How does the link layers function work?

[mc_peko]

I've clicked link on two layers and set 'Link Set' to 1 on both. I want to make a selection, and move what is in it. But with the contents from two or more layers, not just one. The move tool seems to always move the background layer, although it's locked. What am I missing. I've been looking for this basic feature for a long time. How does the link layers function work?

[hartpaul]

Use the Help > Help Topics and Search for Linking Layers to read about it. AS said there it is used with the move tool to move the whole layer . It does not move the selection independently. You need to get your selections on their own layer . Try Promote selection to layer . If you do this with each of your selections and then link those layers they will move together.

[MarkZ]

. . . . The move tool seems to always move the background layer, although it's locked. . . .

Are you referring here to the lock icon above the layers? This tool locks the transparency for the layer, not the position. See Help topics, layers, protecting transparency.

[mc_peko]

Are you referring here to the lock icon above the layers?

Yes.

This tool locks the transparency for the layer, not the position.

Wow. I did not know this. At all. Protecting transparent areas of raster layers... What would we need that for?

See Help topics, layers, protecting transparency.

Yes. Thanks. Is it not possible to protect layers then?

[LeviFiction]

What would we need that for?

I don't find it comes up very often for me, but when it does it's very handy option. And it'll come up more often for different people and projects.

One great use is when drawing with the paint brush. If the layer has soft edges so semi-transparent pixels, you can draw without worrying about creating a selection and it won't draw anything that isn't already there. So if you've spent time getting it just right you don't have to worry about going outside the edges. And you can be sloppy.

Necessary? No, but useful.

Just as the "paint behind" feature of the Paint Brush is useful. It's a blend mode found on the tool options palette. Paint Behind will only draw in transparent areas. Leaving pixels that already exist alone.

[MarkZ]

...
Yes. Thanks. Is it not possible to protect layers then?

As far as I know it is not possible to protect layers - by protect I assume you mean preventing a layer from being altered. I think that is a desirable feature and have asked for something like that not long ago.

Consequently, I nudge a layer out of place at times. There are at least three ways to correct that:
- if you notice quickly enough, click on undo
- select the guilty layer, select pick tool, go to menu/object/align/center in canvas - this assumes the layer is the same size as the background
- go to history and undo the pick tool. Not sure this will always work.

[LeviFiction]

Fun thing. In the History Palette if you click on the eye-ball it undos all of the steps up through the step that you selected. So it's a way of undoing a lot of actions quickly.

However, if you Ctrl + Click on the eyeball it will only undo that one action. Leaving the actions before it and after it intact. So it's possible to undo something without effecting everything you've done since.

Of course that should be used cautiously. What it essentially does is it undoes all of the commands through the command you want to remove. Then ignoring the command you wanted remove, it re-executes all of the other commands. So it essentially creates a script and runs that. For the most part it should be fine, but there's always the chance it'll mess up.

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Also, the move tool only works on visible layers. So if you turn off a layer's visibility it won't be selected when you miss with the move tool. Or if you forget to hold shift while using the move tool.

[Tadjio]

if you Ctrl + Click on the eyeball it will only undo that one action. Leaving the actions before it and after it intact. So it's possible to undo something without effecting everything you've done since.

That's a fantastic discovery
I will definitely use that - indeed I have already

[MarkZ]

LeviFiction:

As I've said recently in another post, you are a font of information. I would love to have a compendium of all the tools and possible variations, combinations of the shift, ctrl, alt keys that go with them, as a reference. All I saw in Help is a brief description of what each tool does, I saw none of the time-saving subtleties. Your comment about visible layers is a help, but often one wants to work on a layer in relation to another (visible) layer. Thanks.