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Photoshop edit commands grayed out


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starbird

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I was supposed to send a July 4th sale newsletter this morning but the Edit commands are grayed out and I have spent the entire day trying to find the fix with not one single reply from any forum or person.

It will now be late and I don't know what to do.

Does anyone know how to make the commands accessible.

png file
rgb
single layer
PS 6
16 bits
no channels selected

I don't know what else to look for. I need to either copy and paste or pull one image onto another. Also, I have a stroke on the image and now am unable to place another stroke on the outside of the first stroke, even though it is checked for 'outside'. Nothing shows.

I am ready to scream... I seem unable to get help and I need to finish this now very late newsletter.

These are all things I have been doing for years... until today. I even reset Photoshop, quit and restarted a couple of times.

Can anyone out there tell me how to get my PS up and working properly?

Please?
Thank you!
 
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Tom Mann

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Re: Edit commands grayed out

Sorry you are having problems. There are so many ways things can go wrong, and I have absolutely no way of knowing what things you have tried, how much you know, etc., so let me start with a few related, very basic question:

If you open an old photoshop file (ie, that you know works), are the edit commands still grayed out? What about if you open a brand new photoshop file -- are they still grayed out? Has this installation of Photoshop (ie, on this particular computer) ever worked before, or have you just installed it?

If you had already done some work on this project and are having problems re-opening the file to complete your work, please post the psd file.

Tom M
 

starbird

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Re: Edit commands grayed out

Hi Tom,

Thank you for the questions and the reply and the condolences. :)


PS6 has been installed for a couple of years and has always worked very well.
I have opened both new and old files, both png an psd, edit commands greyed out.


My intuition is that I clicked something I shouldn’t oughta. It all worked just fine yesterday. Today I wanted to either pull a shot of a parrot onto a fireworks image… no go, tried to copy and paste, no go. It is the older image I am trying to put into the newer image. I do this all the time… until today.


This is a problem for my art pieces as well because I use masks and textures.


I am no techie, but I have been using Photoshop since PS 3.


Could it have anything to do with the fact that my computer is whacko? I am going to upgrade to Yosemite soon, but I have to organize first. Not my strongest attribute. I tend to think not, but it’s worth asking.


As I mentioned, everything was peachy until today.


bonnie


PS: I am reposting my reply because I do not see my first reply. I hope that is not a problem
 

Tom Mann

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Re: Edit commands grayed out

From what you have said, nothing obvious jumps out at me.

Also, it sounds like you are under time pressure and may not have enough time left to go through an extensive (ie, lengthy) investigation of exactly what caused this problem, so you may want to consider a, "Hail Mary" attempt, namely, resetting all of Photoshop's preferences. This often works for bizarre Photoshop behaviors that seem to spring up out of nowhere.

A description of the technique is here, on Adobe's help website:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/375776

Short summary: "... hold down Alt, Ctrl, and Shift keys (Mac: Command, Option, Shift) while starting up Photoshop. A dialog box will appear asking if you wish to delete the preferences/settings file. Say yes. ..."

The above procedure deletes the preference file. However, if you have extensively customized PS, you might want to find the actual file, and temporarily rename it, so that you can reinstate your preferences and settings should this approach fail to work. For this, "...simply search your hard drive for a *.psp file and delete it. It will be called something along the lines of "Adobe Photoshop X Prefs.psp".

Let us know what happens and we can go from there.

Cheers,

Tom M
 

starbird

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Re: Edit commands grayed out

HI Tom,

Thank you for those suggestions... I did try them yesterday: I reset Photoshop in its entirety, quit and reopened a couple of times. Nada.

I just tried it again a minute ago... and now it seems to be working, at least with the images I selected and at the moment. Did it need to get some sleep instead of restarting right away... I swear these programs have someone in them deciding what you will and will not be allowed to do. While they're laughing ...

I sent the newsletter this morning... horrible returns..and it's a great product with 2 for 1. I'm hoping it's because it's the 4th.

I am sure I will be back again and again because I always have strange things happen that I don't understand or how tos. I have senior Apple tech who has been on screen many times... most of the things she sees she has never seen before. She's also a developer, PS user and has been with Apple for a very long time. However, she is teaching in one of the retail stores till the end of August and I cannot get to her.

Thank you again.
bonnie
 

Tom Mann

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Re: Edit commands grayed out

Hi Bonnie - I'm certainly glad to hear that the problem seems to have resolved itself. Whether resetting the preferences contributed to the success is anyone's guess, but at least you are up and running again. Don't you just hate it when things like that happen and you're not sure why.

Anyway, do let us know if you figure out exactly what fixed the problem, or, for that matter, if it returns to haunt you, LOL.

Best regards,

Tom M
 

starbird

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Re: Edit commands grayed out

Hi Tom,

I just wrote you an entire email with images and when my thumb touched the space bar, the entire email vanished.

Her's what it said, sort of.

I have not tried PS yet today, because there is another problem that started last night. I was up till 2 trying to figure it out. When the window opens it is from the top of the monitor to the bottom, with no access to the lower right corner to drag it up and make it smaller. The image is the size of a pin point of light and the rulers are showing numbers that are going out of the universe. Once I use command + to enlarge the image... the image is at the bottom of the window and partially obscured since. The hand is not available... it doesn't show up, quitting doesn't help, and when I click on a drop down I get a polygon dialog box... Also I am unable to double click the background layer to change it to a plain layer.

full_monitor.png
quit_grayed.png
layer_name_wont_change.pnglayer_name_wont_change.png



I am trying to organize to move to Yosemite, but have so much stuff I'm not even sure how to organize it. My Apple advisor said that the operating system needs an upgrade and everything that's going wrong is because the computer is too confused for lack of a more technical word. She is going to help me make the upgrade but is currently teaching in one of the retail stores and won't be available till the end of August. sigh...

I have work to do and a bird toy business to run... which uses images all the time. There are 2 of the layer shot because one of them is grayed out.

I'm feeling lost and thwarted by a damn computer.

bonnie
 
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Tom Mann

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Hi Bonnie - Sorry, I just noticed your last post and see that it is already several days old.

With respect to the problems you described, unfortunately, (a) I don't use Macs at all; and (b) the unexpected behaviors of PS that you described are truly odd. I've never heard of problems like these. Since these problems are still occurring even after you have deleted your PS preference file, it sounds like working through your Apple contact is the way to go, but you may want to involve a local service facility, as well.

If there are indeed as many problems with your OS as she suspects, you don't know what it might do next (eg, it might completely die on you), so my strong recommendation is to immediately make two different backups that contain all important documents, business related spreadsheets, images, design files, etc. Use two different methods to back up your data, just to be sure you have everything, eg, manually find and then drag and drop important folders and files for one backup, and then use an automated backup method for the other. After each backup is done, spot check that individual files on each backup are indeed readable.

Facing so many OS level problems, there is always the possibility of hardware problems underlying the OS problems, so if it were me, once the data backups are complete, I would completely wipe and reformat your hard drive and start from scratch by installing the new OS and each important application. I know this will be a large amount of work, but if you try to get away with doing less than this, there's a reasonable chance that you will still be fighting strange behavior even after spending time on the OS upgrade. Also, since time seems to be an issue, this may be a case where it's better to take your computer into a service facility and just pay them to do this work for you. Another option to consider is whether this is the time to spring for a brand new computer that is guaranteed to be fully functional right out of the box.

The best of luck! Please let us know what you do and how it goes.

Cheers,

Tom M
 
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