Reordering or Restacking or Repositioning Layers

I'm afraid I don't know the correct terminology for placing a layer in a different position within the middle of the layer stack, so I tried to put all possibilities into the Subject Line. Basically what I am trying to ask is: Does anyone know of a way to reposition a layer other than manually dragging the layer up or down in the Layers palette or using the Arrange command to move a layer all the way to the top or bottom?
For instance, if you have 500 layers, and you want to reposition what I'll call Layer #350 and make it Layer #125, it takes forever dragging the layer down the stack until you run out of room in the Layers palette, using the vertical scroll bar to display more layers, dragging the layer again (and hopefully not dragging so far that it jumps back up to where it was before and where you now have a hard time finding it again), scrolling some more, dragging some more; well, you get the picture. Actually, I do this a lot, and I always wish for a Cut and Paste option. Since you can have something like 8000 layers if you have tons of memory to handle that many layers, moving a layer from the top to somewhere in the middle of 7999 other layers would be an astronomical undertaking if it has to be done by dragging alone.
Any suggestion for a quicker or more elegant way of repositioning layers within the Layers palette would be greatly appreciated.
Marilyn Lee

Chuck - I agree, the A1 really feels good to hold, even though, with an attached zoom lens, it's pretty hefty. Sure not going to put it in your shirt pocket! But I love the bright LED readout and, of course, the WYSIWYG through-the-lens focusing. I never owned a flash for this camera, but photos taken inside with available light were often quite beautiful. And at least I could always see what it was I was trying to photograph no matter how bright the day :)
Malcolm - I've never taken any slides. Certainly is a thought since my scanner is supposed to work with them.
Barbara - Thanks for the pBase tip. I followed your suggestion and searched on "Macros." Of course, I liked photos taken with the Nikon D1x and Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel, but I didn't care for the prices :). However, the Canon PowerShot Pro Series S3 IS 6MP also had some very nice user-provided macro photos on Amazon, the user reviews were highly complimentary, and I saw it priced between $350 and $400. I just got through buying a $400 printer, though, so I'll need to wait a bit before thinking about giving digital photography another shot.
Byron - Following your suggestion to give Butch's instructions another try, I did some more experimenting with Control+Clicking the Layer after Ctrl+A. I created some simple shapes with hard edges and simplified them; and, yes, with those objects, the paste was perfectly matched! I tried it again with the more complicated object I had been experimenting with earlier (a Challenge lion to which I had added a shadow), but that one didn't paste back to the exact same spot. I think the softer edges is what makes the difference. Still, I will keep this technique in mind when I need to move an object with hard edges or when moving an object that is easily moved or doesn't need precise pasting because it's really a fast technique. Thanks again, Byron and Butch, for this great solution!
Juergen -- And I tried out your suggestion of putting a large dot in both the top left corner and the bottom right corner of my complicated lion object layer, and the paste of my lion was right on!! Swiped off the dots with the eraser and it looked perfect :) Thanks so much for this great workaround!
Rita -- And last, but definitely not least, I followed your instructions to create a Duplicate Layer of my lion object layer, clicked on the layer in my original file that would follow my pasted object, and then dragged the duplicate layer from the Layer palette back into the original file. It pasted back in perfectly!! Thanks for adding your equally great workaround :)
TO ALL: Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions, comments, and participation in this topic. I am so pleased that I learned scores of new things and ended up with three great solutions to a problem I had been struggling with for a very long time!! You're a great bunch of people for taking the time to help me out :)
Marilyn

Similar Messages

In Elements 12 why can't I suddenly not reposition layers without using the layer panel?

In Elements 12 I have always been able to drag photos from the bin onto a background and easily move them or alter them simply by clicking on those photo/slayers while working on the same background without using the layer panel. A couple days ago I suddenly have to show the layer panel and click on that particular layer in the panel before I am able to move, alter, or delete a particular layer. Also, every time I open a new image or blank file to use as a background, I am suddenly working with a locked background which I don't want, and the directions to un-lock don't seem to work, if that has something to do with it. I didn't change any settings that I know of.

For editing purposes, the thrust of the program is to work in layers, and to do that it is necessary to have the layers palette in view so that the appropriate layer can be made the active layer.
The background layer is locked by default. You can probably drag the padlock to the trash can, or, do your work on a duplicate layer which will come in unlocked.
Try dragging photos from the layers palette to the work area, not up from the photobin to the work area.
Also, go to Edit>Preferences>General and be sure that "Allow Floating Documents in Full Edit Mode" is checked.

