Unable to edit the background layer

OC
Posted By
Olivia_Cucco
Oct 4, 2008
Views
265
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Hopefully someone can help, and I’m not duplicating a question previously posted.

For some time now, I’ve opened a photograph in CS3 (whereas the photograph is the background layer), and subsequently tried to use any of the tools (clone, eraser, etc) for editing with no success. Everything appears to be working properly with the tool bars, but when you click on the image to use it, nothing happens.

I thought maybe it was an issue with the layer being locked, but I’ve tried copying/pasting the image as a new layer in a new file (layer is unlocked at that point), but it still doesn’t work.

If someone can tell me what I need to do to fix this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!
Related Tags
background edit layer unable

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

C
Curvemeister
Oct 4, 2008
Three finger salute – hold ctrl-alt-shift while Photoshop starts, and reset your prefs. This fixes more problems than you can believe.
OC
Olivia_Cucco
Oct 4, 2008
Thanks..

I tried ctrl-alt-shift during startup – nothing happened. So, I went to the Edit menu and selected Preferences. Nothing in there needed to be changed. I even compared it the the Preferences set for CS3 on my laptop – exactly the same. The laptop works fine – the desktop does not.

It’s just very odd – for instance, I select the clone tool, alt-click the area I want to copy, then click the area I want it to go, and the cursor/cross-hares appear just as the should, but nothing duplicates.

Thoughts?
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 4, 2008
You have to be very quick with ctrl-alt-shift. If you don’t get a dialog you haven’t reset the preferences.

Changing them inside Photoshop is not the same.
P
Phosphor
Oct 4, 2008
Or just locate the .psp file oin Document and Settings and move it to the Trash. Restart Photoshop; and a new file is built.

However, in your case I would first look hard at the settings on the tools themselves. Or just reset the tools (upper left corner dropdown).

You don’t have a tiny selection active somewhere on the doc, do you?
P
Phosphor
Oct 4, 2008
"Or just reset the tools (upper left corner dropdown)"

See the following:
<http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b51428>
(Procedure is the same, regardless of platform…view the attached image there)
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 5, 2008
So which tool would she reset, pray? (Read the original post!)
P
Phosphor
Oct 5, 2008
The Eraser and the Clone tool were mentioned in the original post, so I would start there.
OC
Olivia_Cucco
Oct 5, 2008
Thank you! I could never get the ctrl-alt-shift to work because my computer loads the program too fast (what a shame, I know). Anyway, once the .psp file was deleted and recreated, it works fine.

Thanks again.
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 5, 2008
Once you have things how you like them, save a copy of the preferences folder in a different location, so you can copy it back if you need to to reset preferences again.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections