Photo cropping problem...I'm baffled!

Janet S

Janet S

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Name
Janet
Edit My Images
Yes
Normally I have no problem with cropping images, but something's gone wrong recently and I simply can't fix it! This problem has been ongoing for weeks now and I suspect I may have inadvertently changed a setting on my PC somewhere. Then again, I KNOW I haven't changed anything, so what the heck is going on?

Basically, I select "Crop" and the crop box appears on the photo....now I used to have a "hand" shaped cursor that allowed me to simply hold a mouse button down and move the box around for the best positioning, then I could adjust each edge or corner as appropriate.

Now all I have is a "cross" cursor, with arrows pointing NSEW and the minute I click on it, the crop box is shown and my image is resized to whatever is showing in the crop box, without having any chance of repositioning it or adjusting anything.

Does that make sense to anyone?

I've tried it in Firefox, Chrome and IE...I've run virus scans and cleared cookies/cache etc.

I'm at my wit's end!

Any help would be gratefully received....


Janet
 
What software are you using?
 
Sorry, I didn't explain very well...I am indeed trying to use a couple of online editors, hence the reason for using different browsers.

I have PS Elements 10 and several other editing programmes, but for quick fixes and uploading to FB for family/friends, the online ones have been great and it's very frustrating that I can't use them right now.

Just to add...every other feature works fine...it's only the crop tool that I'm having problems with.

Janet
 
I've tried it with and without CAPS LOCK and it's still the same.

Janet
 
You may be set on the 'recompose' tool, which is nested with the 'crop' tool. Try: Click-and-hold on 'crop' in the tools menu, then select the 'crop' option.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, but I'm still no wiser!

Jon, there doesn't appear to be a recompose tool. I simply click on "Crop", which brings up the crop box on the image, but when I move my mouse over it, instead of getting the hand symbol which used to allow me to move the box, I get this cross thing instead and I can't move the box. Clicking on it simply crops the image to wherever the box happens to be.

It was working fine up until a week or so ago, but as the two editors in question are reasonably new, I thought it was a problem with the sites. The two sites are PicMonkey and Ribbet, if that's any help, but I'm having problems with Picasa also.

I've also noticed that I can't simply use the left mouse button to click and drag to highlight text any more. I have to put the cursor at the beginning of the text and use shift/left click to highlight it.

As you can tell, I'm not very technically minded!

Janet
 
Janet, can you move the crop box using the arrow keys on your computer keyboard?
 
Janet S said:
Thanks for the replies guys, but I'm still no wiser!

Jon, there doesn't appear to be a recompose tool. I simply click on "Crop", which brings up the crop box on the image, but when I move my mouse over it, instead of getting the hand symbol which used to allow me to move the box, I get this cross thing instead and I can't move the box. Clicking on it simply crops the image to wherever the box happens to be.

It was working fine up until a week or so ago, but as the two editors in question are reasonably new, I thought it was a problem with the sites. The two sites are PicMonkey and Ribbet, if that's any help, but I'm having problems with Picasa also.

I've also noticed that I can't simply use the left mouse button to click and drag to highlight text any more. I have to put the cursor at the beginning of the text and use shift/left click to highlight it.

As you can tell, I'm not very technically minded!

Janet
Click to expand...

What crop, in photoshop or something else?
 
John - yes, I've tried the cursor keys and they don't work.

Derek - I did a system restore last night, and that hasn't helped either.

To make matters worse, I'm now having the same or similar problem in almost every editing program - I've tried Elements 10, Photomatix and Olympus Master and none of them are working correctly.

I'm really at my wit's end now, as I have a wedding coming up next weekend...eeeek!

I'll try and get a replacement mouse tomorrow to see if that's the problem.

Meanwhile, if anybody has any ideas, I'll try anything!

Janet
 
Thanks for all the replies, but I think (fingers crossed!) that I've finally sussed it out!

The problem appears to be with the mouse - I've messed around with the settings, and swapped over the left/right mouse buttons and now it all seems to be working fine ...for now! Just have to remember to right click instead of left click!

New mouse will be purchased tomorrow!

Janet
 
That's what I've done Steve - I've simply altered the settings to swap left and right and it seems to work OK with the right button.

Janet
 
WHat are the online editors you are using? Maybe they have changed the set-up.
 
Graphilly, it's been happening in every program I've tried....finally identified that it must be some sort of problem with the left mouse button. When I switch the functions round, the right button works just fine and I can move the crop box OK.

Thanks everyone for your help....really appreciate all your suggestions. I'll be getting a new mouse tomorrow!

Janet
 
If it's not a hardware problem (and sounds like it might be), you might have inadvertently activated some accessibility settings on windows - they can do very strange things to mouse clicks.

Check Control Panel/Mouse, make sure ClickLock is off. Then open Accessibility Options/Mouse, and make sure MouseKeys is off, and all the keyboard options are off as well.
 
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