“Select forward layer” keyboard shortcut - include invisible layers

Question

Due to my non-US keyboard I've had to make an Action that maps "Select forward layer" to an F-key.

However the "Select forward layer" doesn't select invisible layers.

Is there a way to select the forward layer, despite it being invisible?

Answer 1

Assuming that by forward layer you mean top layer, you can do this with a simple script. Open your ExtendScript Toolkit (it should have installed along with Photoshop) and make a new Javascript document. Then enter:

var doc = app.activeDocument; //references current document
doc.activeLayer = doc.layers[0]; //selects the top layer

This will make the top layer visible when it's selected. If you want to keep it invisible, add the following line at the end:

doc.activeLayer.visible = false;

Save it in your Presets/Scripts folder for convenience (though it can go anywhere).

Then go into Photoshop, make a new file, start recording a new Action, then go to File > Scripts > Browse, and find your script. Opening it runs it. Once it's run, stop recording and just assign a shortcut key to the action, et voila!

If for any reason you can't find the ExtendScript Toolkit, just put the code in a blank text document and change the extension to .jsx . If you move the script file after you've recorded the action you will have to re-record it as it remembers the path.