How to select a layer in photoshop?

Question

In Photoshop, if you choose View > Show > Layer Edges, a blue border will appear around the currently-selected layer. Is there a way to make the marquee tool select that exact area? I know I can command-click on the layer thumbnail to select all visible pixels in the layer, but is there a way to quickly get a rectangular selection that matches the layer boundaries, or do I need to manually drag the rectangular marquee tool to match the layer boundary that Photoshop is showing me?

Answer 1

IIRC, command+click on the layer in the layers panel.

Answer 2

There is not a "simple" way to do this out of the box, but if you want to select the area to copy you can make an action script with:

• Trim (Transparent pixels - same as showing boundaries of the content in the layer)
• Select All
• Shift + Ctrl + C(opy) for merged copy, or just Ctrl + C for content in the current layer.
• Revert back to before Trimming.

I created an action for you with these steps. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/f3nh0n

(remember to perform virus check on files you receive by from strangers such as a me).

Answer 3

Depending on what you need to do, I do this very often to copy a layer to a new document cropped to bounding pixels:

• Alt Click on the 'eye' of a layer to solo it.
• Cmd (command or control) + A to select all
• Cmd + Shift + C to copy everything
• Cmd + N to create new document, it will automatically create it at the right size
• Cmd + V to paste

Done.