Creative Tip: Drag Photoshop Selections Between Documents.

I’m always delighted when I discover basic Photoshop techniques I missed along the way. We all know you can drag selected pixels from one window into another. Somehow I missed that if you drag that same selection while using one of Photoshop’s selection tools, you can drag the selection itself (with no pixels) over into a new document.
I must have known this at some point, but I’d obviously forgotten because I have a clumsy method I’ve used for years when I needed to copy selection outlines between documents. If this little tip saves anyone those extra steps, then revealing my personal ignorance was worth it.
Source: This is one of those little details I picked up during Jason Hoppe’s 5-Week Photoshop Fundamentals course. For as long as I’ve been using these tools, I still learn something new from almost every course I sit in on.

September 28th, 2009 at 5:09 am
…and if you hold down the shift key as you move your selection to the other document, your selection will be copied to the exact same location. (also goo when you are moving pixels).
September 28th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Muy buen blog de diseƱo! great blog! thanks from Argentina.
January 9th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Thank you for this useful tutorial
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February 3rd, 2010 at 11:28 am
Thank you for you informative post
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March 26th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
This can can drive you mad with frustration until you find out it ONLY works when the selection mode is set to “new selection”. In the other three (add, substract, intersect) you’ll only change the selection.