Different Actions - Same Result

Long ago, I had a chat with someone about the fact that there are too many different ways in Photoshop to do the same thing. He believed this was a bad thing, while I didn’t find anything wrong with it. Having thought about this afterwards, I have formed my opinion about it, with arguments.

Let’s take Word for example, and we want to copy paste something. How many ways are there to copy paste something?

• CTRL + Drag = Copy, Paste
• Right click + Drag = Copy Here
• CTRL + C, CTRL + V = Copy, Paste
• Edit + Copy, Edit + Paste = Copy, Paste
• Right click + Copy, Right click + Paste = Copy, Paste

There are 5 different ways! (maybe more, tell me)

Now, in my opinion this is a good thing, because I like CTRL+C, CTRL+V. But I know others who cannot grasp the concept of shortcuts and use the Edit menu, while someone else I know feels very comfortable dragging it with the right mouse button. In the end we all perform the same action in a way we feel ourselves most comfortable with, instead of trying to force us into only one solution.

I believe this gives a program power. Yes, you should have at least one easily accessible way of doing things (the menu), but it doesn’t hurt to have some shortcuts and right click options as well to make some others happy.

In conclusion, the fact that Photoshop has a toolbar, shortcuts, menu options and icons is very nice in my opinion, because it allows me to use whatever method I like.

How do you feel about this?