Tips And Tricks For Loading Files in Photoshop

I was browsing the web the other day and looking at some scrapbooking tutorials. Although I have been digital scrapbooking for about 4 years, I don’t consider myself a ‘master’ at and I’m still eager to learn new things.

So I noticed a tutorial video about loading files into Photoshop and I was shocked at how difficult they made it! They were dragging files into other files, to add layers and I found it so frustrating to watch that I clicked the video away and started on this tutorial for you.

In this Master Monday we’re going back to the basics.

How do you simply add new files (photos, papers, elements alphas) into your PSD document?
Plus I’m gonna talk about a simple trick to load multiple files into a layered stack.

Open up your Photoshop and create a new file by clicking File > New.

Make sure you enter the right measurements for your layout, I always scrap on a 12×12 ‘sheet’.

Since I’m European I don’t usually use inches. Yes, I have made the mistake of entering the measurements in centimeters instead of inches. A 12×12 inch sheet is a little bigger then 30×30 cm so there is a big difference in scrapping in inches or centimeters! I usually find out about my mistake when I’m adding shadows or papers.

To add a layer to your PSD file, click on File > Place and browse to wherever you need to go to select the file you want. Select it and click on place.

(fast forward to an already started layout)

The file will open exactly in the middle of your layout and you can just simply drag it around.

Whenever I want to add a title, I always dread selecting all of the individual alpha files. Sometimes I use the alpha sheet instead, but it’s not always provided.

What you can do, is open all of the alpha files in a stack and then drag all of those files into your layout. To do so, click on File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack.

Click Browse and use the shift key to select all of the files you want. Click Open and then Ok.

What will happen, is all the files that you have selected will be opened and then will form into one multilayer file. This may take a few seconds, depending on how many files you selected and how big they are.

Now, let’s select all layers and drag it into your layout. First I drag the multilayer file down so that I will not be stuck to the taskbar anymore.

Now select all the layers and drag it into your layout that is visible in the background. And that’s it! Simply arrange the files where you want them to.

You can also start with a lot of files that you already know you’re gonna use and open all of them up into stack. Make sure you select a clean 12×12 inch worksheet and you can start scrapping right away because it’s all there.

So that’s it for today!

I hope you have found something useful or maybe you have a trick to show us? If so, please let us know by leaving a comment. Also know that we would love to know what you want us to help you with. So if you have a question, if you want us to help teach you something: please let us know and we will get working on it!

Oh and here is my finished layout!