a problem with ‘copy and paste’

"Lee Bowman" wrote in message

I have some departmental floor plans that I got as finished graphics. They have text placed within each cubical. I need to reposition the text to allow for diagraming electrical outlets w/o interference from the text.

I could wipe out the text, and add new using the ‘Type Tool’, but I’m doing it quick and dirty using ‘copy and paste’, to preserve the font and look for uniformity with other diagrams, and because it’s quicker.
Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Here’ the steps used:

1. The image is a scanned .jpg. Open it with Photoshop 6.
2. Enlarge it some.
3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and make a box around the selected text.
4. Hit <ctl> C.
5. Drag it to a new position and hit <ctl> V.
6. Using the eyedropper and Paintbrush Tool (B), erase the previous image (or part of the image that’s left).

I then go to another place, select the Marquee Tool, hit <ctl> C, and get the error message. If I go to ‘save as’, I see it is a .psd file. I can change that to a .jpg for saving, no problem.

But, what can I do differently so I can ‘copy and paste’ repeatedly, w/o getting the message? What I’ve had to do was save it, open it again, and do a ‘copy and paste’. Then save it, open it ….. ad nauseum.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Lee Bowman

when you paste, the pasted material will be on a new layer which becomes the active layer, so i am guessing that when you try and do another selection you are in effect selecting an empty part of the new layer, you need to change back/reselect the original layer (which is usually the one at the bottom of the list )from the Layers pallete

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:21:12 GMT, (Lee Bowman)
wrote:

I have some departmental floor plans that I got as finished graphics. They have text placed within each cubical. I need to reposition the text to allow for diagraming electrical outlets w/o interference from the text.

I could wipe out the text, and add new using the ‘Type Tool’, but I’m doing it quick and dirty using ‘copy and paste’, to preserve the font and look for uniformity with other diagrams, and because it’s quicker.
Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Here’ the steps used:

1. The image is a scanned .jpg. Open it with Photoshop 6.
2. Enlarge it some.
3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and make a box around the selected text.
4. Hit <ctl> C.
5. Drag it to a new position and hit <ctl> V.
6. Using the eyedropper and Paintbrush Tool (B), erase the previous image (or part of the image that’s left).

I then go to another place, select the Marquee Tool, hit <ctl> C, and get the error message. If I go to ‘save as’, I see it is a .psd file. I can change that to a .jpg for saving, no problem.

But, what can I do differently so I can ‘copy and paste’ repeatedly, w/o getting the message? What I’ve had to do was save it, open it again, and do a ‘copy and paste’. Then save it, open it ….. ad nauseum.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Lee Bowman

When you copy the selection (<ctl> V), PS creates a new layer. Your second marquee selection is not within the bounds of the new layer hence the error message.

Open the layers palette ( F7 ) . When you begin you will have a "background " layer it will be highlighted (selected), when you hit <ctl> V. you will see a new layer, "layer1", which will now be selected. Click on the "background" layer in the palette to select it before you proceed to your next marquee selection.

When you finish go to Layer > Flatten Image to put all your changes into one layer.

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:21:12 GMT, (Lee Bowman)
scribbled:

I have some departmental floor plans that I got as finished graphics. They have text placed within each cubical. I need to reposition the text to allow for diagraming electrical outlets w/o interference from the text.

I could wipe out the text, and add new using the ‘Type Tool’, but I’m doing it quick and dirty using ‘copy and paste’, to preserve the font and look for uniformity with other diagrams, and because it’s quicker.
Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Here’ the steps used:

1. The image is a scanned .jpg. Open it with Photoshop 6.
2. Enlarge it some.
3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and make a box around the selected text.
4. Hit <ctl> C.
5. Drag it to a new position and hit <ctl> V.
6. Using the eyedropper and Paintbrush Tool (B), erase the previous image (or part of the image that’s left).

I then go to another place, select the Marquee Tool, hit <ctl> C, and get the error message. If I go to ‘save as’, I see it is a .psd file. I can change that to a .jpg for saving, no problem.

