Help with CS2

[Bob Singleton]

I am trying to draw a circle in Photoshop.

This should be a simple task (and would have been in my old copy of PSP that I lost when my laptop's HDD gave up the ghost), but thanks to a learning curve steeper than the Mattahorn and an interface that doesn't know the meaning of the word "intuitive", I am at a loss as to how to do this.

I have looked in both the user guide/instruction book and in the help files and have gotten nowhere!

I am told to select the elliptical marquee tool in the tool box... except there isn't an elliptical marquee tool in the tool box!!!

When I type "elliptical marquee tool" in the help files it just tells me that if I want to draw a circle that's the tool to select... but it doesn't tell me where the fuck it's hiding!!!! !furious!

Can anyone help?

[Jacques]

Elliptical Marquee Tool et al

[Bob Singleton]

Thanks!


Patience ran out so I found a web site with road traffic signs and used a 30mph sign as a template!

[Officer Dibble]

It's in the top left square of the vertical toolbox that sits at the top left of your screen. Click on the top left square (the default icon is the rectangular marquee) and you will be show a range of marquee options, one of which is the elliptical marquee. Mouse down the options to select it. Then click on your canvas, hold the mouse down, and drag out an ellipse. Release the mouse and you will be left with an elliptical line of 'marching ants'. You then go up to the Edit menu - top left of your screen, second one along from the Photoshop menu, and mouse down to the 'Stroke' option. Release the mouse and, from the resulting dialogue box, select the width and colour of the defining boundary that you require. Click OK.


Officer Dibble - He's got form with Photoshop.

[Bob Singleton]

Thanks Officer Dibble... it's great when you know where it is!!!

Sadly the help files don't say anything about the rectangular marquee tool providing a menu to further marquee tools!

I've sorted it all out now... but I've also ordered PSP (which I've used for over 7 years in various forms and versions)... I can't be bothered trying to learn a program that can't be arsed to provide decent litterature and help files (typical of Adobe, I'm afraid... and the saddest news is they've bought Macromedia, so god-knows how crap Dreamweaver will now become. DW8 was hardly an improvement over MX 2004, and with Adobe at the helm I can see future DW versions become ever more unwieldy at ever higher prices! I yearn for the simple usability of SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro... sadly no longer available)

[DanG]

If you can get one on the cheap of Ebay or Amazon, I'd suggest Adobe's 'Classroom In A Book' series...it's infinitely more useful than the instruction manual!