Revealed Photoshop Secrets

1) If you hold down ALT+CTRL+SHIFT (Mac: CMD+OPT+SHIFT) while starting Photoshop you can reset all the Photoshop settings back to factory default. Very usefull if you have problems with some tools or the interface.

2) One of my favorites. ALT+Click on the “eye” icon in the layer’s palette to hide all other layers.

3) Do you have trouble to find the cursor when you work with large canvases?
Simply press the spacebar and you’ll see the hand icon where the cursor is located.

4) When you are applying a “drop shadow” layer effect, try to leave open the dialog box.
You’ll be able to move the shadow with a simple drag and drop.

Photoshop Tool Secrets

1. Quickly Access Related Tools

1. Hold alt and click on a particular tool’s icon to toggle related tools.

2. The Move Tool

1. Hold CTRL to access the Move tool at anytime.

18 Useful Photoshop Shortcuts

Simple Photoshop Shortcut Commands

• H (Hand Tool) — When zoomed in to a portion of your photo, this command brings up the hand tool which allows for quick panning. Also, if the hand tool is active and you hold down the Ctrl key, you can zoom in without changing to the zoom tool. Likewise, if you hold down the Alt key, you can zoom out without changing tools.

Photoshop Secret Shortcuts

It is proven that by using software shortcuts can boost up productivity. Here are 30 secret Photoshop shortcuts that I've learned from years of experience. Well, what I mean by "secret" is that these shortcuts are not documented in the menus. Keep reading and you will find how these shortcuts can speed up your productivity. I bet you don't know all of them.

Note: this article is written in Mac Photoshop format. If you are using PC, Cmd = Ctrl and Opt = Alt.

Working with Palettes

In order to show a palette in your workspace, go to the “Window” menu, then choose the palette you want to display, in this case, the “Swatches” palette.

Now, go to the top right of the palette, where a small “menu arrow” is, and click that arrow to open the menu.

Stone Text Effects

This tutorial will explain how to create a stone-like texture using some filters, and a beveled style to place the texture on, in order to create a nice old-looking stone text effect.

The Final Result:

Notes:

* the software used in this tutorial is Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
* the size of the final result image is 1024 * 768

How to Create Symmetrical Abstraction

This Photoshop tutorial explains how to make a very beautiful abstraction. Every time you follow this tutorial results will be completely different but always very beautiful.

Final Image Preview

Photoshop Tool Basics

A quick summary of Photoshop’s Tools palette with a description of each tool’s functions and shortcuts. Great for those brand new to Photoshop.

I decided to start at the beginning. The very beginning. For those people who just “picked up” a copy of Photoshop and have no idea what to do with it. The keyboard shortcut is in ( ).

Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)
Use this tool to make selections on your image, in a rectangular shape. This changes the area of your image that is affected by other tools or actions to be within the defined shape. Holding the [Shift] key while dragging your selection, restricts the shape to a perfect square. Holding the [Alt] key while dragging sets the center of the rectangle to where your cursor started.

Simple Fireflies Text Effect

In this tutorial, we will be using one of the Photoshop CS5 new painting brushes to create a firefly-like text, and then apply some glow to make it shine!

The Final Result:

3D Textured Text Effect

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can make a stylized 3D textured text effect using various textures to give it a unique look with Illustrator & Photoshop. I will be giving you the step by step instructions along with the links to the resources & stuffs used.

Preview of Final Results

3D Textured Text Photoshop Tutorial

Table Joins - XVI

Table Joins

All of the queries up until this point have been useful with the exception of one major limitation - that is, you've been selecting from only one table at a time with your SELECT statement. It is time to introduce you to one of the most beneficial features of SQL & relational database systems - the "Join". To put it simply, the "Join" makes relational database systems "relational".

Joins allow you to link data from two or more tables together into a single query result--from one single SELECT statement.

A "Join" can be recognized in a SQL SELECT statement if it has more than one table after the FROM keyword.

