Selection is empty

In trying to copy and paste portions of a picture to other portions of the same picture I sometimes get the
message "cannot copy because the selection is empty." Am sure this is a Photoshop kindergarten question, but
please help anyway. Thanks. Bud Win98SE Photoshop 6




Bud Paulson

Bud Paulson wrote:

> In trying to copy and paste portions of a picture to other
> portions of the same picture I sometimes get the message "cannot
> copy because the selection is empty."

You're probably standing on the wrong layer.
If you make a selection on the background layer for instance, but
the layer above is the active layer, you'll copy pixels inside
the selection from the active layer and not from the background
layer. If there's no pixels inside the selection on the active
layer, the selection is empty and you'll therefore get the message
when you try to copy.

Photoshop is clever. Why copy when there is nothing to copy?

--
Regards
Madsen.