1.See how fast You can type!

At first just check Your skills – test Your typing speed just typing the text in the list. You can see my results, with 5 typing mistakes, 70,5 words per minute and 295,8 characters per minute. Check out how good are You!

2. A Guide To Typing Basics

Now I found this great article to get the basics and recommendations, how to type faster. Check this out before starting.

3. MyTypeSpeed

At this place You can learn how to type faster – starting from beginning – you learn how to position your hands on the keyboard and using the first five keys that a typer should learn: A,S,D, and F, and backspace until very advanced techniques – 8 lessons together. Also You can participate later in typing challenges with other users like You!

4. TypingWeb

Just signup – and You can train Your skills there completely for free. Only software You’ll ever need to learn to type fast and accurately – and this is one of the places where You can learn it!  Choose different skill levels and even content You write while practicing is engaging to keep things interested.

5. Keybr

Good looking typing software, unfortunately to get chart, custom text or text from website/blog, You must purchase premium account for 7$. Anyway as designer myself I loved this clean and light design an how letters are going black or red giving You clear overview about Your speed, errors and gives satisfaction. I surely recommend this one!

6. Fingerjig Typing Game

Fingerjig is a 6 minute game that tests your typing ability. Words are randomly chosen from a dictionary of over 70,000. You must try to type the words as quickly and accurately as you can! This game gives strange satisfaction feeling with cute design, based on flash with nice animation effects while typing.

7. Speedtest

Check out how many words and characters You can type per minute. Also scroll down and read the article learning how to decide for yourself which keyboard supports you typing the best.

8. QWERTY warriors

If You want to get more fun out of learning process, You can try this game – “shoot” the enemies typing their name, detonate them, get Your health back – I couldn’t stop playing this one for a while, game keeps forcing You to type faster and shoot more and more enemies! Fun and training – 2 in 1!

9. Typeracer

Huh, and maybe You know – I like to save the best resources to the end..:) Are You ready for competing online with other typers? I couldn’t stop playing this for an hour – I was so excited to get the first place and stay better writing real texts from movies, books, shows etc. and it’s really exciting. After the race check Your place, speed ( words per minute) and register to see all Your previous “races” and compare Your skill improvement. Return to this resource regularly and be master. My best race for now is 72 wpm and average speed is 64 wpm. Huh, sounds pretty exciting am I right? And how good are You? If this game is too hard for You then just go to previous resources and learn from the basics and don’t stop until You get master typing grade ( comparing to this game – You are megaracer if You type at least 55+ words per minute.

And now I cant wait to see Your results in the comments! This could be pretty interesting!!

Also if You know more cool games or resources to help us improve our typing skills – please share with us improving our community!

And one more fun thing – imagine You go to new design agency – You can really retain great impression as great Photoshop master, if You use those shortcuts often enough in Your workflow. I just saw my boss face when he was watching how I work – I can say – feeling was really good! :)

Notes

I will be using ‘+’ - to define two or more keyboard combinations for example – CTRL + ALT + TAB etc.

I wrote this article using Windows, so if Your are using Macintosh – CONTROL = COMMAND and ALT = OPTION

Global keyboard shortcuts

1.You can check all Your preferences pressing CTRL + K and learn more.

2. Press TAB – to show/hide tool panels;

3. Press SHIFT + TAB to show/hide only Your palette;

4. Press F repeatedly to cycle screen modes;

5. Press CTRL + TAB to switch to Your next document;

6. Press CTRL + SHIFT + TAB to switch to Your previous document;

7. Press CTRL + T to enter free transform mode;

Tip: You can scale proportionally from center Your transform by pressing and holding ALT + SHIFT, when You are dragging.

8. Press ALT + DELETE to fill the layer with foreground color or SHIFT + DELETE to fill with background color;

Tip: You can use ALT + BACKSPACE or SHIFT + BACKSPACE to fill non-transparent pixels.

9. Press X to switch foreground/background color;

10. Press D to reset foreground/background color to black/white;

Tip: You can use ALT + DELETE shortcut to fill just current selection.

11. If You work in high zoom pressing and holding SPACEBAR comes very handy by giving You hand tool to move small distance.

