Photoshop workflow question

Question

I read somewhere that using <ALT> + Click you can use to load alpha channels could someone verify what is the correct method ? And clipping only applies to the background layer when you apply a change to the canvas I was told but I'm unclear about this.

Answer 1

You mean to use guides? that's probably just to get reproduceable
effects so instead of dragging around until it "looks good", you drag
out a guide and then modify until your object hits that guide or
something like that. You'll probably see this in tutorials which want
to make sure that you're on the same page as them.
I'm probably going to have to go back and find that section of the tutorial regarding guides and the warp tool
The thing with Illustrator isn't that you need to save out .PDF files,
it's that when you save your .AI files you have to select the Create
PDF Compatible File checkbox otherwise you won't be able to open them
in Photoshop, Smart Objects or no. Just try to open such a file in
Photoshop, see what it tells you
I will do that, I'm just brushing up on some things with photoshop.  Many have photoshop but many cannot call themselves advanced users