For example:

SELECT "list-of-columns"

FROM table1,table2

WHERE "search-condition(s)"

Joins can be explained easier by demonstrating what would happen if you worked with one table only, and didn't have the ability to use "joins". This single table database is also sometimes referred to as a "flat table". Let's say you have a one-table database that is used to keep track of all of your customers and what they purchase from your store:

id	first	last	address	city	state	zip	date	item	price

Everytime a new row is inserted into the table, all columns will be be updated, thus resulting in unnecessary "redundant data". For example, every time Wolfgang Schultz purchases something, the following rows will be inserted into the table:

id	first	last	address	city	state	zip	date	item	price
10982	Wolfgang	Schultz	300 N. 1st Ave	Yuma	AZ	85002	032299	snowboard	45.00
10982	Wolfgang	Schultz	300 N. 1st Ave	Yuma	AZ	85002	082899	snow shovel	35.00
10982	Wolfgang	Schultz	300 N. 1st Ave	Yuma	AZ	85002	091199	gloves	15.00
10982	Wolfgang	Schultz	300 N. 1st Ave	Yuma	AZ	85002	100999	lantern	35.00
10982	Wolfgang	Schultz	300 N. 1st Ave	Yuma	AZ	85002	022900	tent	85.00

An ideal database would have two tables:

1. One for keeping track of your customers
2. And the other to keep track of what they purchase:

"Customer_info" table:

customer_number	firstname	lastname	address	city	state	zip

"Purchases" table:

customer_number	date	item	price

Now, whenever a purchase is made from a repeating customer, the 2nd table, "Purchases" only needs to be updated! We've just eliminated useless redundant data, that is, we've just normalized this database!

Notice how each of the tables have a common "cusomer_number" column. This column, which contains the unique customer number will be used to JOIN the two tables. Using the two new tables, let's say you would like to select the customer's name, and items they've purchased. Here is an example of a join statement to accomplish this:

SELECT customer_info.firstname, customer_info.lastname, purchases.item

FROM customer_info, purchases

WHERE customer_info.customer_number = purchases.customer_number;

This particular "Join" is known as an "Inner Join" or "Equijoin". This is the most common type of "Join" that you will see or use.

Notice that each of the colums are always preceeded with the table name and a period. This isn't always required, however, it IS good practice so that you wont confuse which colums go with what tables. It is required if the name column names are the same between the two tables. I recommend preceeding all of your columns with the table names when using joins.

Note: The syntax described above will work with most Database Systems -including the one with this tutorial. However, in the event that this doesn't work with yours, please check your specific database documentation.

Although the above will probably work, here is the ANSI SQL-92 syntax specification for an Inner Join using the preceding statement above that you might want to try:

SELECT customer_info.firstname, customer_info.lastname, purchases.item

FROM customer_info INNER JOIN purchases

ON customer_info.customer_number = purchases.customer_number;

Another example:

SELECT employee_info.employeeid, employee_info.lastname, employee_sales.comission

FROM employee_info, employee_sales

WHERE employee_info.employeeid = employee_sales.employeeid;

This statement will select the employeeid, lastname (from the employee_info table), and the comission value (from the employee_sales table) for all of the rows where the employeeid in the employee_info table matches the employeeid in the employee_sales table.

Mathematical Functions - XVI

Mathematical Functions

Standard ANSI SQL-92 supports the following first four basic arithmetic operators:

+	addition
-	subtraction
*	multiplication
/	division
%	modulo

The modulo operator determines the integer remainder of the division. This operator is not ANSI SQL supported, however, most databases support it. The following are some more useful mathematical functions to be aware of since you might need them. These functions are not standard in the ANSI SQL-92 specs, therefore they may or may not be available on the specific RDBMS that you are using. However, they were available on several major database systems that I tested. They WILL work on this tutorial.

ABS(x)	returns the absolute value of x
SIGN(x)	returns the sign of input x as -1, 0, or 1 (negative, zero, or positive respectively)
MOD(x,y)	modulo - returns the integer remainder of x divided by y (same as x%y)
FLOOR(x)	returns the largest integer value that is less than or equal to x
CEILING(x) or CEIL(x)	returns the smallest integer value that is greater than or equal to x
POWER(x,y)	returns the value of x raised to the power of y
ROUND(x)	returns the value of x rounded to the nearest whole integer
ROUND(x,d)	returns the value of x rounded to the number of decimal places specified by the value d
SQRT(x)	returns the square-root value of x

For example:

SELECT round(salary), firstname

FROM employee_info

This statement will select the salary rounded to the nearest whole value and the firstname from the employee_info table.

