Reset Tool

Back to the beginning...

Ever fiddled with the settings for a tool until you can't work out what you've broken? It's not just you, we all do it. ;) Sometimes we 'play about' so much, the tool stops working altogether!

A common one for me is the shape tool. I use it slightly less than some other tools, and when I start to do anything complex with it, it sometimes gets confused.

The phrase "Do what I want you to, not what I tell you to!" comes to mind.

Luckily every tool has a quick and simple reset button, just waiting to sort out all those problems. When you select any tool on the toolbar, its the first button to appear in the options bar. The reset button for the shape tool is circled below:

When you click it, Photoshop Elements displays a menu with two options. The 'Reset Tool' option will be grayed out for some tools, if they simply have no options to reset, but the 'Reset All Tools' option should always be available.

Beware resetting all tools. You may find you liked things how you had left them for the most part, but sometimes it's useful to just start with a completely clean slate.

The 'Reset Tool' menu item is shown below:

When you hit this option, Photoshop will restore all the default settings for the tool you have selected. This should fix any oddities which have arisen through altering settings.

This is a simple technique, but very useful to remember for if you get yourself in a tangle.

Kind Regards

Robert Redwood Robert Redwood - Bio
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A page about Resetting Tools