Moving selection vertically or horizontally

[ptoye]

I'm a newbie with Paint.NET, and can't find out how to move a selection parallel to the edge of the window. Have I missed something?

Given that you can draw a vertical or horizontal line by using shift-drag, would it be possible to add a shift-drag when moving as well?

Thanks - Peter

[barkbark00]

Take a look at the Align Object plugin. That is what I use.

[Myrddin]

You may also use the cursor keys on your keyboard (←↑→↓) to move the selection in one pixel increments; very good for close-pixel work, awful for larger distances.

EDIT: With ClearType (XP download, Vista built-in, IE7 built-in) active, those arrows look fantastic, I should use them more often.

[ptoye]

I don't always want it aligned, just moved. So the plugin's not a great deal of use, unfortunately.

I've been using the cursor keys to move a pixel at a time, but for more than a few it's just too much hard work, and sometimes I need several inches (so move it by the mouse and use the arrows for final adjustment)! But they eat memory as well, as all the single moves have to be remembers in case of an undo. What's needed there is (say) shift-arrow to move by (say) 10 pixels.

[Myrddin]

The bottom right-most figures of the Status Bar informs you live what the current x,y coordinates are for the cursor, and the left-most figures (when using a Move Tool) of the Status Bar notifies you live the x,y coordinates of the selection using the top left corner of said selection. Perhaps you could use these to your advantage?

A Shift + Click would be a helpful feature, but maybe instead of moving every ten pixels just have, for example, the ability to move the selection along the straight cardinal axes, this way you still have complete freedom to move any number of pixels either way. Also, this would make it very similar to the Line / Curve Tool which you referenced in your first post - ties it in nicely.

By the way, the history is written to disk so has no bearing on memory performance .

[Crazy Man Dan]

While nudging, you can hold [Ctrl] to move the selection by 10 pixel increments.

Note that [Ctrl]+[Move] also creates a duplicate of the selected area and moves the duplicate, so it is wise to select the area, switch to the Move Selected Pixels tool, hit an arrow key to lift the selection and nudge it one pixel, then hold [Ctrl] and nudge to move it by 10 until it's in the vicinity of where you want it.

[ptoye]

Thanks Crazy Man. I didn't know that, and didn't see it in the help files.

Myrddin - the numbers are very useful, but you need an extremely steady hand on the mouse!

Peter

[Myrddin]

Very true, ptoye. You could always move it in close proximity to the desired location and finish off the move by nudging using either the one or ten pixel commands. I see your point though, it would require a quite stable hold on the mouse if you plan on using it all the way.