Expert: LizaL - 2/2/2006

Question
Hi Liza!

Y'see, i have a rather lame technical question.
  I've been using Photoshop on PC for some seven years now and right now i'm with version CS2, but this has been a problem ever since i remember:
You select a portion of a layer and then cut it or copy it, after that you'll obviously  want to paste it somewhere , so you do an it appears in a new layer right?  But here is the problem: some times the selected section appears in the same exact position it had in the original layer ( it's even hard to tell if the new object is really there until you hide the original layer), but then some times  -and i don't know why- the pasted section appears in a different position, seemingly a little to the right an above of the original.
this happens to me apparently randomly in every version of photoshop i have tried, and can be very annoying when i'm doing precise work so, cold you tell me please what defines the position of your pasted object in the new layer and how can i switch it so it does what i expect it to do?
Well that's my question, i hope you can help me.

Thaks in advance for your attention!

                                    Steevie Woo.

Answer
Hey Steevie,

No question is too lame, but this is probably going to be a lame answer, LOL! I know what you're describing, and I believe it's a function of the programming of the application. In other words, I don't think there's anything we can do about it.

This is the same type of thing you see in a lot of applications (right off the top of my head, I think Illustrator is one of them) where you'll cut something from your working file and paste it, and it appears right in the middle of your page. This is a default setting, and it's built into the program -- nothing we can do about it.

What I've found in Photoshop is that the pasted selection appears right in the same spot as the original layer IF you make the selection and then use the New Layer Via Copy or New Layer Via Cut commands. At that point I always switch to the Move tool so I have a pointer selection tool with which to move the pasted piece. I've just gotten into this habit, so the placement of the piece doesn't bother me.

However, I found that if I simply do Cut and then Paste, the selection is put into a new layer, but it's right in the middle of the screen.

So I guess it's the lesser of two evils: If you want the selection in the middle of the screen, do Cut and Paste; if you want it to appear in the same place as the layer from which it was cut, do New Layer Via Cut or Copy.

Long story short, the placement is defined by the people who wrote the software.

Hope this helps!

Lisa