PS CS5: The Undo/Layer Dance
polycounter
Know what I'm taking about? It goes like this:
1. Work on layer 200.
2. Move to layer 1 to work.
3. Make a mistake and 'Undo'.
4. Try again
5. Realize you're working on layer 200. /facepalm
6. 'Undo'
7. Go to step 2.
I find this mildly annoying.
Is there a way to disable this Photoshop "feature"?
thx,
-kp
1. Work on layer 200.
2. Move to layer 1 to work.
3. Make a mistake and 'Undo'.
4. Try again
5. Realize you're working on layer 200. /facepalm
6. 'Undo'
7. Go to step 2.
I find this mildly annoying.
Is there a way to disable this Photoshop "feature"?
thx,
-kp
Replies
At the time I found the answer absurd. Why not provide people with a toggle so if they like their layers switching around when they undo they can leave it that way, if not they can have it functional for them. But no we get pins animation tools and flash BS that don't belong in photoshop.
I'm still waiting for them to bind incremental opacity to keys (like [] for brush size) so I can use the touch strips on my tablet, like I wanted to do back in 1995...
But the good thing is it has taught me to collapse layers more often or put "completed" things into minimized groups just to avoid scrolling as much as possible for when this happens.
So it has made me more tidy, yay.
This "feature" is useful for making Actions that need to know what layer is active and stuff like that... but yea, it's been mostly an annoyance, and it seems like someone over at Adobe could figure out a way around this during their lunch break if they really wanted to.
Which is *exactly* what they did with the current vs legacy brightness/contrast window. Come on Ha Do bee!
i agree its very annoying...
fearian, you don't need to make a mark really, you can just give a quick eraser stroke in an empty area and that works just as well (it's what I do, still super annoying). What would be needed is a little script that does a bogus history action each time you switch layer, not sure if that would be possible though.
I think we asked for a tickbox option way back when the rep was asking us what new stuff we'd like to see in PS but it doens't seem anything's come of it.
This thread (in case anyone wants a browse);
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62582
All it does is store the current active layer, do a step backward, then restore the old active layer.
It doesn't seem like there's a standard script function for Step Backward, so I had to use the script recorder. I'm not totally sure this will work on all versions of PS, as I was only able to test in CS5. You'll get an error if you use it to step back through creating a new layer.[EDIT: This error should now be fixed]
Record an action of you executing the script for hotkeyability.
[EDIT: You can also assign whatever hotkey you like to the script through the Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts interface, even replacing the Step Backward shortcut. This is only available in PS CS4 and above (I think).]
I'll do some investigation to see if this can be done more elegantly, but give this a try for now.
I
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/PhotoshopTools
If you know of other cool tools, lemme know, always on the prowl...
Actually, yeah you can also assign whatever hotkey you like to the script through the Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts interface, even replacing the Step Backward shortcut. This is only available in PS CS4 and above (I think).
I doubt there is much anyone can do about it except run it on CS4 and higher.
Thanks for the script, works like a dream!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3580711/StepBackwardSmart.jsx
Mark: That's actually the error you would get if you undid the creation of a layer. This should be fixed now, give it a try again.
I should probably do more to test it than open file create layers and run script... duh...
Works fine in CS3!
Been using it for a few hours and I don't notice any problems so far.
I also get an error message when undoing "create new layer". (CS5)
If this could be removed, it'd be primo.
I think I dropped the newer version you made into my 86x version scripts folder rather than the 64 bit folder. I keep doing that. Fucking future computers. "Of course there are two version of the same program lulz, have fun!"
Thanks again for the script!
error:
Error -34: Execution halted.
Line: 6
-> var docRef = app.activeDocument
Yes, painting on a new doc with multiple layers.
Are you having issues running any other scripts?
Thanks for the script its running great in CS3 and CS4 for a few days now. I passed it onto a few friends (credit to you of course) and they love it.
Yup, probably something on the system...no idea
Make "step backward" command maintain current layer selection (like the "undo" command's behavior)...
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3395997#3395997
Okay I was playing around with another script today and noticed the stepbackward script in my file menu/scripts...totally forgot about this due to the previous error.
So I select it from the menu and it works fine, but if I assign it to a keyboard shortcut that's when the error comes up...
This is a super handy script and works fine for me, thanks!
**For anyone having issues running this script via keyboard shortcuts!**
Try using a shortcut that doesn't include the Alt/Option key, as this runs scripts in debug mode when held.
For example, my shortcut was going to be Control+Option+Command+Z, but I changed it to Control+Shift+Command+Z and everything works great.
Good luck!
But am I the only one whose display flickers (showing briefly the same checkers PS uses to show transparency) when the script is called ? I'm using CS6.
That is inconvenient, especially I can't easily see what I'm un-doing !!
The flicker doesn't appear if history/back is not called from a script, so I could get around the problem with a 1st class hack :
- I mapped History/Back to a shortcut (Ctrl+Q)
- I created (well adapted actually) a C++ program that simulates a Ctrl+Q keystroke
- I replaced "executeAction" in Will's script by a call to that program.
It works but it's really messy... any ideas ??