But, what can I do differently so I can ‘copy and paste’ repeatedly, w/o getting the message? What I’ve had to do was save it, open it again, and do a ‘copy and paste’. Then save it, open it ….. ad nauseum.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Switch back to the background layer to copy again, you can’t copy emptyness. For future reference/projects, find someone that knows the basic operations of Photoshop.

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:52:17 GMT, Avery
scribbled:

When you finish go to Layer > Flatten Image to put all your changes into one layer.

Utterly unnecessary and destroys any chance of revision editing. Bad advice.

In article , says…

I have some departmental floor plans that I got as finished graphics. They have text placed within each cubical. I need to reposition the text to allow for diagraming electrical outlets w/o interference from the text.

I could wipe out the text, and add new using the ‘Type Tool’, but I’m doing it quick and dirty using ‘copy and paste’, to preserve the font and look for uniformity with other diagrams, and because it’s quicker.
Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Here’ the steps used:

1. The image is a scanned .jpg. Open it with Photoshop 6.
2. Enlarge it some.
3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and make a box around the selected text.
4. Hit <ctl> C.
5. Drag it to a new position and hit <ctl> V.
6. Using the eyedropper and Paintbrush Tool (B), erase the previous image (or part of the image that’s left).

I then go to another place, select the Marquee Tool, hit <ctl> C, and get the error message. If I go to ‘save as’, I see it is a .psd file. I can change that to a .jpg for saving, no problem.

But, what can I do differently so I can ‘copy and paste’ repeatedly, w/o getting the message? What I’ve had to do was save it, open it again, and do a ‘copy and paste’. Then save it, open it ….. ad nauseum.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Lee Bowman

Lee,

I think that you have two answers as to what your proceedural problem is, and how to allow you to do, what you want. However, I’d first go to the creator of the floorplan, and ask for the PSD (prior to Flatten and Save_As JPG), if they have one. It will have the floorplan, and all of the text will be on a separate and editible Layer. If such a PSD exists, all you have to do is make the Text Layer active, and with Move Tool, nudge it to where you now need it – arrow keys, or Shift-arrow keys will allow you to nudge x1 pxl, or x10 pxls. Save_As PSD (add a revision #, i.e. 01 to the name, so as to not overwrite the original file), then, and only then, Flatten, Save_As JPG. If no such PSD exists, mention this to the creator for future work.

Hunt

when you paste, the pasted material will be on a new layer which becomes the active layer, so i am guessing that when you try and do another selection you are in effect selecting an empty part of the new layer, you need to change back/reselect the original layer (which is usually the one at the bottom of the list )from the Layers pallete

Bingo!

Open the layers palette ( F7 ) . When you begin you will have a "background " layer it will be highlighted (selected), when you hit <ctl> V. you will see a new layer, "layer1", which will now be selected. Click on the "background" layer in the palette to select it before you proceed to your next marquee selection.

Didn’t know about F7 to view the active and other layers.

When you finish go to Layer > Flatten Image to put all your changes into one layer.

I see. Now I know why saving presents you with the .psd option first. You have moved beyond the flat earth realm, and it’s letting you save layers. When you change the save to .jpg, you essentially ‘flatten’ it back to one layer and save it as a bit map (.jpg).

In article ,
(Lee Bowman) wrote:

Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Yes, that is correct.

Open your Layers palette and watch what happens when you copy and paste, and you’ll see why.

Whenever you use the Paste command, you create a new layer. Here is what is happening:

You open your image. It has only one layer, called "background."

You make a selection and hit Copy.

You hit Paste. You have just created a new layer.

You make a selection and hit Copy. You cannot copy anything, because you are still on the new layer you have just created. You must first click on the background layer in the Layers palette, THEN copy. When you paste again, you’ll create a new layer again.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

In article ,
(Lee Bowman) wrote:

I see. Now I know why saving presents you with the .psd option first. You have moved beyond the flat earth realm, and it’s letting you save layers. When you change the save to .jpg, you essentially ‘flatten’ it back to one layer and save it as a bit map (.jpg).

By the way, is there is reason you *must* save as JPEG?

You should use JPEG only if you absolutely, positively have to use JPEG and no other format will do.

JPEG uses "lossy" compression. It degrades the quality of the image every time you save a JPEG, and this image degradation is cumulative and irreversible.

