Expert: Dyllian Rancharan - 4/1/2008

Question
Hello, I have already asked this same question to another expert but he was unable to help.
I hope you can help me :-)

I am fairly new to photoshop and I don't know how best to explain my problem, I hope you can make sense of this :-)   
I believe I have version 7 and although I am getting the hang of things, I have come up with a problem that I can not understand.
When I select a layer, image or text, and try to move it using the move tool, as soon as I click the cursor over the canvas area, the image or text that I want to move, in the layers column I see it jumps to the background layer, which is never that layer that I want to move. It seems the only way I can move anything is by selecting the layer and move tool and use the arrow keys on my keyboard instead of the mouse/cursor. This is more time consuming and extremely frustrating!  
The other expert that I spoke to told me to reinstall adobe photoshop which I have done but the same problem still persists...

I hope you were able to follow all that :-)   If you can please help me I would be very very grateful but please, explain things to me as though you are speaking to a child, as I said, I am kind of new to photoshop and only know the very basics. Step by step help/instructions would be excellent! :-)   
Thank you very much!!!
Hannah

Answer
Hi Hannah,

I think I know what you are talking about. This is a problem encountered with photoshop 7 and lesser versions. I want you to try these simple things and let me know if it helps....

1. Try and make sure the "Auto Select Layer" is on. (This is located below the photoshop Menus such as File, Edit, Layer, etc.) To switch on the "Auto Select Layer" simply click on the box beside it, once clicked a check mark will appear beside it.

2. When selecting a layer (i.e. the one you want to move) make sure your cursor is touching that specific layer.
2b.  When selecting Text Layers, make sure your cursor is touching the words or letters. For example: If your Text Layer is "LOOT" do no place your "Move Tool/Cursor" in between the O's nor the middle empty area of the "O" make sure you are touching the solid part of the letter.

Honestly it has nothing to do with your Photoshop, it might be just some preferences are not on as yet. But, you will have to help me as well in guiding me how your photoshop is set up. I hope I can help you because we are here to do so.

Please let me know if the above suggestions helped.
Regards,
Dyllian R.