• If you are making the selection to be copied into, note the aspect ratio on the status bar and use this number when selecting from your source image.
• If you are copying into a selection of unknown proportions, copy the selection to a new image, determine its aspect ratio by viewing the Resize dialog, and use this number when selecting from your source image.
• If you need an image of specific dimensions, make a new image with those dimensions, use the Resize dialog to determine its aspect ratio, use this number when selecting from your source image, and copy the selection directly to this new image.

• On the Transparency tab, select either Existing image or layer transparency (if your image has no colored background), or Areas that match this color. If you select the latter, be sure the color swatch contains the color you want to be transparent - the color shown will be the last color used in this dialog. Click on the color swatch to select a new color. Adjust the Tolerance setting when the area you want to be transparent contains pixels that are close in color but not exactly the same color.
• On the Partial Transparency tab, I usually select Use full transparency for pixels below 5% opacity, and Yes, blend with the background color. The color swatch here contains the last color used in this dialog. Click on the color box to choose a new color - this should be the dominant color of your page's background. If you want the current foreground or background color, right-click and choose the appropriate color box from the lower left, bottom panel of the dialog.

  Note: This is very important in getting good transparent GIFs - if you don't select this color carefully, you may have a fringe around your image, because part of the transparent GIF process blends the colors from the image into the background color. If you want a transparent GIF image that will look good on various backgrounds, select a neutral background color such as a medium gray.

• On the Colors tab, I usually leave How many colors do you want? set to 256 and How much dithering do you want? set to 100%. For the color selection method, I use either Optimized Median Cut or Optimized Octree, whichever looks better.
• On the Format tab, select Non-interlaced if you want the image to load one line at a time, starting from the top down. Select Interlaced if you want the image to display incrementally in several passes, with detail being added each time. Interlaced is definitely the better option with larger images - the viewer can get an idea of how the image looks while waiting for it to download - but many users use this option with all images.
• The Download Times tab is informational.

The following table illustrates the principles described above. The teddy bear image was saved as a transparent GIF three times - the first time, it was saved with a white background, the second time, with a dark blue background, and the third time, with a medium gray background. The table displays the same image against different backgrounds - white, blue, gray, and various multi-colored backgrounds. As you can see, there is a big difference on the quality of the image depending on how it is saved, and the background it is displayed against.

Notice that none of the GIFs looks good against the last background, which is predominantly red. However, when the bear is saved as a transparent GIF with a background of red specified, the result is much more pleasing:

Note: With either option described above, the value entered into the Opacity field determines how opaque the fill will be - higher numbers make the fill more opaque, and lower values make the fill more transparent. The Tolerance setting determines how much of the selected area will be filled, and while it has no relevance with a Match Mode of "None", it does influence the fill with other settings. Higher Tolerance allows more of an area to be filled, whereas a lower Tolerance setting constrains the fill to areas that are similar in color or exactly the same color as where you initially clicked.

Note: In PSP X, if the same filename exists on multiple paths only one of the files will be accessible. So if you have a tube, for instance, with the same name as a Corel-supplied tube, only one will be available in PSP. This applies to the file name itself, without the extension. Files with names blackborder.bmp, blackborder.gif, and blackborder.jpg are treated as if they have the same name, and if you have all three in your patterns folder, only one of them will be accessible in PSP - I know of no foolproof way to determine which one that will be.

You can prevent the loss of the Corel pre-installed settings by changing the status of any and/or all of these files to "read-only". This can be done in the following manner:

1. Browse to the Corel Paint Shop Pro program folder - on my PC, it's located at C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel Paint Shop Pro X.
2. Right-click on the Corel Paint Shop Pro X folder.
3. Choose Properties from the context menu.
4. In the Corel Paint Shop Pro X Properties dialog box, click on the Read-only Attribute box twice until it shows a check mark.
5. Click OK. In the Confirm Attribute Changes box that appears, select "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files."
6. Click OK.

If you decide you want to create another frame, mask, preset, etc. that is similar to the protected one, just copy it to a new name, right-click on the new file, select Properties from the pop-up menu, and be sure the "Read-only" Attribute is NOT checked. For best and safest results, move this new file to your My PSP Files folder, in the appropriate subfolder. It's best never to place user-created or user-edited elements in the Corel folder.

To enable the Autosave function, choose File...Preferences...Autosave Settings. Click the Enable autosave checkbox, select a number from the Minutes box to determine how frequently PSP creates a temporary backup file, and then click the OK button.

By default, temporary files are stored in the Temp file folder of the user who installed PSP - on my XP-Pro system, that folder is C:\Documents and Settings\Suz\Local Settings\Temp\Corel Paint Shop Pro X Temp Files. You can see where your system is saving Undo/Temporary files, and/or change this location, by choosing File...Preferences...File Locations, and clicking on the Undo/Temporary Files File type.

• Choose File...Preferences...File Locations.
• In the File Types window, scroll down to and highlight Undo/Temporary files.
• Write down the folder name where these files are stored.
• Shut down PSP.
• Go to the location you noted above - there should be a file in that folder with a PspAutosave extension. There may even be more than one file with this extension.
• Delete the PspAutosave file(s) you found in the previous step.
• Restart PSP.