The JPEG format was created for situations where file size on disk is critically important and image quality is not important. Unless you have a clear and specific reason why you have to use JPEG, don’t. (Even if you do have to use JPEG, keep a copy of your file as a .psd as well. That way, you can go back to the PSD if you need to edit the image again, and you do not get cumulative quality degradation.)

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

Switch back to the background layer to copy again, you can’t copy emptyness. For future reference/projects, find someone that knows the basic operations of Photoshop.

I own a medical equipment field service/ consulting company, and I’m ‘it’. Since 1982 I’ve been the only employee, and thus do everything myself. I don’t have the luxury of delegating graphic design to someone else.

In the past, when I needed any sort of technical help to overcome an obstacle in an unknown area (repair related), I’d bug some company’s tech service, or even their engineers. On occasion, as a result of a pursuit down some path of investigation, I was able to pass along to them feedback that helped them either in repair notes, or even redesign.

Now we have the Internet, which often provides an answer just by perusing a few forums. In this case, I asked a simple question and got a simple answer. Obviously, had I taken a course in Photoshop 101 I would have had familiarity in this very basic area. Often, I wish I had have done this, as well as courses in Word, Excel, and various programming and database languages.

But in lieu of formal classes, we now have a virtual cornucopea of experts in various fields to help us progress. Regarding this forum, I see where many of the questions are regarding advanced topics. Even though this one wasn’t, there’s a good chance than at some point I myself may be at that level.

Thanks guys!

Lee Bowman

I think that you have two answers as to what your proceedural problem is, and how to allow you to do, what you want. However, I’d first go to the creator of the floorplan, and ask for the PSD (prior to Flatten and Save_As JPG), if they have one. It will have the floorplan, and all of the text will be on a separate and editible Layer.

Unfortunately, they’re not that advanced here. This was hand drawn by the old method. The text inserts could have been done with photoshop as a layer add, or they might have even been manually cut and pasted on (at one time, cut and paste was ‘literally’ cut and paste!).

The maps I utilized were taken from walls in the building. They were ‘evacuation route’ diagrams, and I even had to erase the lines and arrows showing the way out of the building, enlarge the views, and clean them up with photoshop.

The company is one of the leaders in genetic research, but not as advanced in other ways. They’re soon moving to a new facility, and I’ll recommend to them that they have their designers provide to them engineering maps done with photoshop or other graphic design tools, like CAD software, and include view with electrical outlets, so that grunt work like I’m doing won’t be necessary.

Thanks for your input.

LB

If such a PSD exists, all you have to do is make

the Text Layer active, and with Move Tool, nudge it to where you now need it – arrow keys, or Shift-arrow keys will allow you to nudge x1 pxl, or x10 pxls. Save_As PSD (add a revision #, i.e. 01 to the name, so as to not overwrite the original file), then, and only then, Flatten, Save_As JPG. If no such PSD exists, mention this to the creator for future work.

Hunt

You should use JPEG only if you absolutely, positively have to use JPEG and no other format will do.

Actually, I do save steps in .psd, but also do .jpg’s reduced to 600×800 if I’m going to email them. I don’t know why, but most email browsers don’t automatically reduce them for easy viewing, as well as providing the larger format as an attachment.

I’m aware of the degredation that comes from saving as a .jpg, and it’s somewhat accumulative. The ‘maps’ I was saving and resaving went like this sizewise: 417 kb, 409, 406, 406, 404, 403, 401, 400 ….

These ‘maps’ are crude enough that the degredation didn’t matter. What mattered was the time wasted doing it the way I was doing it. In most cases, though, I would save all the interim design changes as .psd, utilizing a bit map view only as needed, and perhaps a lossless one.

Here’s a good summary of most of the available formats out there, with links on each one to more information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_file_format

Cheers.

LB

JPEG uses "lossy" compression. It degrades the quality of the image every time you save a JPEG, and this image degradation is cumulative and irreversible.

