Lou3000

Ooh, now then. I went back to my cow picture and noted that there were two layers showing in the box. (What are layers for?). Within the layer box was the file entitled Highland Cow and this was ticked and then another box underneath called Background and this was ticked. Unticking the background brought up a sort of checkered background but other than that I still couldn't use the clone tool. But when I ticked "add another layer" this bought up another box (unticked) entitled 'Background' and I discovered I am able to use the clone tool again. As I said, I am a complete novice and think perhaps one does need a certain degree of knowledge when using paint.net to get the best out of it. The Help pages are not the most clear I've used. Actually, it was only by discovering a video on youtube on how to use the clone tool on paint.net that I understood what to do! But thanks for your help, everyone, most appreciated! *hands round the last of the chocolate cake* :wink:

Okay *hands the plate of chocolate cake round again* What I meant by "locked" was just that I am unable to modify the photo at all. I click the mouse but nothing is working. I did the following things once I'd finished editing the photo of my Highland cows yesterday: From the Paint.net screen, I went to File. Selected 'Save As' and saved as 'HighlandCowsSample' (the save as type was paint.net pdn) The file was saved to 'My Pictures' When I opened Paint.net again today to re-edit, I did the following: Went to File/Open/My Pictures/Highland Cows/ Under "Files of Type" I selected Paint.net pdn The nice photo of the pretty cows came up onto my paint.net screen I selected the clone tool to continue modifying but it was then I discovered that although I could select the tool, when I tried to put it to work on the picture it didn't 'work'. I clicked Ctrl etc and although I could see that little circle 'flashing' nothing else happened. I am not able to 'clone' anything on the picture at the moment. As I mentioned, I opened another picture from 'My pictures' to test everything and I had no problem editing that one. Aaaagh! I'm drowning!

Whoa...saving as a PDN file doesn't preserve the history...it preserves the layers you've created. It's usually good practice to save in this format, for two reasons: a) It saves the layers you've created and all the settings created along with those You don't overwrite your original file, which it looks like you did. Hope that helps! Erk! Technospeak! Using the file menu, what I did was "Save as" and gave my photo a name like "Photo1 Sample" assuming I could just extract it from the file I saved it in to start work on again - but it's like it's 'locked' and won't allow me to work any more on it. I was just practicing anyway (albiet that I was working on it for hours!) so no big deal if I have to start over but for future reference, how should I save something which I want to work on later? Could someone tell me in basic language and basic steps so I understand! ? *hands round chocolate cake as a bribe*

Hi, I am very, very new and also a complete novice to paint.net. I had some success yesterday whilst editing a photo using the clone stamp. However, when I went back today and reopened the photo for further modification, I found I couldn't do so. I uploaded a fresh photo, one I'd never worked on, and found I could edit that fine. Is there something I'm not doing - or failed to do when I saved my first photo initially - that I should be doing? Ta, in advance. :?