1. Use Edit Selection to expand the selection:
   1. After creating the selection, choose Selections...Edit Selection.
   2. Choose Image...Resize ('All layers' UNchecked) or use the Pick tool (K) or the Deform tool (which is still available using its old shortcut key, D, in PSP X2 to increase the size of the selection.
   3. Choose Selections...Edit Selection to return to the selection marquee.
2. Use Selections...Modify...Expand to expand the selection, and then click on the 'Current selection' button in the 'Create selection from' section of the Selection tool Tool Options palette:
   

   Note: This method will only work if the selection is a rectangle with sides parallel to the images edges.

In the following image, the selection on the left was expanded 10 pixels using Selections...Modify...Expand. The selection in the center was expanded the same number of pixels using the first method above. The selection on the right was created by applying the second method above directly to the image on the left. All selections were filled with color for visibility. Note the difference in the corners of the expanded, filled selections - either way gives you crisp, square corners:

If this is a problem for you, make the following three changes to the problem script:

1. Change the Host Version in the def ScriptProperties statement at the beginning of the script from whatever it is to "'Host Version': '11.00'". If that parameter is anything other than 10 or 11, PSP will think the text needs to be converted.

   Note: If you subsequently attempt to run this same script in PSP 9, you will received a warning message when the script loads: "This script is from a newer version of Paint Shop Pro or the version could not be determined. You can continue to execute the script, but errors may occur or the script may produce unexpected results.". You can safely ignore this message and click the OK button.

2. Use the TextEx command and not the Text command. If the script contains the Text command from PSP 8, the system will think your text information needs to be converted, and this is likely to change the size of the text.
3. If you are extracting Text tool parameters from the Tool Options palette, be sure to set the Units parameter to Pixels:
   

Note: Text rendered in PSP X, XI, and X2 is not always the same size as that rendered in previous versions. You will most likely find the text in PSP X, XI, and X2 renders smaller than that in previous versions. This is an ongoing, unresolved problem.

• Temporarily disable one of the paths that existed when you opened the File Locations dialog by clearing the Enable check box in the 'Plug-in file folders' panel (see blue arrow below), or
• Change the order of path entries using the up/down arrows in the 'Plug-in file folders' panel (see red arrow below).
  

When you save this change by clicking the OK button, PSP reloads the Plugins cache file, making your new plugin available without stopping and restarting PSP. You may want to re-open the File Locations dialog and reverse the change you made.

By default, Color Management is enabled in PSP X2. Some users have experienced viewing problems, among which are the following:

• Green, pick, or purple tint to all images.
• All photos showing up darker or lighter than with other software, including previous versions of PSP.
• Images totally black in PSP X2.
• All blues showing up as purple, including in the Materials palette.
• Strange edges in drop shadows and blurs.

If these or similar color problems happen to you, there are two simple choices that will rectify the problems:

1. Choose File...Color Management...Color Management and select the sRGB profile in the Monitor Profile drop-list; OR
2. Totally disable Color Management by UNchecking the Enable Color Management checkbox in the Color Management dialog.

To illustrate this graphically, I created an 8-bit image and a 16-bit image, filled both with a gradient, applied the Gaussian Blur effect twice, Unsharp Mask four times, and the Sharpen effect twelve times:

Though the series of effects applied to these images is not something a person would normally do, the results are amazing, and illustrate the point that applying effects will/can produce radically different results.

If you want to disable this automatic rotation by PSP, choose File...Preferences...File Format Preferences, click on the General tab, and UNcheck 'Rotate images automatically upon opening using EXIF data'.

To capture a color, set your Foreground or Background Material to Color, place your cursor over the Foreground or Background Material box, hold down the CTRL key, move the sampling eye dropper to the area on your screen where you want to capture the color. As you move across the screen, you will see the Sampling Screen tool tip follow the cursor. When you have the color you want in the Sampling Screen color box, left-click to capture the color:

After deleting this folder, it is a good idea to remove the installer-defined shortcut to PSP on your Desktop and replace it with one you create. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Delete from the context menu. Then browse to the Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 folder, find the file called Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo.exe, right-click on that file and choose Create Shortcut from the context menu. Then just move this shortcut to your Desktop.

