johnish

Thank you. But I don’t think you are addressing the basic question of how I can use the program in a reasoned manner. Firstly, I describe my further efforts and outcomes. I have been careful to record exactly what I did and what happened. 1. I opened my background image and resized it. 2. I copied my Layer 2 image and pasted it into a new layer. 3. I resized and moved the Layer image (dragging corners). 4. I brought the Background layer to the top and had it as the only one activated. According to the manual, this should select it. But I couldn’t do anything with it, whereas the deactivated (and therefore supposedly not amenable to editing) layer could be edited in all sorts of ways. 5. I did what you suggested in this situation, deselecting with Ctrl + d. I was then able to resize it by dragging its corners and to edit eg its brightness. So far, so good. 6. I next brought Layer 2 the top and made it the only layer activated and applied Ctrl + d, just as I had done to get the Background layer activated. But I couldn’t do anything with layer 2. Only the deactivated Background layer could be changed. 7. I made the Background layer active, then deselected it with Ctrl + d. Then I made the background layer inactive. Layer 2 was still active. I could now move Layer 2 and edit it in all sorts of ways - brightness, sharpen, black and white, crop, change colour, etc. But I couldn’t resize it by dragging on the corners. 8. I then thought that I could change its size with the zoom tool, and I could but it does it in large steps so it’s not so helpful as dragging the corners. Further, I then found I couldn’t zoom out - is there supposed to be a zoom out function? Nor would Undo restore it to its former size - or reverse anything else. Nor would it let me do anything else. I was stuck. I used Ctrl + d, but was still stuck. End of session. You say this is how editing programs work, but I don’t know what you mean by this. Presumably the manual is supposed to tell you how it works, but I can’t predict what’s going to happen from what it says. And now I’ve used exactly the same steps to get each layer editable and it worked for one but not entirely for the other. How could the greater experience you champion help with this - the experience will help only if it’s successful, and success needs helpful guidance.

Thanks. I was able to darken the original layer after deselecting the dotted line area with "Edit - Deselect" . But how can one think intelligently about this if one layer is activated and top of this layers list but you can't edit it because a layer at the bottom of the list and deactivated interferes. The instruction manual seems to be telling me that deactivating a layer deselects it, and I could make sense of that. It doesn't tell me to deselect in any other way. Do I have to remember arbitrary procedures not in the manual in order to do anything? I tried to attach a JPEG again and it worked. I don't think I did anything different from last time - attaching files is a pretty standard procedure. Another point - why do files have to be so tiny to allow attachment? John Presland

Thank you for your suggestions. I had already done these things without success. However, I tried again and got something different again.It seems totally unpredictable. This is what happened on this occasion. 1. I opened a Background layer. 2. I pasted in a second image as Layer 2 and decreased its size. 3. I disabled Layer 2 and enabled Background and moved it to the top. A dotted line appeared showing where Layer 2 had been. Why? What purpose does it serve? 4. I was able to move the area within the dotted line separaterly from the rest, leaving a checkerboard pattern exposed. It was a part of the background image which moved. Why? What purpose does it serve? 5. With Layer 2 inactive, and the background active and at the top, I tried to darken background. The only area darkened was the area which was occupied by the image in Layer 2 and then by the dotted line. I tried to illustrate this by attachments. I tried a Word document with screenshots in it and then I tried the screenshots as individual JPEGs. Each time I was told I wasn't allowed to upload this kind of file. What other kind is there? They were all within the size limit. So the forum doesn't work properly either. John Presland

Thank you for your suggestions. I had already done these things without success. However, I tried again and got something different again.It seems totally unpredictable. This is what happened on this occasion. 1. I opened a Background layer. 2. I pasted in a second image as Layer 2 and decreased its size. 3. I disabled Layer 2 and enabled Background and moved it to the top. A dotted line appeared showing where Layer 2 had been. Why? What purpose does it serve? 4. I was able to move the area within the dotted line separaterly from the rest, leaving a checkerboard pattern exposed. It was a part of the background image which moved. Why? What purpose does it serve? 5. With Layer 2 inactive, and the background active and at the top, I tried to darken background. The only area darkened was the area which was occupied by the image in Layer 2 and then by the dotted line. I tried to illustrate this by attachments. I tried a Word document with screenshots in it and then I tried the screenshots as individual JPEGs. Each time I was told I wasn't allowed to upload this kind of file. What other kind is there? They were all within the size limit. So the forum doesn't work properly either.

I open a background picture then paste in am image as a new layer. I can then edit the new layer, but not the background. It makes mo difference if I highlight in the background in the Layers palette - it still can't be edited. I then add a layer and paste an image into it. I can edit this new layer, but I can no longer edit the first layer. Is this right? The instructions give the impression that you can change any layer to be the active layer, which presumably means I can edit any layer at any time. John Presland

I can't get paintbrush and pencil to work I select a colour on the colour wheel and the hold down Ctrl and move the cursor and absolutely nothing happens. I did it successfully at my first attempt last week and don't think I'm doing anything different. Your forum suggests resetting tools but I can't see how to do this the place suggested for doing it seems not to exist. - there's nothing between file/edit and Tool. John Presland