What's that? You want to know more? You want to fill your brain till it explodes and learn exactly what all those shiny buttons do?
You can adjust the opacity of a layer with the opacity slider (Img 6c) or press 1 to 0 to change opacity from 10% to 100% respectively. You can duplicate a layer by dragging it over the new layer icon (Img 5) or delete a layer by dragging it over the trash icon (Img 5). It will ask you if you're sure and you are (unless you're not, in which case never mind) Another way to duplicate a layer is by selecting the Select>Allor Ctrl + A) and simply pasting it (Edit>Paste or Ctrl + V) but I digress.
You can select multiple layers by Ctrl or shift clicking them as you'll do with any list. Press (Ctrl + E) to combine these layers or (Ctrl +Shift + E) to combine all visible layers. The dropdown to find those can be found in the upper right of the layers window (Img 6d) and from the Layer> dropdown.
The new folder icon (Img 5) creates folders in the layer palette for organizational sake. You can drag layers into the folders created.
The mask button (Img 5) creates a mask which is a nondestructive way to delete parts of the layer. I talk about that more in Step 2 of this lesson. They're a
Layer modes are fun. They're found in the upper left of the layers window in the dropdown that reads 'Normal.' (Img 5) They allow you to have the current layer affect the layers below it in some way simply by going to the right drop down. (Img 6e)
For instance - darken darkens layers below and lighten lightens them. I talk about a few of these layer modes in my photoshop painting tutorial. My advice? Just play around till you find what you like. Darken,
Double clicking a layer in the layers palette can do different
things depending on where you click. If you double click over the title,
you can change the title. If you double click the eye 
it reads it as two single clicks, turning the visibility off and then
on again (not very useful.) Double clicking where there's nothing
written or pictured in the palette opens up the layer styles (Img 6f)
from glow to drop shadows to strokes. Sometimes I'll use stroke, but
for the most part I'd avoid using this. It looks very...photoshopy for
The link icon links layers so you can drag more then one layer around at once. You can shift and ctrl click multiple layers to get this same affect temporarily (works in both layer palette and by ctrl clicking the layers directly in the main window when is checked.)
How advanced should I get here? Let's just go over everything. You can add an adjustment layer which adjusts the layers below it (see color correction chapter for more details) To have it only affect the layer below it alt Click on the line that separates it and the layer
below when the icon changes to a double circle (pictured above).
I'll save Smart Layers, Vector Layers, Text Layers, and other fun layer types for later. For the most part, that's an exhaustive list on layers. In the next step we cover how to delete parts of a layer.
Img 6c. Opacity Slider
Img 6d. Further Layer Options
Img 6e. Layer Modes
Img 6f. Layer Styles - Mostly avoid using these.
