Tips and How-Tos for Modifying the Travel Templates

From the Manual

Alter the Stroke Outlines

  • Open a template (File > Open).
  • Get the Move tool.
  • On the document, hold down the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key) and click directly on the clipping mask you’d like to alter.
  • In the Layers panel, double click on the fx icon of the active layer to open the Style Settings dialog box. (PS: Open the Layer Styles dialog box.)
  • Edit the Size and Color of the stroke and then click OK.

Apply the New Effect to the Other Layers

  • In the Layers panel, Right click (Mac: Ctrl click) on the layer whose effect you want to copy and choose Copy Layer Style.
  • Holding down the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key), click on the other clipping mask layers.
  • Right click (Mac: Ctrl click) on one of the active layers and choose Paste Layer Style.

Watch for Traveling Clipping Mask Edges

  • Some clipping masks are meant to travel off the edge of the template.
  • Doing this keeps the stroke outline from showing on the edge of the template.

Remove Clipping Masks

  • Get the Move tool.
  • On the document, hold down the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key) and click directly on the clipping mask you’d like to remove.
  • In the Layers panel, click on the Trash icon.

Resize a Clipping Masks

  • Get the Move tool.
  • On the document, hold down the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key) and click directly on the clipping mask you’d like to alter.
  • Press Ctrl T (Mac: Cmd T) to get the Transform options.
  • On the document, click and drag on the handles of the bounding box to resize the shape.
  • To reposition the shape, click and drag inside the bounding box.
  • Click the checkmark to commit.

Resize Journaling Lines

  • Get the Move tool.
  • In the Layers panel, click on the journaling lines layer.
  • Press Ctrl T (Mac: Cmd T) to get the Transform options.
  • On the document, click and drag on the side handles of the bounding box to resize the lines.
  • Do not stretch the lines vertically.
  • Click the checkmark to commit.

From the Transcript

Regardless of how many templates you have to choose from you will likely encounter times when you’ll need to adjust and or move things around. In this video I’ll show you some easy ways to make the templates work better for you.

First let's take a look at the layer style. I'll zoom in on this part of the template and if I have the Move tool, I can hold down the Ctrl key, or the Cmd key on a Mac, and click on the shape and it will be activated in the Layers panel. You can tell that this shape has an effective applied to it, because it has an effects icon (fx). If you double click on the effects icon, you'll open the Style Settings dialog box. For these templates I'd suggest that you do not add drop shadows, glows, or bevels, but you will want to go ahead and adjust the stroke to whatever you like. For example you could increase the size of the stroke to anywhere between 5 and 20 px and then you could also click on the Color Chip to open the Color Picker and choose a new stroke color. There's a dark gray. Here's a very light gray. But for the purpose of this tutorial, I’m going to go ahead and choose a red and then click OK. You will want to leave the position to inside and the opacity of the stroke set to 100%. When you're satisfied with the look, go ahead and click OK.

Now we'll want to copy that affect to all the other shape layers. To do that Right click, or Ctrl click on a Mac, on the active layer in the Layers panel and choose Copy Layer Style. Then holding down the Ctrl key, or the Cmd key on a Mac, click on the other shape layers to make them active as well. You may need to scroll in order to find all the different shape layers. Once they are active, Right click in Windows, or Ctrl click on a Mac, on one of the active layers and choose Paste Layer Style. Now when I zoom out on the template you can see that all of the shapes have the red stroke outline. 

I'll undo that change and then I'll want to remind you that when you have a template, whose shapes are traveling off the edge of the template itself, be careful that when you actually adjust those shapes that you keep the edge of the shapes off the document here's what I'm talking about. I’m going to activate this bottom shape right here, which correlates to this area right here. And if I zoom in, you should be able to faintly see the edge of the shape. If I get the Transform options, I think you'll be able to see them easier. Anyway, here's the edge of the shape on the right side. Here's the edge of the shape at the top. And here it is at the bottom. If I were to reposition the shape so that the edge of the shape is at the edge of the document now I'm going to be able to see that line and it's going to show up on my book as well and it's just going to look a little bit odd. So for that reason, you need to keep these shapes traveling just off the edge so that the stroke outline does not show. 

Also you should feel free to move any of these shapes around. For example if I have the Move tool and I want to get rid of the shape right here, all I have to do is hold down the Ctrl, or the Cmd key on a Mac, click on that shape layer, and then click the Trash icon. Now I have these two layers left.

If I want to make this one a little bit taller, again I'll a hold down the Ctrl key or Cmd key and click on that shape. It'll activate in the Layers panel. Then I can press Ctrl T, Cmd T on a Mac, to get the Transform options and I can make that any size that I want. Because these are all shape layers, and they are not rasterized or simplified, I can skew them out of place as much as I want and they are not going to lose quality.

Now the journaling lines are not shape layers, but they can still be stretched. Let me show you how I would do that. I'm going to transform this shape again to be smaller and wider. And then I'm going to hold down the Shift key to maintain the direction and move it up here to the top a little bit. Now I'm going to activate this shape and get rid of it. Now I'm going to activate the journal lines in the Layers panel and press Ctrl T, Cmd T on a Mac, to get the Transform options. And for the journal lines, they can be stretched and they're still going to look nice. What you don't really want to do is to stretch them vertically. You should only stretch them horizontally. So I will stretch them horizontally again, click the checkmark to commit, and then I have a little bit of extra up here. 

Just like I showed you in a previous video I would get rid of that the Rectangular Marquee tool. Select the part I want to keep and click on the Add Layer Mask icon. So those are some ways you can adjust the templates to work for you.

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