Automatically reposition layers/files in a grid by name

I've got about a hundred sets of sliced up pictures. Sliced up into roughly 80 pieces. They've been cut up in a grid fashion and then named logically & numerically by column and row. And saved to individual jpgs.
Simple enough, I can just reposition them in the one file. But that is EXTREMELY time-consuming.
Unfortunately they're not cut up like a panorama shot would be, so Photoshop's photomerge doesn't work. Because there's no overlap in the images.
So, I was wondering if anyone knows of a program or script that I could use that would reposition these images inline and perfect.

Here are some websites that have tutorials on how to use contact sheet.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&num=50&newwindow=1&q=how+to+use+photoshop+cont act+sheet&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Is there a way to combine layers into precomp AND trim them

Hi. I have a bunch of image sequences that I bring in from a 3D program. Each sequence may have a separate set of images for Shadow, Specular color, Ambient Color, Glow etc - so clip A could have several layers, each with identical length. The same would hold for each other clip.
Ideally, I would like to put all the Shadow, specular, ambient, and glow images of clip A into a precomp, and the same for clips B,C, D, and so on.
When I do this, however, the precomp suddenly occupies the whole timeline, and if I manually trim comp back to correct size, the precomp goes to beginning of the timeline and I have to mannually reposition it. This can quickly get tedious.
Is there a way to automate this process? Or something to use other than precomps that would essentially group the layers/lock them together so all the A clips function as one unit, and all the B clips as another?
Andrew Kramer (at Video Copilot.net) has a script to automatically trim compositions, but I can't figure out if there's a way to use it in this instance where I need to combine multiple layers first.
Thanks for any suggestions.

I'm not where I can look but there is a script that takes the in and out point of a bunch of layers in your Pre-comp, trims the pre-comp, then trims the pre-comp and keeps it in the right place.
I usually don't take the time to do this. Instead I set timeline markers for the in and out points of the pre-comp, then, if the comp starts getting really confusing, I'll just set an in and out point for the pre-comp rather than change the length of the pre-comp. This makes my ELAT (edit this look at that) workflow easier if I have to dive into the pre-comp to make changes.
Let me make another observation. From your description it sounds like you are trying to make too long a movie in AE. AE shines at making shots, and occasionally, making sequences. Even Pixar renders out shots and then moves those shots into a NLE to turn them into a sequence, then a scene, then a movie. When I do the kind of compositing you're doing I treat each rendered 3D shot with all of the render passes as a single composition. I render the result, and then edit the sequence in a NLE. Only on rare occasions will I do the editing of the sequence using a bunch of pre-comps as layers in AE.
Hope this helps.

How do I duplicate layers & groups without automatically adding a "copy", "copy 1", "copy #" at the end of the new group?

How do I duplicate layers & groups without automatically adding a "copy", "copy 1", "copy #" at the end of the new group?
It's been pestering me for quite a while now, since I often work with the same elements over and over again. Its frustrating to have to change the name of each layer manually, especially if I'm copying a whole group.
Is there a setting in Photoshop or perhaps an external script that can help fix this for me?
Cheers,
Qiming

There is no way to defeat this within the program itself. Here's the workaround:
Duplicate the file (from the Image menu).
Drag the Group or layers from the Layers list from the duplicate to the image window of the original , while holding down Shift.
That will make a "copyless" copy and reposition the copyed material in the exact same position it was on the original.

Replacement layers in motion

I'll try to explain this in easy terms. I open a template in motion and it has 4 different "Replace .jpg" layers where I can add my own photos? If the "Replace 1.jpg" is 720x486 in pixel size, and the photo I want to put on it is 1111x831 in pixel size, can I reposition it to show the part of the photo I want to see? ,OR Do I have to resize my original picture to 720x486 in photoshop to make it work.? I cannot figure out a way to repostion it? It would seem that if the pixel size of what you are putting on a "replace 1.jpg" layer, is bigger, you could scale it to fit or move it around to show what you want? Am I missing something?

I found it, you have to adjust the fixed width and hieght in the inspector. Playing with the crop also helps.

