Happy Friday, dekeItarians. Earlier in the week, I tried to convince the shortcut-averse among us—via charming anecdotes, empathy, and a smidgeon of mind control—to try out a few Photoshop shortcuts. But I know not everyone needs convincing with regard to the awesomeness of shortcuts.

For those of you who already love Photoshop shortcuts (for instance, Vectorgeek and SimonH74), today’s post is about how to download, install, and enjoy Deke’s custom shortcuts called dekeKeys for Photoshop CS6.

And now for a message from our (my) sponsor, (aka The Deke Himself):

The reason [I created custom keyboard shortcuts, aka dekeKeys]: You can work inside Photoshop more quickly and fluidly if you can access the most essential commands by pressing a few keys, as opposed to wasting precious (not to mention tedious) time hunting through menus. With dekeKeys, you can work as fast as you can think.

We’ll make these keyboard shortcuts available for free to members of dekeOnline. (If you’re not yet a member, it costs nothing and it’s easy. Just try to follow past the jump and you’ll be taken to the instructions.) For the rest of you, read on to find out how to get dekeKeys free, install them, and enjoy their efficiency engendering power:

1. Download the file here. Be sure that you download the file (it’s called dekeKeys-Photoshop-CS6.zip) to a place you can find it. Then double-click that file to expand it.
2. Go to your computer’s desktop and locate the file called dekeKeys PsCS6 1on1.kys. Right-click on that file and choose to open it in Photoshop CS6.
3. Your computer should automatically switch you to Photoshop. (If you get a message, click Save or Yes and give your modified shortcuts a name.)
4. Inside Photoshop, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.
5. The very first option, Set, should read Photoshop Defaults (modified). Assuming so, click the tiny hard disk icon (formerly a flopply disk, Yay for Adobe icons now acknowledging a post-1998 world.)

   

6. Name the new shortcuts file “dekeKeys CS6.kys.” Click the Save button to save your revised shortcuts. Then click OK to leave the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box.

dekeKeys is now installed. (And Colleen, after two years of carefully crafting sentences to avoid it at lynda.com, has actually succumbed to starting a sentence with a lowercase letter.)

To see what changes were added to your copy of Photoshop, go back to the desktop and open the dekeKeys PsCS6 1on1 Windows.htm or dekeKeys PsCS6 1on1 Mac.htm file, depending on your platform. The file will open in your default web browser. Scroll down the list. The red items show commands that Deke has enhanced, the black items remain true to the defaults.

Feel free to print the file for future reference.

By the way, Deke explains the process in video form in his Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Advanced course at lynda.com. And the good folks at lynda.com have made this particular movie sharable (just ignore the bit in the beginning if you got the file here rather than at lynda.com):

(Of course, if you like that movie and want to see more Deke, you can try out the entire course by signing up for a free week at lynda.com/deke.)

For more shortcut related goodness to enjoy this weekend, check out these bonus links:

• If you’re still using Photoshop CS5, here’s a link to the post for downloading and installing the dekeKeys file for Photoshop CS5. 
• If you shun shortcuts and looking for a tribe to bond with, check out this thread from Quora on Why People Hate Learning Keyboard Shortcuts.
• If you’re unconvinced, here’s the awesomely named Ergomemnon’s case for how keyboard shortcuts reduce RSI. 
• Want to watch more Deke at lynda but aren’t a member of lynda.com? You can sign up for a free week trial at www.lynda.com/deke.
• Want a digestible list of shortcuts to try to assimilate into your daily Photoshop life? Check out the five I mentioned in Monday’s post.

Enjoy your weekends, dekeInstructionists. Oh, and here’s the file again in case you missed it earlier.

dekeKeys-Photoshop-CS6.zip