Today’s Question: In the past I have been able to temporarily hide selections in Photoshop using Ctrl/Command+H on the keyboard. What has happened to this helpful keyboard shortcut?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The “Hide Extras” command is still available in Photoshop, so probably the keyboard shortcut got disconnected. You can toggle the display of an active selection by choosing View > Extras from the menu. You can also activate the keyboard shortcut in the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menu dialog.
More Detail: This issue is more likely to arise on a Macintosh computer rather than on Windows, because in the MacOS operating system the Command+H keyboard shortcut is used to hide the currently active Window. However, it is possible for this (or any other) keyboard shortcut to get disconnected, such as by modifying the keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop. Fortunately, it is easy to fix this issue.
As noted above, you could simply bypass the keyboard shortcut by using a menu command, which is an option for most of the available keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop. However, that obviously isn’t always the most convenient solution.
To correct or assign a keyboard shortcut you can choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts from the menu in Photoshop. Within the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog there is a list that shows all the top-level menu commands. You can click to expand the View menu in this case and look for the Extras option below the View menu listing.
Click on the menu command that you want to assign or change a keyboard shortcut for, such as View > Extras in this example. After selecting the command, simply press the keyboard shortcut you want to assign, such as Ctrl+H or Command+H for the Show > Extras command. You can then click the OK button to apply your changes and close the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog.
Note, by the way, that in general I don’t recommend changing the default keyboard shortcut assignments in Photoshop, simply because doing so can cause confusion when you’re referencing tutorials on how to perform particular tasks in Photoshop. That said, if you prefer to change some of the keyboard shortcuts from their defaults to something that is easier to remember or more convenient, that is most certainly an option.