Layer unlock wasnt enough

GS
Posted By
George Stilley
Jul 16, 2003
Views
97
Replies
4
Status
Closed
Thanks to several for advice on how to unlock a layer that was automatically saved as a background layer, so I couldnt move around the images I had. I wish Id looked sooner! So I changed the name of the background layer and unlocked, I presume.

But!! it still wouldnt let me separate the images, so I could insert more?

Looks like ungroup should have done it, but ungroup & group were both dimmed. I’d like to know how to prevent the probs in the future.Especially since I was trying to paste images ont a background blank page(collage) and I have lots more to do.

I was using Photoshop Elements.
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R
Ray
Jul 16, 2003
George,

Did you use Paste or Paste Into ? Use Paste, that will put the image on a seperate layer.

Ray
GS
George Stilley
Jul 16, 2003
Yes I was sure I had used paste when I first put the other pics in.

Came back a day or two later & they
were locked in a background layer. Dont understand that either.
RC
Richard Coencas
Jul 17, 2003
George,

I can think of two possibilities why you would have your images be locked in a background layer. 1) What Ray said, that you are using paste into instead of paste, or 2) That you are saving your images in a file type that doesn’t support layers, like jpeg. Images you want to work on later in layers are best saved as PSD.

Rich
NS
Nancy S
Jul 17, 2003
George,

To add a thought to Rich’s comment; if you were saving your file as a jpg (which would present you with a single background layer when reopened) you could use File>Save As>scroll up .psd>rename if you desired a second version (instead of overwritting).

Jpg does not support transparency nor layers.

Nancy

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