How to swap 2 layers in a photomerge

I have done a photomerge in PS CS6 of two birds in flight as the wings are clipped. The images merge nicely but the problem is that the blurred bird has been placed on top of the sharp bird, i.e. the top layer (bird with blurred eye) is blocking the bottom sharp bird. I have clicked and dragged the bottom layer to the higher position on the layers panel but the images do not swap positions. Please can you help with this?

fazekma wrote:
The strange thing is that I have merged the 2 images a few times (auto merge) and sometimes the sharp image is on top and sometimes the blurred image is on top and each time I do nothing different!
If I use 'Reposition' instead of auto then when I move the one layer above the other the main image does change but then I'm not able to select Edit > Auto Align layers, followed by Edit > Auto Blend layers!
Its not strange at all. When you reposition and change the stacking order the top layer area that overlaps an area of the lower layer will cover and hide the pixel on the lower layer. When you use Photomerge layer masks are added to the layers to hide pixels on that layer. Changing the stacking order of the layer with the layer mask Photomerge add may not change the composite image at all.. If you disable the two layer masks by shift clicking on the two layer mask icons in the layers palette. When you then change the stacking order you will see the same results you saw when you repositioned the layers and change the stacking order. If you want to improve the stitching done by Photomerge you need to learn how masking works and work on the layer mask that were added by Photomerge.
There are also better stitching programs then Photoshop. If you plan on doing a lot of stitching that involve many images stitch together you may want to look into these. If you ever want to do 360 spherical panoramas the logical choice of lens would be a fisheye lens. Photomerge and programs like Microsoft ICE do not even support fish eye lenses. You would need a program like AutoPano Pro or PTgui or PTAssembler, etc...
Message was edited by: JJMack

Duplicating several layers

I have created a collage (postcard) of sorts including several different text layers, a few pictures and some drawing items. I now want to copy ALL of these layers and paste it on the same project. I should be able to fit 3 of these postcards on 1 sheet of paper. How can I copy all of the layers so that I could then alter they copied layers? I seem to turn all of the layers into 1 layer when I paste them.
Any ideas??

Hi Erin,
There may be other ways of doing this, but to me it looks like you will have to
copy every layer individually. A few curbs are built in, too.
You would need to drag each layer thumbnail while holding the Shift key.
That will center everyone of them on the new background. If you need to
drag an adjustment layer, be sure to grab the thumbnail on its right side,
where the text is. This is also true for a layer that contains a layer
mask. When done with all layers, you will have to link them all, so you can
reposition them on the new background.
Finally, if you have a layer that contains an object surrounded by
transparency, that one will not center properly. You either have to
manually line it up with the rest of them (very tricky), or fill the
transparent area with some light color that you can clear out after the move
is done.
Juergen

Can Layers be given RELATIVE, rather than ABSOLUTE position

I'm having no luck finding an answer to this in HELP. I place
the layer's anchor in a table, then position the layer. If I
subsequently add (or remove) any lines above the anchor, everything
on the page moves down (or up), but the layer stays where it was,
relative to the page, not the anchor.
If there are several layers on the page this means a wholeot
of repositioning every time I do an edit up-page.
Any advice?

