By its very nature Photoshop has functions that can be time-consuming. It is common sense, therefore, to seek out and utilise as many time-saving shortcuts as possible. As you laboriously remove creases from that old photo of your great grandmother, having nifty short cuts and keystrokes at hand can save time and effort. So here are some ways you can get the most out of this superb application without having to disturb that sleeping mouse.

If you want to increase or decrease a numerical value, for example a font size, there are various quick ways you can do this. For a mouse-free way, select the numerical value you wish to change and use the up and down arrow keys to increase or decrease the font size. To speed up the operation you can hold down the Shift key and the numerical value will change in increments of 10.

A similar shortcut can be applied to the Move tool without resorting to the mouse. Press V to get the tool up and then use the Arrow Keys to make the Move tool move. This will move the selection in your chosen direction in increments of a single pixel, but if you want to move a little quicker then the reliable old Shift key will push things along ten pixels at a time.

You can undo a modification with the keystrokes Ctrl + Z. Pressing this combination a second time will have the effect of clicking the redo button. Pressing the combination repeatedly allows you to see if the modification is an improvement or not as you switch between the two images rather like those toggles on televised football games that ascertain whether or not a player was offside.

Have you ever been working on an image that is magnified so greatly you don't know where you are? Instead of constantly zooming in and out you can navigate around the image by using the following:

Home Key: This will take your view to the top right hand corner of the image.
End Key: This will take your view to the top left hand corner of the image.
Page Down Key: This will move the view one full screen down.
Page Up Key: This will move the view one full screen up.
Ctrl + Page Down: This will move the view one screen to the right.
Ctrl + Page Up: This will move the view one screen to the left.

These shortcuts are really useful for regaining lost bearings when you are right in among the pixels.

And finally, if you have a number of documents open and you need to find a certain one a quick way to flip through them is to press Ctrl + Tab repeatedly and this will go through all of your open documents.

These are just a few of the many shortcuts that Photoshop has that allow you to keep working without constantly switching between mouse and keyboard. Although switching does not eat up a lot of time as such, the constant interruption can break the flow and so you should incorporate as many such shortcuts as possible into your Photoshop repertoire. Professional training in the use of Photoshop would enable you to become so proficient in the use of keyboard shortcuts that your mouse would be almost redundant.