We understand that many teachers using Now Books are not experts in Photoshop or photography. But that's OK; we are. For answers to your questions or problems call us anytime, anyday. 918-688-9606. or if you prefer email us; support@nowbooks.us

But on the outside chance that your problem is the same ones other teachers/students have ran into....Let's just see if your problem isn't listed below.

THE MOST FREQUENTLY ENCOUNTERED PROBLEMS IN PHOTOSHOP.

PROBLEM #1. Nothing seems to work; I can't paint, erase or do anything; what's wrong?

SOLUTION#1.  It's not uncommon to have accidentally made a tiny selection, perhaps only one or two pixels in size somewhere on the document, perhaps outside your view in the image window, and you are now trying to paint/erase/etc. on an area outside the selection, in a masked area, which is why nothing works. Try this; In Photoshop click the Select Drop-Down menu, and then click on Deselect. If this was your problem, then you have just unselected that area, and you should now be able to work/paint/eraser/etc on any area of your image.

PROBLEM # 2. Still nothing works. Neither the computer nor the program seems to be frozen but nothing works; everything is grayed out in the menus.

SOLUTION #2 Look in the Options bar, the horizontal bar just under the drop-down menus. Toward the right side, do you see the universal Not symbol (circle with a diagonal slash through it; as in No Smoking) and a check mark? Remember that some commands in Photoshop have a two-part sequence. After you do the first part (cropping, tranformations, text input) then the Not symbol and checkmark appear in the Options bar. These require that you either commit to your change (click the check mark) or abandon your change(click the Not symbol). The program can't do anything else until you answer this commit/abandon choice. Click on your choice and see if you can't get back to work.

PROBLEM # 3. The circle indicating my brush size is gone. There seems to be a "cross-hair" in it's place. Where have my brushes gone?

SOLUTION # 3. See if your Caps Lock key is on. This will cause your brush-size cursor(the circle) to appear as a cross-hair. Just hit the Caps Lock key again to return to the circle cursor.

Two other possibilities exist. If your brush is soooo small that the circle would not be visible (such as a one- or three- pixel brush) the program displays that brush as a cross hair. Or, if your brush is soooo large that the circle would be bigger than your image (several hundred pixels in diameter) the program displays the circle (which you may not be able to see because it's bigger than the window) and also the center point of the brush (as the cross-hair you see).

PROBLEM # 4 . I've drawn a text box, but can't seem to input any text into it.

SOLUTION # 4. Are you sure you have a TEXT input box? Sometimes people confuse a textbox, which is created by clicking and dragging the Type tool, with a rectangular selection, which is created using the rectangular marquee(top left tool in the toolbar). The two look identical except for the rectangular marquee doesn't have the flashing I-beam cursor that a text input box will. Since they have a rectangular selection instead of a text box they can't input text into it. If that's the case; click Select>Deselect. Then select the Type tool and click and drag to create the text box. Then just start typing.

PROBLEM # 5. Why do I have all these empty text layers?

SOLUTION # 5. When you click with the type tool selected from the toolbar, the program thinks you are getting ready to type, so it automatically makes a new layer for your type. But then maybe you click off the area, or select another tool or click a drop-down menu. You didn't put anything in the type layer, but the type layer is still there. Several clicks later you have several new, empty type layers.

Do you (or your students) have a nomination for a Most Common Problem? Email it to us and let's get it answered, not just for you but everyone else also!.