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Moving selections whilst drawing them

Tweek the position of your marquee selections while you go with this handy Photoshop tip!



Sometimes you will want to make a marquee selection, and move it whilst still drawing it (you still with me!). So rather than draw it and then move it, this technique allows you to draw it AND move it AND THEN still keep resizing your selection.

Simply draw you selection as normal with the marquee tool, DONT release your mose button you are holding down to draw the selection and simply hold down space. When you move your mouse, your marquee selection will now move in your image, letting go of space restores the usual functionality of the marquee tool.

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3 Comments »

  1. Comment by Doug C.

    June 9, 2008 @ 11:24 pm

    He he, I use this one all the time. I don’t know if I learned it somewhere or just chanced on it, but it is very handy.

  2. Comment by J D Young

    August 25, 2008 @ 12:46 am

    This trick works great, especially when you are selecting ovals and circles. When you drag diagonally across an oval or circle and keep the mouse button depressed while you press the spacebar, the selection border will move while you continue to drag. You can reposition the marquee edge to match the edge that you are trying to select release the spacebar carefully while still holding down the mouse button. Now you can enlarge your oval or circle until it perfectly selects the object. If the selection is still not perfect, simply keep holding down the mouse button and press the spacebar to reposition again. You can continue going back and forth until your selection is perfection itself. Once you are satisfied with the selection, first release the spacebar (if it is depressed) and then release the mouse button. I learned this neat trick in Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book. Both versions CS2 and CS3 include this tip. For the basics you cant beat Classroom in a Book.

  3. Comment by Jonny

    August 29, 2008 @ 9:25 am

    Nice JD – good tip!

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