Unless you use some technique to correct these edges, your stationery won't tile smoothly. If you apply the drop shadow or cutout to a separate layer (just check the Shadow on new layer checkbox in the Drop Shadow dialog), you can use the Pick tool to "stretch" the shadow/cutout beyond the active image area to correct this problem. Just enlarge the image window by pulling up on its top edge (or maximize the image window):

Then use the Pick tool on the shadow, dragging the end nodes outside the image area:

Apply the deformation, and voilá, it tiles perfectly now.

• Activate the Pick tool (K) and left-click a shape to select it. Then right-click the shape and select Properties from the menu that appears. In the Name box, type the new name and then click the OK button.

  OR

• Right-click the shape's Layer Name button in the Layers palette and select Rename from the menu that appears. Type the new name on the Layers palette and then press the ENTER key.

  OR

• Double-click the shape's Layer Name button in the Layers palette and type the new name in the Vector Property dialog that appears.

Note that with vector layers, the Layer Name buttons of the vector objects on the vector layer are listed below the vector layer name. To display the buttons of all the vector objects on the layer, click on the plus sign that appears next to the vector layer icon ( ). Find your vector object in the list that appears, and change this name to the one you want to appear in the shapes list.

When you export a shape (File...Export...Shape), the name you enter in the "Enter file name:" box is the library name for the file that will contain the shape you are exporting, NOT the shape name. It's not a bad idea to make this name match the name you want to appear in the shapes list, but it will NOT override the name that appears in the shape's Layer Name box.

• Press CTRL + SHIFT + T.
• Choose File...Preferences...Reset Preferences, check the 'Make all toolbars/palettes visible and on screen' checkbox, and click OK.

Shortcuts for hiding/restoring individual palettes are listed above in the 006 Palette Keyboard Shortcuts article.

Note: Eliminating the appearance of the PSP splash screen will not make PSP load any faster.

• Choose the Pick tool (K) and click the object.
• Choose Selections...From Vector Object.
• Add a new raster layer.
• Choose Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow, and apply the drop shadow with the options you'd like.
• Drag the layer with the shadow below the vector object layer in the Layers palette.

Sometimes the edges are much "cleaner" if you contract the selection made from the vector object by one pixel before applying the drop shadow effect.

• For a previously-saved image, use PSP's browser (View...Palettes Browser ~ or ~ CTRL + B) to locate the folder where the image has been saved, and position the cursor over its thumbnail. A ToolTip displays with information about the file, including its size in kilobytes (KBs).
• For a previousy-saved image, if you click the Image Information icon on the Standard toolbar, the size of the image on disk is shown in the Memory Used panel. Granted, it seems strange that this value is found in the Memory Used panel, but it's there, under the "On Disk" heading.
• For a previously-saved image, use Windows Explorer to browse to the folder where you saved the image, and single click on it - you'll see the size in the leftmost panel of the screen.
• To approximate the space an unsaved image might take on disk as either a GIF, JPEG, or PNG file, initiate the appropriate optimizer and look at the preview boxes at the top of the Optimizer dialog box - the one on the right shows the size in bytes the image will take given the current settings. Drop the three RIGHTmost digits, and you'll have its approximate size in KBs.

To reset the dialog to the settings that displayed when you opened the dialog, select Last Used from the Presets drop-list, or hold down the SHIFT key and click the Reset button.

For vector objects, PSP provides additional options. Choose Objects...Align:

• Center in Canvas will place the vector object in the center of the canvas.
• Horz. Center in Canvas will center the object between the right and left borders of the image, but will leave it at its current distance from the top and bottom borders.
• Vert. Center in Canvas will center the object between the top and bottom borders of the image, but will leave it at its current distance from the left and right borders.

Alternately, for vector objects, activate the Pick tool (K) and choose one of the "Position on canvas" icons:

• - Center in Canvas.
• - Horizontal Center in Canvas.
• - Vertical Center in Canvas.

There is also a script distributed with PSP called CenterLayer. This script will center any layer (vector, raster, art media, etc.). To use this script, find it in the Script toolbar drop-list and click the Run Selected Script button ( ).

• Choose View...Change Grid, Guide & Snap Properties.
• Right-click the image window title bar and choose Change Grid, Guide & Snap Properties from the context menu.
• Click the Pan tool on the Tool palette, right-click the image, and choose Change Grid, Guide & Snap Properties from the context menu.
• If the rulers are displayed, double-click on the ruler.

The Default settings group box shows settings for all future grids/guides you display. The Current image settings group box shows settings for the grid/guides in the current image - if you save that image in PSP format, and later open it, the Grid and Guide information will appear as you saved it.

• Select and float the image (CTRL + A, and then CTRL + F), and then choose Selections...Modify...Contract to contract the selection by one or more pixels. Then choose Selections...Modify...Feather, and use a feather value of about 2. Copy this image (CTRL+C) and paste as a new image (CTRL + V) - with softened edges.
• Select and float the image (CTRL + A, and then CTRL + F), and then choose Selections...Modify...Feather to set the feather value. The larger the number, the softer the edge. Once this is done, invert the selection (CTRL + SHIFT + I), and press DELETE three or four times - the more you press DELETE, the more of the image gets erased or "softened".