Everytime there’s a new Photoshop release, I always hope that they would add new shortcut keys for certain tasks that I do way too often, such as flipping an image. But they did not for a good reason. Anyway there is a cure for this, which is very handy. In fact after using this for years, I found it hard to Photoshop (is this even a verb now?) without it.

You can assign a shortcut key using Action in Photoshop (sort of), however you are limited to the F keys (and a combination of the Shift and Control keys) only. For those new to Photoshop,  Action has been around for a while and it is essentially a recorded task. This is good for something that you do repeatedly, for instance if you have a batch of images and you want to resize them to a size and maybe for the sake of it you want to sharpen them too, then Action is for you.

With the same technique, we’re going to assign a shortcut key for a simpler task. One that I do very often is flipping an image (not to be confused with flipping a canvas). So I recorded the task, assign a key (in my case F2) and now everytime I want to flip an image, all I have to do is hit F2. No more : Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Just look at the time you save!

To those who new to Photoshop, below is the high level steps to assign a shortcut key for flipping an image vertically. If you have any question, don’t hesitate to email me.

Start by adding an object to a layer, in my case the Shiftr logo. While the “Shiftr logo” layer is selected, click on the “Create New Action” button.

A new window appears and you can tailor this to your needs. Name it accordingly (you can choose not to but let’s be organize shall we?). Leave Set to a “Default Actions” for now. For the Function Keys, assign your favorite key. I usually use the F1 to F4 keys for a more important task and the rest for less. You can combine Shift and Control too. If you have the box checked by default, that means you have to use that combination because the single key has been used for something else.

Now, hit Record, then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. The Shiftr logo is now flipped. Click on the “Stop Playing/Recording” button as it’s illustrated below.

That is it. So now to flip an image vertically, you only need to hit F2 rather than the longer route.