Sometimes when working with Paint Shop Pro you will try to make some change and nothing will happen - perhaps now you can guess the probable cause. If part of the picture is selected and you try to change an unselected part then nothing will happen... press Ctrl-D to deselect the selection then try again to make your change.

The above links show various ways of making selections, some easier than others. The easiest selection technique of them all is Ctrl-A, used to select All the image (assuming none of it spreads beyond the edges of the canvas).

Feathering

Feathering specifies a width in pixels (0 to 200) that the selection is faded along the edges. When you move or paste the selection, feathering helps blend the selection into the surrounding area and makes it appear more natural. The higher the Feather value, the softer the edges. Set the width to 0 to create a selection with no feathering and distinct edges.

To feather a new selection, choose a selection tool (Selection, Freehand, or Magic Wand) and on the Tool Options palette adjust the Feather value. When you make the new selection, that feathering is used.

You can also modify the feathering amount after you create the selection by choosing Selections > Modify > Feather and setting the number of pixels for the feathering width. This method has the advantage that you can see more clearly the extent of the feathering.

Feathering won't make any obvious difference to the way the selected area appears on your screen. However, when you do anything to the selected area, such as lightening it, moving it, copying it or whatever, the feathering will make a difference. Since the selection no longer has a sharp edge, the parts of the picture that are close to the edge of the selected area (indicated by a shimmering line called 'marching ants') will be affected very little whereas parts well inside the line WILL be strongly affected.

The best way to understand feathering is to look at an example. (This page is to read only - you do not need to copy the image below into Paint Shop Pro.) Here I used freehand selection tool to quickly select the strange animal from a photo taken at a traditional dance in Bali, Indonesia. The feathering of the tool was set to zero. I copied the selection and pasted it into the left of a photo of a building. Returning to the picture taken in Bali, I could have changed the feathering setting of the tool and re-selected the animal but instead I used the existing selection and changed the feathering from zero to 10 with Selections > Modify > Feather. Then I copied the feathered selection and pasted it into the right side of the building image. I also reversed one of the images using Image > Mirror. I'm sure that you can see that the unfeathered image on the left is sharp-edged, whereas the feathered image on the right has blurred edges. You're probably thinking that the unfeathered image looks better and I would have to agree with you, but often a moderate amount of feathering (set to not more than 5) is helpful to soften borders that would otherwise be too sharp.

^   Feathering = 0   ^                                ^    Feathering = 10   ^

Anti-aliasing

This is about the same as using feathering set to 1 i.e. it blurs just the very edge of the selection, making it less jagged. Since only a narrow edge is blurred, there is no loss of detail. Unlike feathering, anti-aliasing cannot be added after the selection is made.

Adding to and subtracting from selections

If you ever want to add to an existing selection, hold down the Shift key while you use your selection tool (selection tool, freehand selection tool, magic wand tool or whatever) - a small '+' sign will appear to confirm that you are adding. To subtract from the existing selection, hold down the Ctrl key while you select the area to be subtracted (look for the small '-' sign). The fact that you can easily add to or subtract from a selected area should be reassuring for you, for it means that if your first attempt at selecting an area is not quite right then you don't need to start all over again - just make corrections to the selection by adding or subtracting as necessary.