How many times per day do you estimate that you click your mouse button?   Hundreds?  Sometimes even thousands?  That’s me!  On heavy work days, I find that my wrist can even be sore at the end of the day, so I want to limit my numbers of clicks as much as possible.  Because of this, I love using keyboard shortcuts.  Here is one of my favorites!

Did you know that you can cycle through Blending Modes without using your mouse?  Here’s how:

  • Select the layer that you want to blend. In this example, I want to blend the solid green color onto the Grungy Stripe Overlay beneath it.
  • Click on the Blending Mode Options to make it active.  In this example, you will see a thin blue line around the “Normal” option. That indicates the mode is active
  • Now, instead of clicking on the down or up arrow to select a mode, simply use the Down Arrow key on your keyboard. This will cycle thru the Blending Modes for you!

This is a quick and easy method of cycling through Blending Modes.  And it will save you many mouse clicks, which, should help with any sore wrists!

This tip works in Photoshop, as well as some (if not all) versions of Photoshop Elements (tested in PSE 9).

Credits: SnickerdoodleDesigns Grungy Stripe Overlays