Try deleting the Elements Preference folder.
With Elements closed, click on the start up icon and then make a quick grab for (Win) Control, Alt, and Shift keys (Mac) Command, Option, and Shift. Hold all three down until you get a screen asking if you want to delete the Settings. Say Yes. The Preference folder will rebuild as Elements continues to launch, and everything will then be reset to the defaults that were in effect when the software was first loaded.
This is a great "trick" to keep in mind whenever a tool stops responding properly, and the usual course of resets doesn’t fix the problem.
ya, i had to delete mine earlier today. Been a long while since I’ve done it and from what I remember it was for the same reason as last time…the type tool…when clicking on the screen I get the dreaded blood mask and no my image was not in index mode.
Thanks, that worked fine for the first crop, but as soon as I try to change the crop tool (manually now, by clicking in the box and deleting "10 in" in one box and manually entering the dimension into the other box, I’m back to square only crop.
Any other ideas…I hate to re boot every time I want to re-crop a photo.
Thanks again,
John Dixon
John,
I was able to repro your problem of the 10×10 sticking, but when I reset the tool it went away. Try clicking on the icon of the tool on the left side of the tool’s options bar and choosing reset tool or reset all.
I know your initial post says you tried resetting, but just making sure we are talking about the same thing.
Edit: There is a clear button on the options bar as well. Clicking that solves the problem as well.
Rich
Rich,
I think we’re on the same page, but the reset tool on the left works like the clear button on the right, resulting only in the ability to crop the photo as long as I don’t set a dimension in either the width or height box. Inputting a dimension sends me back to the locked up square crop.
I’ve been on the phone several times with Adobe and they’re working with me on the problem. I’m waiting for a call from level two support so they can decide if this is a bug and. of so, what to do about it. The best guess at this point is that it may be a bug that corrupts the operating system. Be cautious about replicating the problem. If anyone else experiences the problem, a clean install of you OS may be in order.
Thanks for the suggestions…I’ll post any resolutions here.
John Dixon
In the meantime, use the Rectangular Marquee tool for your cropping. You can do almost exactly the same thing, the biggest difference being it doesn’t impact the resolution of your image file in any way. I prefer it myself, as do several other people on the forum.
Found a temporary resolution to this apparent bug with the aid of a helpful Adobe support person on the phone.
If crop tool gets locked up, enter your desired dimension into the height or width box and enter "0" (zero) into the other. Attempt the crop. PSE2 will tell you to enter a number larger than 0, click ok. The crop tool is now reset and you will be able to crop with only one dimension in either the height or width box. The crop tool should work correctly until the next time you try to cut and paste from one box to the other.
Don’t do that anymore! Hopefully they’ll write a patch and release it sometime next year.
Thanks for everyone’s help.
John Dixon
John
Great last name! Where in this whole world do you call home home? There not as many Dixons in this world as there should be.
Grant