The JPEG format was created for situations where file size on disk is critically important and image quality is not important. Unless you have a clear and specific reason why you have to use JPEG, don’t. (Even if you do have to use JPEG, keep a copy of your file as a .psd as well. That way, you can go back to the PSD if you need to edit the image again, and you do not get cumulative quality degradation.)
—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:56:13 GMT, (Lee Bowman)
scribbled:

Switch back to the background layer to copy again, you can’t copy emptyness. For future reference/projects, find someone that knows the basic operations of Photoshop.

I own a medical equipment field service/ consulting company, and I’m ‘it’. Since 1982 I’ve been the only employee, and thus do everything myself. I don’t have the luxury of delegating graphic design to someone else.

Sure you do. You COULD hire someone to do the job. You COULD call the local tech schools and penny pinch someone just starting a graphics course into doing the job.

In the past, when I needed any sort of technical help to overcome an obstacle in an unknown area (repair related), I’d bug some company’s tech service, or even their engineers. On occasion, as a result of a pursuit down some path of investigation, I was able to pass along to them feedback that helped them either in repair notes, or even redesign.

Now we have the Internet, which often provides an answer just by perusing a few forums. In this case, I asked a simple question and got a simple answer. Obviously, had I taken a course in Photoshop 101 I would have had familiarity in this very basic area. Often, I wish I had have done this, as well as courses in Word, Excel, and various programming and database languages.

So do it. Up, off the couch. Get down to the local Community College.

But in lieu of formal classes, we now have a virtual cornucopea of experts in various fields to help us progress

Without ever paying them to instruct you or ever having to offer them your ‘expertise’ in trade… nice.

So do it. Up, off the couch. Get down to the local Community College.

At age 64, and handling billing and A/R, A/P, contract negotiation and other correspondence, incoming calls, parts ordering, onsite field service, inhouse repairs, and data entry I haven’t got the time.

But in lieu of formal classes, we now have a virtual cornucopea of experts in various fields to help us progress

Without ever paying them to instruct you or ever having to offer them your ‘expertise’ in trade… nice.

I contribute to other forums. At one time, I was a frequent contributor to rec.music.makers.piano, and sometimes posted upwards of 100 word posts giving practice and technique tips to students. I often peruse engineering and other technical forums to pass info along. The good thing about Internet forums is it’s totally voluntary, and you don’t have to answer questions if you don’t want to.

Besides the handfuls of posters and post/posters, who knows how many others gain knowlege by perusing. Some questions are silly and anoying, but many offer useful info, and benefit the community.

Lee

In article , says…

Switch back to the background layer to copy again, you can’t copy emptyness. For future reference/projects, find someone that knows the basic operations of Photoshop.

I own a medical equipment field service/ consulting company, and I’m ‘it’. Since 1982 I’ve been the only employee, and thus do everything myself. I don’t have the luxury of delegating graphic design to someone else.

In the past, when I needed any sort of technical help to overcome an obstacle in an unknown area (repair related), I’d bug some company’s tech service, or even their engineers. On occasion, as a result of a pursuit down some path of investigation, I was able to pass along to them feedback that helped them either in repair notes, or even redesign.

Now we have the Internet, which often provides an answer just by perusing a few forums. In this case, I asked a simple question and got a simple answer. Obviously, had I taken a course in Photoshop 101 I would have had familiarity in this very basic area. Often, I wish I had have done this, as well as courses in Word, Excel, and various programming and database languages.

But in lieu of formal classes, we now have a virtual cornucopea of experts in various fields to help us progress. Regarding this forum, I see where many of the questions are regarding advanced topics. Even though this one wasn’t, there’s a good chance than at some point I myself may be at that level.

Thanks guys!

Lee Bowman

Lee,

Do not worry. If one has not used the Layers aspect of PS, it can be confusing, at first. As Tacit suggested, just having the Layers Palette open on the desktop, will provide you with a graphical display of what is happening. If one doesn’t use Layers, they are likely to have it hidden.

