Open a new document

To open a new document, we click “File” in the menu bar and choose “New” from the drop-down menu.

This opens the dialog “New”. What did you think?

In the “Name” box at the top, we give a name for our document.

We can enter the width and height, resolution, plus a number of other options. But actually, we use Photoshop to edit pictures and use other applications such as Illustrator or Freehand, to make drawings.

But we can draw with Photoshop also, it has several tools to do so.

Click the OK button when you finish the settings.

Open a photo

In order to open a photo, click the “File” button in the menu bar and select “Open” in the drop-down menu. The hotkey for this is Ctrl + O.

This opens the dialog “Open”.

In the “Search” (1) navigate to the folder containing the image you want to open.

Select the photo (2), and click the “Open” button (3).

Open multiple photos

To open multiple photos, select the documents and hold the Shift key pressed if they are adjacent documents.

If these are not adjacent, hold Ctrl key pressed.

Click the “Open” button when all photos are selected.
All photos are opened in their in their window or tab, depending on what you have set in the “Interface” under the preferences. (See previous lesson)

Duplicate Photo

Before you start working on the original of the picture, it is best that you first make a duplicate. And since it is better to do this for each photo you are editing, it is wise to set a “shortcut” for this.
Click on the “Edit” button in the menu bar and choose “Shortcuts” in the drop-down menu.

In the dialog that appears, click the “Image” in the list, you scroll all the way down and select the option “Duplicate”. In the textbox that appears, type the shortcut or the shortcut that you want to use for this, you click the button “Accept” and you click the “OK” button.

I use the F10 key on my keyboard, so I just click and it will automatically be entered in the textbox.

You can use any key combination you want, just make sure that it is not in use for another function.

Now, when you open a picture and you click, in this case, the F10 key on your keyboard, a dialog box will appear with the name for the duplicated photo.

When you click the OK button, you can open the duplicate of the photo and close the original.

When you close the duplicate, you will be asked whether you want to save.

Of course your answer here is “Yes”.

If you use this kind of work, you will not have surprises.

Shortcuts

In the same dialog box, you can change the settings for all your keyboard shortcuts. Even those already set as default by Photoshop.
For those of you who do not know what a hot key is. A hotkey is a key or combination of keys on the keyboard, which we use to activate functions in a program.

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