts: 13 Reply |
Re: "Undo" changes selected layer -- how to fix?
Ah ... sadly, no. And it's sufficiently far away from what I meant that I fear I must not be explaining things clearly. Before Adobe changed things, C-Z would essentially 'undo the last thing I did'. Sometimes that means stepping back in the history, sometimes not (as when making levels adjustments and in free transform, it will undo only the last tiny change, whereas stepping back would undo them all back before you started to adjust anything.) I don't know if I skipped a pshop version or something, but now (in CS5x) C-Z _usually_ does what it used to do -- *except* if what you last did involved changing the target (selected) layer. Unfortunately, you often change layers just before switching tools, and so your first stroke is more likely to be something other than what you intended. Now, if you do C-Z (which is hardwired into my fingers for when I make a mistake), the target layer gets *reset* to what it was before, and so when you try again -- you are painting on the wrong layer. And then you have to go hunt up the correct layer again (god forbid you should have a lot of 'em) and start over. It's maddening. I *know* it didn't used to behave this way. I've been using pshop since V 2.4 (I hope I'm not dating myself!). I see people all over the net complaining about it. Some of us old (!?) folks have harder-to-reprogram-fingers than most, I guess. Adobe? Maybe a pref for "Legacy undo mode" ?? Howabout "Leave my damn target layer alone unless I change it myself mode" ?? Again, I see what it's doing, and it is 'correct' in some direct-thinking-programmer way. It's just never what I really want. (And actually I am a programmer.) I don't see a way to get the old behavior by rebinding keys, because the 'undo' function works differently than almost anything else (deservedly) and they have changed the behavior of just a piece of it. The other functions Adobe has seen fit to allow me to rebind are not quite the same thing. In an 'totally unusable for that' way. *Sigh*. Perhaps if I break my left thumb and forefinger, while they are recovering in a cast I can re-learn how to use the new behavior. |