Photoshop Elements 3: The Missing Manual

Select

This menu lets you make, modify, and save selections in your image. See Chapter 5 for more about selections.

All

This selects your entire image. Press Ctrl+A (⌘-A) to do the same thing.

Deselect

This removes all selections from your image. From the keyboard, press Ctrl+D (⌘-D).

Reselect

If you apply the Deselect command, but then want your selection back again, choose this or press Shift+Ctrl+D (Shift-⌘-D).

Inverse

Choosing this command switches the selected and unselected areas of your image. The area that wasn't previously selected is now selected, and the previously selected area is now unselected. The keyboard command is Shift+Ctrl+I (Shift-⌘-I).

Feather

Feathering blurs the edges of a selection. See page 106. Pressing Alt+Ctrl+D (Option-⌘-D) brings up the same dialog box.

Modify

These commands let you change the size or edges of your selection. They're all explained in Chapter 5.

• Border selects the edge of your selection (page 117).

• Smooth rounds the corners of rectangular selections (page 117).

• Expand moves the edge of your selection outward (page 117).

• Contract moves the edge of your selection inward (page 117).

Grow

This expands your selection to include more contiguous areas of similar color. See page 117.

Similar

This also expands your selection to include more areas of similar color, but Similar doesn't restrict the growth areas to only contiguous areas the way Grow does.

Load Selection

If you have saved a selection, choose this command to use it again.

Save Selection

If you ...