This may help you understand positioning a bit -
There are 4 different types of positioning:
Absolute
Relative
Fixed
Static
Here is a brief explanation of each kind of positioning (with
regard to
placement of elements on the page only)....
Position:absolute (or A/P elements)
This does several things -
1. It 'removes' the element from the flow of the code on
the page so that
it can no longer influence the size or position of any other
page element
(except for those contained within it, of course).
2. The absolutely positioned element takes its position from
the position of
its closest PARENT *positioned* element - in the
absence of any explicitly
positioned parent, this will default to the <body> tag,
which is always
positioned
at 0,0 in the browser viewport.
This means that it doesn't matter where in the HTML code the
layer's code
appears (between <body> and </body>), its
location on the screen will not
change (this assumes that you have not positioned the A/P
element within
a table or another A/P element, of course).
Furthermore, the space in
which
this element would have appeared were it not positioned
is not preserved
on the screen. In other words, absolutely positioned elements
don't take
up any space on the page. In fact, they FLOAT over the page.
Position:relative (or R/P elements)
In contrast to absolute positioning, a relatively positioned
page element is
*not* removed from the flow of the code on the page, so
it will use the
spot
where it would have appeared based on its position in
the code as its
zero point reference. If you then supply top, right,
bottom, or left
positions
to the style for this element, those values will be
used as offsets from
its
zero point.
This means that it DOES matter where in the code the
relatively positioned
element appears (, as it will be positioned in that location
(factoring in
the offsets) on the screen (this is true for any placement in
the code).
Furthermore, the space where this element would have
appeared is
preserved in the display, and can therefore affect the
placement of
succeeding elements. This means that the taller a relatively
positioned element is, the more space it forces on the page.
Position:static
As with relative position, static positions also "go with
the flow". An
element with a static position cannot have values for
offsets (top, right,
left, bottom) or if it has them, they will be ignored. Unless
explicitly
positioned, all div elements default to static positioning.
Position:fixed
A page element with this style will not scroll as the page
content scrolls.
Support for this in elements other than page backgrounds is
quirky
There are several other things you need to know:
1. ANY page element can be positioned - paragraphs, tables,
images, lists,
etc.
2. The <div> tag is a BLOCK level tag. This means that
if it is not
positioned or explicitly styled otherwise, a) it will always
begin on a new
line on the screen, and b) it will always force content to a
new line below
it, and c) it will always take up the entire width of its
container (i.e.,
width:100%).
3. The placement of A/P elements *can* affect the BEHAVIOR of
other
elements
on the page. For example, a 'layer' placed over a hyperlink
will mask that
hyperlink.
You can see a good example of the essential difference
between absolute and
relative positioning here -
http://www.great-web-sights.com/g_layersdemo.asp
You can see a good demonstration of why using layers for a
page layout tool
is dangerous here -
http://www.great-web-sights.com/g_layer-overlap.asp
Based on this, a static div (no longer a 'layer') would be
what you want.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"bwilsonduncan" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm having no luck finding an answer to this in HELP. I
place the layer's
> anchor in a table, then position the layer. If I
subsequently add (or
> remove)
> any lines above the anchor, everything on the page moves
down (or up), but
> the
> layer stays where it was, relative to the page, not the
anchor.
>
> If there are several layers on the page this means a
wholeot of
> repositioning
> every time I do an edit up-page.
>
> Any advice?
>

Reordering PriorityQueue for A* algorithm

Hi there,
I've been trying to implement an A* search algorithm in java which has been going well for the most part.
I'm using a PriorityQueue to implement the OpenList which basically has to keep the lowest cost node at the start of the queue.
However, when I dynamically change the cost of a node when it's already inside the PriorityQueue, it doesn't automatically reposition itself. Like say the lowest node with a cost of 5 is at the start of the queue. Then some other node already in the queue has it's cost changed to 4, it doesn't go to the start of the list.
Does anyone know a way of reordering PriorityQueues? Or an alternative data structure that can dynamically reorder things?
Thank you.

When looking at the PriorityQueue documentation (especially the following part):
Implementation note: this implementation provides O(log(n)) time for the insertion methods (offer, poll, remove() and add) methods; linear time for the remove(Object) and contains(Object) methods; and constant time for the retrieval methods (peek, element, and size). you see that the queue will only check for the weight of the elements when they are entered. No method is provided to rebuild the queue order directly so I think you may go with removing the element, changing the weight and adding it again.

Applying adjustment layer to a group of layers

Is there a method to apply an adjustment layer to a group of layers?
I have a curtain on one layer of a Photoshop CS4 document.
I duplicated the curtain twice and repositioned the copies.
Now I'd like to use an adjustment layer to change the color of my curtains without affecting the rest of the composition (and I can't move the curtains down to the bottom because they need to sit above other elements).
I tried grouping my 3 curtain layers together and then applygin an Adjustment Layer>hue>colorize - but that's affecting the whole composition.
And when the layers are grouped, holding ALT while hovering between the adjustment layer and the group does not bring up the special icon that lets you apply the adjustment just to the layer beneath it.
Would apprecaiate andive on how to apply an adjustment layer to a group of layers.
(I can go back and apply my adjustment to the original curtain then reduplicate and reposition, but would have to repeat that procedure every time change color preference).
Thanks?

Put your layers in a folder, and change the folders blending mode from pass through to normal. You can then put an adjustment layer on the top of the layers in the folder, and it will only affect what is in the folder.

CS4 not exporting PSD layers.

So what's the secret to exporting layers to Photoshop?
My Illustrator document has layers
My settings seem correct... (I get the same results with Maximum Editability on or off)
But it comes over as one layer...???

