Temporarily Disable a Layer's Link
Shift-click on the link icon to temporarily disable linking of a given layer.
Shift-click on the link icon to temporarily disable linking of a given layer.
Although the basic rules from previous versions of Photoshop still apply, now that multiple layers can be selected at one time in Photoshop, the rules for linking layers have become a bit more complex. They are as follows:
• Selecting a layer that is linked will show the link icon on all the other layers to which it is linked.
• To unlink a single layer from a link set, simply select the layer and click the link icon. If there were other linked layers, they remain linked.
• If none of the layers selected contain linked and you click the link icon, all layers become linked - creating a new link set.
• If the layers selected contain only linked layers, regardless of whether they're all in the same link sets, clicking the link icon unlinks everything selected.
• If the layers selected contain at least some linked layers within the selection, plus any number of unlinked layers, clicking the link icon extends the link set to include the unlinked layers in the selection.
• If the layers selected contains linked layers from two or more link sets plus at least one unlinked layer, everything in the selection gets put into a "new" linked set.
• Layers can only belong to one link set at a time.
To link two or more layers, select them in the Layer's panel and click the Link icon. You can also assign a custom keyboard shortcut using the Keyboard Shortcut Editor to ass a shortcut to Link/Unlink layers. When layers are linked together, commands applied to one layer will also be applied to linked layers (when possible). This includes, moving, transforming, aligning, distributing, apply styles, etc.
Note: before Photoshop had the ability to select multiple layers, linking was more heavily utilized. Now, it is used with complex documents when multiple layers require identical changes thereby eliminating the need to have to reselect multiple layers again and again.
Clicking on the Link icon (between the layer and the mask icons in the Layers panel) will unlink the mask from the layer (allowing either to move independently of the other). Click in the empty are to relink the layer with the mask.