Look at the attachment. I had a lot of problems yesterday.

In my example I have the move tool active; I click outside the black circle and start moving my mouse. At that moment the layer with the red object becomes active and that object is moved instead.

This drove me nuts yesterday, because I was working on a rather complicated design with many layers.

Resetting the preference file however has solved the problem.

My question is; is this just some weird behaviour or am I missing something? [confused]


Thanks.

Stroker1

Auto Select Layer
In the tool bar across the top. I believe near the left.
I'm PS 6. Not sure about PS 7.

Thanks Stroker

BTW, same in PS7.

gymmie

Yeah, Auto Select Layer is a Good Thing

The behavior you described depends on 1) the size of your object(s) and 2) how close your curser is to the other object. If the curser is too close, and/or the object(s) are small, Photoshop gets confused about just what you're trying to move, even if you activate a layer through the palette. Another way to prevent unexpected moves is to hide the offending layer (the one that's moving that you don't want).

wbiss

Good responses and info Stroker & Julie as I, too, have experienced this same seemingly odd "behaviour"! Thanks.

Blinky2004

Yep... auto-select layer.

I find it more useful if i just turn that option off by default.

BUT... check this out... activate it on a temporary need-to-use basis very easily/quickly, by simply holding down the CTRL/Cmd key while click-dragging an object (on any layer) to move it. When you let up the Ctrl/Cmd key, all is as normal.

That's how i prefer to use that function.

Great tip Mark, thanks [righton]

Ammar Midani

Mark to make this less misunderstood.

While activating THE MOVE TOOL not the Auto select layer option.
Ctrl (command) click on a layer to make it active, that?s inside the image window.
I believe you knew that one Gaussian

And To prevent accidental movement of a certain layer, lock it position from the layers Palette.

And to move multiple layers together without linking them, put them in a layer set.


Ammar

ladyfinger007

When you have a selection and are adding/removing from the selection (using Shift/Alt...) you can re-position the new selection... the previous one will not move... hold SPACE to to this wonder! (the "old" selections' maching ants will stop moving)