I've been using Illustrator since '88 and I just get super annoyed when people repond to forum problems like I just started using it last week. I'll post the file and you can look at it.
There are Illustrator team members that have been with Illustrator as long as you have been using it and they sometimes contribute ad they sometimes overlook things that are very basic, all of do so the questions are necessary in case someone had a moment where the wheels got clogged.
Everyone here is trying to help. The amount of experience someone has is meaningless if they help one solve the problem.
You might want to restack the layers in AI just for the purpose of exporting and whether that works or not would be easy enough to find out.

Why can't I move layers in Muse

According to instructions and video's I should be able "To change the stacking order, you can select a layer and drag it, to reposition it in the order of the Layers panel."
I've tried this but the layers refuse to move and this is a problem since the wrong things end up on top.
I'm using the latest version via Creative Cloudd.
Thankful for any suggestions!
Johan

Hi Johan,
Please rename the following two folders:
%appdata%\com.adobe.AdobeMuseCC.2014.0
%appdata%\Adobe\Adobe Muse CC
"%appdata%" is a shortcut that when entered at the top of a File Explorer window will go directly to the hidden AppData Roaming folder for your account on the computer.
- Abhishek Maurya

Repositioning photo in frame when printing small image to A4 paper

I'm trying to print a passport sized photograph onto a sheet of A4 photo paper, but when I resize the image, the program places it in the centre of the frame when I view it in print preview.
I would like to reposition the image, to the top left corner of the page for example, in order to save photo paper. I can't find a way to do this in iPhoto 9.5.1 or in any of the other photo apps I've downloaded form the App Store, and don't really want to shell out on Adobe Photoshop. I'm using Mavericks if that makes any difference.
Any ideas or advice would be gratefully received. Thak you in advance.

You'll need a 3rd party image editor that supports layers or you can use Pages. Open pages to a blank, letter sized page.
Drag the photo from the iPhoto window to the Pages window, resize as necessary and drag to the upper left hand corner of the page. then Print. If you have Word you can do essentially the same thing.
Some Image Editors That Support layers:
Photoshop Elements 11 for Mac - $79
GraphicConverter - $40
Rainbow Painter - $30
Imagerie - $38
Acorn - $50
Pixelmator - $60
Seashore - Free
GIMP for Mac - Free
Xee 2.1 - free

Layers wont stay put

okay, so i spent about 4 hours making this quick layout for a
friend, and i set it up as 3 mouseover buttons that show layers
over the bg with content, so its pretty much like discoordinated
dropdown content boxes. but after i placed all these layers wher ei
wanted them and everything it looked sweet. then i resized my
window for some reason or other... and all the layers were
completely out of whack! i mean it was mega lame, now im
heartbroken because of being defeated by such a small flaw, and i
need some help. I did some searches, and i heard something about
making the CSS styles "positioning:relevant" instead of Absolute. i
tried this, but it messes up the buttons, and makes them
undraggable , so i cant reposition them where i want them. plz
help

The entire site in one page makes for a very heavy page - 4
pages worth. It
makes for a page that is non-functional if javascript is not
enabled, or if
someone is using an assistive reading device. It makes for a
page that
cannot be bookmarked. And did I say the page willl be heavy?
The code I gave you works because of the nature of absolute
positioned
elements. Their position on the screen is calculated based on
the position
of their nearest positioned ancestor container. When there is
no nearest
positoined ancestor (the case when you have a page that is
entirely
constructed with layers), then the calculation defaults to
the position of
the body tag, which would be the upper left-hand corner of
the browser's
viewport. My code gives the page a positioned ancestor, but
it's one that
is positioned relatively, not absolutely (that's ahat the
div#wrapper is),
and this means that the relatively positioned div can be
centered by giving
it a width, and auto margins left and right. Since the layer
is inside the
wrapper, and since it uses the wrapper for its position
reference, and since
the wrapper is centering, the layer is also going to be
centering.
Can you follow that?
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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- Template Triage!
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"Fyx`" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> thanks alot murray that helped, but why is the "entire
site in one page"
> idea a
> bad one? the site is only going to have about 4
different pages to it in
> total
> so i figured id try to keep it inclusive. also... if im
not asking too
> much,
> could u explain why adding those tags works? sorry if im
being pestering
> im
> just eager to learn your ways ^^
>

Reordering or Restacking or Repositioning Layers

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