I’m not sure I understand exactly what you’re asking or what kinds of things you have placed on the individual layers. Are you talking about shifting the sequence of layers in the layer palette or are you asking about moving something that’s on its own layer around on the image itself? Text would be an example – shifting a line of text from the right side of the image to the left.
If you’d give us an example of what you’re trying to do it might be easier to help out.
You also say "before it moved ‘real time’ with the mouse". If you mean Elements is no longer responding the way it had been repeatedly in the past, you might need to reset the Preference folder. Before you do that, though, let’s make sure we’re both going in the same direction! 🙂
Hi Beth,
Thanks for your reply. The problem I have is moving a layer around on the image itself. Yes, text is a good example.
Before I reinstalled Windows XP and Elements 2, when I ‘dragged’ a layer around the image, it moved with the mouse so I could see exactly where I was moving it. Now, when I drag it, it doesn’t move until I release the mouse button, when it jumps to the new location.
If you can offer any assistance with this, it would be much appreciated. Thanks
Mike
Well, you don’t actually move a layer around on an image, although you can move the layer contents. Since I can’t replicate the problem, let me just say how I would go about moving a line or block of text that was on its own layer.
First select the layer in the layers palette. Then select the Move tool. Click on the text on your image, and you should get a box around it. From there you just drag it to the new location. The only thing I can think of that might have changed when you went to XP… Look under the View menu – is Snap to Grid selected? If so, click on it and deactivate it and see if that makes a difference.
If you still can’t get it to work right, try deleting the Preference folder. Close Elements, and then click on the start up icon and make a QUICK grab for the Control, Alt, and Shift keys. Hold all three down until you get a screen asking if you want to delete Settings. Say Yes. The Preference folder will rebuild as Elements continues to launch.
If I understand you, it’s your mouse that’s off not the program. Go to control panel, pick appearances and themes. On this "Pick a Task" page you’ll see a tab off to the side that has an icon of a mouse and says mouse pointers. Choose this tab, then select pointer options. You’ll be able to configure your mouse’s speed here. I hope this solves your problem.
Thanks again for your suggestions. I have now reset the preference folder and checked the mouse settings – all are ok. Snap-to grid is turned off. I’ve even uninstalled and re-installed Elements, all to no avail. It’s very frustrating.
I don’t know if this has any relevance, but have discovered the following:
If I select a layer, I get the box around the contents (lets say it’s some text). I try dragging the text and get the aforementioned problem (it stays put until I release the mouse button). However, if I resize the text, by dragging one of the corners or edges of its box, the text changes size as I move the mouse. Then, if I try moving this re-sized text, by clicking and dragging within the box, it now moves with the mouse. However, as soon as I ‘fix’ the layer (by double clicking inside the box), the problem returns (eg, when I drag the text, it stays put until I release the mouse button).
Go to your windows updater and see if there are any driver updates for your mouse.
OK try this:
Go to Start > Control Panel > Display > Appearance … Then click the EFFECTS button in the lower right corner … in the new dialog that opens make sure the option for "show window contents while dragging" is checked.
This may help. Hope so.
April, thanks! That’s a great tip; I never knew that option existed.
Alas, I’ve tried all of the above but still no success – I think I shall resign myself to the fact that I’m stuck with the way it is – I can’t think of anything else to try.
Thanks to you all
Mike,
This is what I would do to add text and then move it;
* select the Text Tool
* choose your color and font
* on your image, type your text
* now click on the magnifier glass in the Toolbox
* if you want to move the text, hold down the control key and click in the layer in the Layers Palette which contains the text
* get the Move tool from Toolbox
* click/drag on text in image window to reposition
* click on the magnifier glass in Toolbox
* go to Select>Deselect
for the Move Tool options, are the boxes checked which say Show Bounding Box and Auto Select Layer??
Nancy
Thanks Nancy,
I’ve tried all the different ways of moving text or other image layers (The method is not the issue here – I’ve used Photoshop for some years now so am quite an experienced user). What’s new is the fact that since re-installing XP and Elements, the layer that I’m moving doesn’t move with the mouse but justs stays put until I release the button.
I’ve deselected the ‘Auto Select Layer’ option but the ‘show bounding box’ is still active.
Regards
Mike
Mike, perhaps a new mouse is in order. They are cheap enough these days. Might be worth a try. I purchased a new one last summer..logitec and it made a big difference.
Mike, I just reviewed this thread, and I can’t tell if you actually deleted the Preference folder or just reinstalled the software. ??? An uninstall/reinstall won’t correct for a corrupted file unless you did a manual search and destroy for the Preferences.
I’m wondering if you have another peripheral like maybe a tablet installed. If you do, that could be affecting your mouse.
And you did install with antivirus turned off, didn’t you? Letting that software run while installing software can often create weird problems.
Jodi, it was that darned groundhog (Punxsutawney Phil) that did you in….he saw his shadow…
The mouse isn’t the problem, neither is the driver – it’s exactly the same mouse/driver that I was using before the re-install and it works without problem on all other software. It’s a problem within Elements or it’s setup – but I just can’t see how to change it.
Beth, I have both reinstalled the software and re-set the preferences file (using CTRL, ALT, SHIFT), but neither has cured this very strange problem.
Mike, have you tried changing to a different mouse to see if the problem persists?
Beth,
Yes I have… and the problem persists…
Any other thoughts?
I’m thinking! Unfortunately I’m not coming up with anything.
I haven’t seen any posts from our Adobe guy for several days now. I keep hoping he’ll see this one and have something to offer. Monitoring the forum isn’t really part of his job, but he tries to get by when he has time. I hope he’s got a light schedule today. 🙂
Rich!!!! Where are you?!
Hi Beth,
I’ve been at a tradeshow all week, and am just now back to the office. I’ll try to catch up on what I can on the forum, but if there is anything that needs urgent attention, drop me an email or something.
I’ve never seen the problem that Mike is describing and when I move a layer or a selection to a new doc or inside a doc, I see the object while I’m moving my mouse. The only thing that crosses my mind is a question of a video driver might be the cause. You can try turning down hardware acceleration or seeing if there is an update to your video card driver.
Rich
Richard,
The same thought had crossed my mind – I’ve tried turning the accelleration down as you suggest but the problem persists.
Interestingly, I’ve installed the same program on my notebook PC as a comparison and it works absolutely fine. Very odd!!
Mike,
It is almost certainly a hardware issue, but I’m pretty well tapped on ideas at this point. We’ve ruled out Mouse and video driver. I can’t think of too many other devices that might cause this behavior.
Rich
