For some strange reason, Command-J doesn’t do anything when there’s two layers or a layer group selected. Why? I realise there’s probably a decent technical reason for this, but a context sensitive “just dupe it” command would be really handy, even if it’s actually several different methods behind the scenes.
Is now a good time to mention that the Layer menu already contains an item that does most of these things, but it doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut by default? Pre-emptive strike: Assigning a keyboard shortcut wouldn’t help, as the menu item doesn’t duplicate selections within a layer (Command-J does).

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- happy
Posted 9 years ago
Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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I'll try to put something together.
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So there's already a good workaround. Just seems like it could be even better, allowing for faster workflows and less keyboard shortcuts. Less shortcuts for more ability.
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You were just asking to combine 2 shortcuts/commands into one a single command. That definitely makes sense.
If you would still find super cmd-j with a selection useful I could give you something :-)
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try{
var idCpTL = charIDToTypeID( "CpTL" );
executeAction( idCpTL, undefined, DialogModes.NO );
}catch(e){
var idDplc = charIDToTypeID( "Dplc" );
var desc172 = new ActionDescriptor();
var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
var ref3 = new ActionReference();
var idLyr = charIDToTypeID( "Lyr " );
var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" );
var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" );
ref3.putEnumerated( idLyr, idOrdn, idTrgt );
desc172.putReference( idnull, ref3 );
var idVrsn = charIDToTypeID( "Vrsn" );
desc172.putInteger( idVrsn, 5 );
executeAction( idDplc, desc172, DialogModes.NO );
}
Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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http://sites.google.com/site/davidjen...
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http://sites.google.com/site/davidjen...
A panel could be made to make new adjustment layers and automatically open their editor.
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Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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"Should be a feature" only exists after someone—either from the public or at Adobe—has suggested it.
I've been pushing for this feature for almost a year now and am very excited that maybe some day soon it'll be part of Photoshop and therefore accelerate my workflow.
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Howard Pinsky, Champion
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If you select the layers or groups you want to dupe,
you can option - drag right on the layers palette, up or down.
This will duplicate multiple layers very easily.
No script needed. Adobe is vaguely aware of this.
[Personally, I would rather this didn't work this way...
I would like a preference or documented keyboard shortcut so I could stop it!]
David Dobish, Photoshop Engineering Manager
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1. Open folder where PS is installed.
2. Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64 Bit)\Scripting\Utilities
3. Place the ScriptListener plugin into your root plugins directory.
4. Restart PS
5. Now almost every thing you do, will be written out to a file on your desktop called. ScriptingListenerJS
6. You can copy and paste the chucks of code into a seperate script to run the given function.
1. Open Extendscript
2. Paste the code into a new file.
3. save the file out as foo.JS
You now have a stand alone script.
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Why isn't there an interface to turn the ScriptListner on and off and given a name that would attract non-scripting people to try it, or a Scripts panel on par with Actions?
christoph pfaffenbichler, Champion
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Adobe provides ExtendScript Toolkit to edit and test Scripts, a Scripts Panel in Photoshop seems utterly unnecessary.
Scripting is a slightly more complicated technique than using Actions (ease of use being one of the advantages of Actions) – if you want to give Scripting a try Photoshop ships with the documentation, just check out the Folder »Scripting« beside the application.
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Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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The other aspect is, we can't implement everyone's pet feature request. Some changes that are requested are so esoteric that scripting really is the best answer to some users custom workflows.
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"Photoshop the most intuitive, user friendly and complete image editing program in the World" - not sure where that came from, but this is NOT entirely accurate.
christoph pfaffenbichler, Champion
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If certain artists don’t feel like learning to use and maintain their tools they may have high brush-related-expenses ...
»"Photoshop the most intuitive, user friendly and complete image editing program in the World" - not sure where that came from, but this is NOT entirely accurate.«
Then please do tell, which program is?
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There is NO one program that is the best at anything or does everything perfectly. Some functions are intuitive, but there are many features that are completely unintuitive. Photoshop has a Legacy of being the first, but like many other software packages is getting bloated with useless features and not refining its current workflows. It's like saying Microsoft Word is the best word processing software.
christoph pfaffenbichler, Champion
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While it is certainly possible for other programs to be the equal or superior in any one or all aspects it would seem to me that that does not at all rule out the possibility for relative superiority at all.
Comparison can be used to arrive at a ranking of the objects of said comparison, so your statement seems peculiar.
Edit: But maybe I misunderstand ...
christoph pfaffenbichler, Champion
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^ that's the extent of the code I wrote. The rest I just copied from a Photoshop plugin that spits out a chunk of code every time something.is done in Photoshop.
That doesn't make me a programmer any more than painting a few brush strokes makes me an artist.
Scripting is just another tool, and it can be used by an artist. I'm sure there are some who think artists shouldn't use a computer at all.
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Why was this left out? The command J shortcut was available from the very early versions of Photoshop to duplicate layers, it's not a recent addition. Layer "Sets" (layer called Groups) were introduced first of all I believe in Photoshop version 6. At this point it probably didn't occur to anyone to extend this functionality to Groups. And it's never been added. Just an oversight as far as I can see.
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Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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:)
Thank you everyone for requesting and coming up with a solution for the meantime
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Jeffrey Tranberry, Sr. Product Manager, Digital Imaging
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