Edit - and clear is greyed out...

[danam50]

I've just been following a tutorial around putting an image in a circle - the advice was to draw the shape onto the image using shape tool, then Select - Inverse, then... Edit - Clear (to clear the background), but I cannot select clear as it is greyed out.  Not sure what to do to clear background...

I'm using version 12.1 - CS5...   Any ideas of what i can do? 

[Dynamic Office]

This probably has something to do with which layer you’re trying to remove the background from, you must have the layer selected which you’d like to make the edit on (In this case the edit is deleting)

1. Another way is to just press Delete on your keyboard J

[danam50]

Thanks for the answers - for some reason it's still not working!  I have the correct layer selected and when  simply try to delete, get the message that the smart object is not directly editable - either with inverse selected or not... 🙂

[Guest]

Hi

Hit control D to deselect everything and double click on the smart objects thumbnail

It will open in a new window, make your edits and then close that window it will then ask you to save the changes select yes

[danam50]

Thanks so much for the responses so far.  🙂
I just found the issue.  During the process, I forgot that I had also right clicked on the circle shape path and selected Make Selection.  When this window opens, there's an option to turn on or off Anti-aliased.  It needs to be turned off.

[Dynamic Office]

Shouldn't be any reason for Anti-aliasing to effect its ability to remove the inverse...

I had to double check, so recreated and with it turned on, i can still remove my selection.

Has your suggestion fixed the problem? If not could you send a screenshot of your entire photoshop window, making sure the layers are visible

Thanks

[danam50]

Ah yes, I just checked that too Charles.  There were a few steps I missed out I think, but it works using Ged's description of the double-click thumbnail opening a new window to work in.  That seems to do the trick with clear becoming available. 
Thanks so much for all your help!

[Guest]

To make the circle selection you could have just used the Elliptical Marquee Tool, that would have saved you a bit of time.

I don't know why they said this "the advice was to draw the shape onto the image using shape tool" in the tutorial, seems an odd way to make a selection

[danam50]

Oh yes, thanks Ged... I'm not a frequent PS user, so have forgotten a lot of options.  🙂

[Dynamic Office]

You can also copy/cut your image, use the Elliptical Marquee Tool, make your shape (hold shift to keep it a perfect circle), then Edit > Paste into

Then your image will paste directly into the circle and you can move/transform/edit the image and it will still remain in the circle.

Much easier than the tutorial you're using