Got your later post, regarding the floorplans – bummer. But, with the Layers Palette open, you can then continue to go back to the floorplan Layer, and do the Ctrl-c/Ctrl-v cut-n-paste. It is slower, but seems to be all that you have right now. Just watch to see which Layer is "active," and toggle between where you need to Ctrl-c and then Ctrl-v will just create a new Layer. Considering that you are working with rasterized text, I do not believe that PS will " create" an editible Text Layer, but will treat it as a graphics Layer. One thing you may wish to consider is to do the process, as you are doing, but then create a Text Layer, with the Text Tool, input the data on the graphics ver of that Layer, uncheck the eyeball from the graphics ver, and retain an editible Text Layer. This might save time down the line, should you ever have to make any text changes – though will require keystroking and simple creation of a new Layer. If you do this, make sure to Save_As PSD, before you Save_As JPG, or whatever. Dang, you got yourself into quite a bit of hand-work here.

Hunt

Just a little point that might help!!
When you have the move tool selected – you have an option to tick ‘auto select layer’ box on the toolbar, if you click on that, and are fairly precise when selecting objects in your image – text for instance!! PS knows what you are trying to do and automatically puts you on the right layer.

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:06:21 GMT, Voivod wrote:

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:52:17 GMT, Avery
scribbled:

When you finish go to Layer > Flatten Image to put all your changes into one layer.

Utterly unnecessary and destroys any chance of revision editing. Bad advice.

But if you are going to resave as .jpg there ain’t much point in keeping them Caudia.

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:04:59 GMT, Voivod wrote:

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:21:12 GMT, (Lee Bowman)
scribbled:

I have some departmental floor plans that I got as finished graphics. They have text placed within each cubical. I need to reposition the text to allow for diagraming electrical outlets w/o interference from the text.

I could wipe out the text, and add new using the ‘Type Tool’, but I’m doing it quick and dirty using ‘copy and paste’, to preserve the font and look for uniformity with other diagrams, and because it’s quicker.
Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Here’ the steps used:

1. The image is a scanned .jpg. Open it with Photoshop 6.
2. Enlarge it some.
3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and make a box around the selected text.
4. Hit <ctl> C.
5. Drag it to a new position and hit <ctl> V.
6. Using the eyedropper and Paintbrush Tool (B), erase the previous image (or part of the image that’s left).

I then go to another place, select the Marquee Tool, hit <ctl> C, and get the error message. If I go to ‘save as’, I see it is a .psd file. I can change that to a .jpg for saving, no problem.

But, what can I do differently so I can ‘copy and paste’ repeatedly, w/o getting the message? What I’ve had to do was save it, open it again, and do a ‘copy and paste’. Then save it, open it ….. ad nauseum.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Switch back to the background layer to copy again, you can’t copy emptyness. For future reference/projects, find someone that knows the basic operations of Photoshop.

Gee and I thought this group was a place to get advice on Photoshop – I didn’t see the abuse requirement.

In article <43c411aa$0$1476$>,
harrylimeyatLycos.co.uk says…

Just a little point that might help!!
When you have the move tool selected – you have an option to tick ‘auto select layer’ box on the toolbar, if you click on that, and are fairly precise when selecting objects in your image – text for instance!! PS knows what you are trying to do and automatically puts you on the right layer.

Good point,
Hunt

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 20:57:16 GMT, Avery
scribbled:

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:06:21 GMT, Voivod wrote:

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:52:17 GMT, Avery
scribbled:

When you finish go to Layer > Flatten Image to put all your changes into one layer.

Utterly unnecessary and destroys any chance of revision editing. Bad advice.

But if you are going to resave as .jpg there ain’t much point in keeping them Caudia.

You don’t quite grasp the word ‘revision’ do you?

"tacit" wrote in message

In article ,
(Lee Bowman) wrote:

Except …. after I copy and paste once, the second time it tells me, "Could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".

Yes, that is correct.

Open your Layers palette and watch what happens when you copy and paste, and you’ll see why.

Whenever you use the Paste command, you create a new layer. Here is what is happening:

You open your image. It has only one layer, called "background."
You make a selection and hit Copy.

You hit Paste. You have just created a new layer.

You make a selection and hit Copy. You cannot copy anything, because you are still on the new layer you have just created. You must first click on the background layer in the Layers palette, THEN copy. When you paste again, you’ll create a new layer again.

If you are lazy and/or don’t want to re select the layer use COPY MERGED that will copy what you see with your eyes not just what is in the active layer

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com