IN & Between - XV

SELECT col1, SUM(col2)

FROM "list-of-tables"

WHERE col3 IN 
       (list-of-values);

SELECT col1, SUM(col2)


FROM "list-of-tables"

WHERE col3 BETWEEN value1 
AND value2;

The IN conditional operator is really a set membership test operator. That is, it is used to test whether or not a value (stated before the keyword IN) is "in" the list of values provided after the keyword IN.

For example:

SELECT employeeid, lastname, salary

FROM employee_info


WHERE lastname IN ('Hernandez', 'Jones', 'Roberts', 'Ruiz');

This statement will select the employeeid, lastname, salary from the employee_info table where the lastname is equal to either: Hernandez, Jones, Roberts, or Ruiz. It will return the rows if it is ANY of these values.

The IN conditional operator can be rewritten by using compound conditions using the equals operator and combining it with OR - with exact same output results:

SELECT employeeid, lastname, salary

FROM employee_info

WHERE lastname = 'Hernandez' OR lastname = 'Jones' OR lastname = 'Roberts'
OR lastname = 'Ruiz';

As you can see, the IN operator is much shorter and easier to read when you are testing for more than two or three values.

You can also use NOT IN to exclude the rows in your list.

The BETWEEN conditional operator is used to test to see whether or not a value (stated before the keyword BETWEEN) is "between" the two values stated after the keyword BETWEEN.

For example:

SELECT employeeid, age, lastname, salary

FROM employee_info
 
WHERE age BETWEEN 30 AND 40;

This statement will select the employeeid, age, lastname, and salary from the employee_info table where the age is between 30 and 40 (including 30 and 40).

This statement can also be rewritten without the BETWEEN operator:

SELECT employeeid, age, lastname, salary

FROM employee_info

WHERE age >= 30 AND age <= 40;

You can also use NOT BETWEEN to exclude the values between your range.

Conditions & Operators - XIV

Combining Conditions & Boolean Operators

The AND operator can be used to join two or more conditions in the WHERE clause. Both sides of the AND condition must be true in order for the condition to be met and for those rows to be displayed.

SELECT column1, 
SUM(column2)

FROM "list-of-tables"


WHERE "condition1" AND 
"condition2";

The OR operator can be used to join two or more conditions in the WHERE clause also. However, either side of the OR operator can be true and the condition will be met - hence, the rows will be displayed. With the OR operator, either side can be true or both sides can be true.

For example:

SELECT employeeid, firstname, lastname, title, salary


FROM employee_info

WHERE salary >= 50000.00 AND title = 'Programmer';

This statement will select the employeeid, firstname, lastname, title, and salary from the employee_info table where the salary is greater than or equal to 50000.00 AND the title is equal to 'Programmer'. Both of these conditions must be true in order for the rows to be returned in the query. If either is false, then it will not be displayed.

Although they are not required, you can use paranthesis around your conditional expressions to make it easier to read:

SELECT employeeid, firstname, lastname, title, salary

FROM employee_info

WHERE (salary >= 50000.00) AND (title = 'Programmer');

Another Example:

SELECT firstname, lastname, title, salary FROM employee_info WHERE (title = 'Sales') OR (title = 'Programmer');

This statement will select the firstname, lastname, title, and salary from the employee_info table where the title is either equal to 'Sales' OR the title is equal to 'Programmer'.

ORDER BY clause - XIII

ORDER BY is an optional clause which will allow you to display the results of your query in a sorted order (either ascending order or descending order) based on the columns that you specify to order by.

ORDER BY clause syntax:

SELECT column1, SUM(column2) FROM "list-of-tables" ORDER BY "column-list" [ASC | DESC];

[ ] = optional

This statement will select the employee_id, dept, name, age, and salary from the employee_info table where the dept equals 'Sales' and will list the results in Ascending (default) order based on their Salary.

ASC = Ascending Order - default

DESC = Descending Order 

For example:

SELECT employee_id, dept, name, age, salary FROM employee_info WHERE dept = 'Sales' ORDER BY salary;

If you would like to order based on multiple columns, you must seperate the columns with commas. For example:

SELECT employee_id, dept, name, age, salary


FROM employee_info

WHERE dept = 'Sales'

ORDER BY salary, age DESC;