Note: If you have more than one version of PSP open, the frames will be exported to the most recently-used copy of PSP. If you do not have any version of PSP open, the version of PSP that installed Animation Shop will open - on my system, that's PSP 9.

When you have finished working on the frames, you can do one of two things:

1. Using the Customize facility (View...Customize), drag the "Update Back to Animation Shop" command (which can be found in the Unused Commands category in Customize) back onto a toolbar, and use it to update the animation in Animation Shop with your changes.
2. Close the image in PSP - you will be asked if you want to save the changes:
   • If you click Yes, you will be presented with the Save As dialog, and you can save the image using its original name, or a new name. The changes you made to the animation will NOT be communicated to Animation Shop if you choose this path.
   • If you click the No button, you will be presented with the "Would you like to update the changes back to Animation Shop?" dialog. If you click Yes in this dialog, the changes are communicated to Animation Shop and the image closes. If you click No, the image closes without updating Animation Shop.

There are still some users who seem to have lost the ability to export frames from Animation Shop to PSP. For those users, it is still possible to work in PSP on frames opened in Animation Shop. Once you've selected the frames you want to work on in PSP, if SHIFT + X does not work, copy the frames (CTRL+C), then go to PSP X2 and paste as a new image (CTRL+SHIFT+V). This will give you a layered image with all frames intact, from bottom to top.

For the users above who cannot directly export frames to PSP, the "Update Back to Animation Shop" command will not work either. The solution is to save the image in PSP once the changes have been made and reopen in Animation Shop.

Note: If you have to use this route to update frames, be sure to select all frames from the Animation (CTRL+A) before copying and pasting into PSP X2. If you choose only some of the frames, when you re-open the animation in Animation Shop, several frames will be missing!

Another technique that has been suggested is to split the image to RGB (Image...Split Channel...Split to RGB), apply Clarify to each channel, and then recombine the channels (Image...Combine Channel...Combine from RGB).

1. On your Desktop, click the PSP X2 icon once to select it.
2. Hold down the SHIFT key and double click the PSP X2 icon again.
3. You should get a message asking if you'd like to set the application back to its default state. Click Yes and the registry settings will be removed - be aware that you will lose any customizations or preferences that you have set, but no files will be deleted. When you start PSP, it will be as if for the first time.

1. The first way is very simple, and will work with many fonts:
   • Choose the Text tool.
   • Click on the image where you want to place the text - this will activate the Text Entry box.
   • Type the text you want bulleted.
   • Move the cursor in the Text Entry box to the location where you want to place the bullet, hold down the ALT key and type 0149 using the Numeric Keypad on your keyboard. Sometimes a smaller or square bullet can be created by typing 0183 instead.
2. The second method uses the Windows Character Map program:
   • Choose the Text tool.
   • Click on the image where you want to place the text - this will activate the Text Entry box.
   • Type the text you want bulleted.
   • Return to Windows and choose Start, click on Run, and type CharMap in the Run Open box - this will bring up the Character Map dialog.
   • Choose any installed font from the Font drop-list at the top of the dialog.
   • When you find a bullet you like, click the Select button, and then the Copy button.
   • Return to PSP, place the cursor in the Text Entry box where you want the bullet, and press CTRL + V to paste the bullet. You might need to backspace to return the text to the same line as the bullet.

1. Choose File...Preferences...Reset Preferences.
2. In the Reset the Application dialog, CHECK the "Delete all cache files" checkbox.
3. Click the OK button.
4. Exit PSP - the cache files will be deleted.
5. Restart PSP - the cache files will be rebuilt as needed.