When you are creating layouts, do you find yourself duplicating kit elements to use on your page? This is something I think we all find ourselves doing, especially when creating clusters and/or borders.  Today let’s look at 3 different ways to quickly and easily duplicate layers.

Today I am using Photoshop CC2015. Test these techniques on your own version of Photoshop and/or Photoshop Elements to see how they work for you.

In this example of a Chart Your Course cluster, a single flower has been duplicated and used twice.  It would be too time-consuming to go to File > Open, and navigate to the element within our folder structure each time we wanted a copy of this flower. This is a great time to use shortcuts.

In the image below, you can see that the “leaf1” has been duplicated and used twice within this cluster.

Here are my 3 favorite ways to duplicate layers:

Method 1: Click on the layer you would like to duplicate in order to select it.  Hold down the Control key, and hit “J” on the keyboard. A copy will be created. The copy will be placed directly on top of the original element; just select the copy and move it where you would like it to be.

Method 2:  Hold down the ALT key. Click on the layer you would like to duplicate in order to select it. While holding down your mouse button, drag the layer up. When you reach the line between your original layer and the layer above it, let go of your mouse button, and the layer will be duplicated.

Method 3: (Easiest, I think!) Hold down the ALT key, click on the element within your document, and drag it away from the original element. A copy will be created.

If you are a visual learner, you can watch this tutorial in action on my  Karen Schulz Designs YouTube Channel.

I hope you find these shortcuts helpful!