Also You can use it greatly with the marquee tool (or rectangle, shape tool etc.) – just start dragging on the document,  and press  SPACEBAR while holding Your mouse and move it to desired place, resize as You want it and repeat circle until You are pleased;

12. When You are working, there are lot of experimenting going on, so very handy becomes undo/redo shortcuts :

Press  CTRL + Z to undo/redo previous activity;

Press CTRL + ALT + Z to undo multiple times;

13. While working with big files, it is very important to save often (every 5-10 min) – press CTRL + S to save Your document;

14. I always use this one – press CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + S to bring up ‘save for web & devices ‘ dialog;

15. If You often use filters remember this keyboard shortcut, to repeat previous accomplished filter  : CTRL + F

16. To draw precise, symmetrical  circle or square or straight line press and hold SHIFT, while drawing it.

17. To temporarily switch to move tool while using another press CTRL + CLICK + hold you mouse

18. Open FILL dialogue by pressing SHIFT + BACKSPACE

19. You can test Your fonts easily by selecting Your text, then selecting “set font family” form and just pressing UP or DOWN buttons.

20. A always hated that I just can’t simply apply my text by pressing ENTER button..that was until I heard about some great keyboard shortcut!

So how to approve and escape text editing mode? – easy. Just press Your numeric ENTER or CTRL + ENTER

21. Increase/decrease brush size pressing  [ or ] – (left bracket or right bracket)

Toolbar

22. Use Your toolbar shortcuts to switch between tools faster!

Memorize shortcuts of tools You use the most.

You can easily see keyboard shortcut by mouseover on certain tool :

Use Your Zoom tool wisely!

23. Double click on zoom tool to zoom Your document 100% size;

Tip: You can press CTRL + ALT + 0 to get actual pixels too (100 % size)!

24. Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom in/zoom out Your document:

Zoom in – CTRL + +

Zoom out – CTRL + -

or

use Your mouse scroll wheel to zoom in/zoom out -  ALT + SCROLL WHEEL UP/ALT + SCROLL WHEEL DOWN

25.  To temporarily switch to zoom tool, while using another press:

Quick zoom in: CTRL + SPACE + CLICK

Quick zoom out: ALT + SPACE + CLICK

26. Use keyboard shortcuts CTRL + 0 to set Your image fit to window;

27. Press CTRL + W to close just Your current open document;

Palette

Note : check out  Your palette keyboard shortcuts pressing ALT + W

28. Layers menu

Note: press F7 to show/hide Your layers menu.

29. Press CTRL + SHIFT + N to create new layer with dialog box;

30. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + N to create new layer without opening dialog box;

31. Press CTRL + ALT + J to duplicate active layer with dialog box;

32. Press CTRL + J to duplicate active layer without opening dialog box ;

33. How to navigate between layers:

Mouse click on active layer and press SHIFT to select several layers:

Press and hold CONTROL to select or deselect definite layers;

34.Press CTRL+G to group selected layers in one group:

Tip: use CTRL + SHIFT + G to ungroup layers

35. Collapse or expand all groups in Your layers palette by pressing CTRL + CLICK on the group’s triangle:

36. Show/ hide Your layers by and holding Your  mouse and dragging it up/down. Repeat to do inverse action:

37. To mask layers, do this trick – hold ALT + MOUSEOVER on the line between layers:

38. Click and drag background layer to make duplicate. I suggest to use this action starting every new file:

39. Press ALT + CLICK on icon – to show/hide all layers, except active one:

40. Press CAPSLOCK to show cursor precise/standard mode;

41. Press CTRL + CLICK on layer to make selection:

42. Press CTRL + I to inverse current selection;

43. Press CTRL + D to deselect current selection;

44. You maybe knew about deselect shortcut, but did You know how to reselect previous selection? Just press  CTRL + SHIFT + D !

45. Press CTRL + E to merge selected layers or press CTRL + SHIFT + E to merge all visible layers into one;

46. If You ever wanted to make  Your text longer or little bit shorter with tracking, You can do it easy with keyboard shortcuts – so first select Your text and then press CTRL + ALT + > or CTRL + ALT + < to set wider or thinner indent.

47. You can easily change Your layer or brush opacity by just pressing number keys – 1 = 10%, 2 = 20%, 3 = 30% etc.

48. And lastly I want to provide You with great *.pdf file I found out there.

It is 4 page PDF document with ALL possible ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS3 shortcuts ! It’s great isn’t it? You can check out the list and maybe You’ll find some more great shortcuts You didn’t know about! Good luck shortcutting!

Oh, well and here is the link :