how to select on psd upgrade

[litefish]

This update is insanely confusing.

I do not know where to find the old selection tool - that when you touched an object

it was surrounded by selection "dashes."

I think I may have inadvertantly lost it somewhere.  What I have now is a "quick" selection tool

that does not make visible dashes around it when the object is touched by this tool.  So they can't

be feathered.

There is also an object selection tool that won't select the object I want on the layer that I am

trying to select.  It decides what the object is.

Why in God's name did I upgrade?

Any clear easy to read and follow comments will be most welcome.

This is not the only problem.

I think they created a "smart" photoshop, rather than one that is usable by humans.

[LAMY2017]

litefish, it would help others if you would say what version of Photoshop with which you had become comfortable.

The dashes are called "marching ants" by accord; I can't think of any action on a user's part that could make them go away. I have experienced one of the selection tools [there are more than seven] unbeknownst-to-me selecting much more than I intended.

One place to start: Photoshop>Photoshop Help

The Orientation section has 5 tutorials on getting to know the app; layers; selections!; masks; adjustment layers.

[litefish]

So how would you touch a color on an object to make that color a selection?

[jane-e]

So how would you touch a color on an object to make that color a selection?

By litefish

The very old Magic Wand tool was intended for making selections by color. 

Can you share a screenshot that of your entire Photoshop workspace including the Layers panel with the layer selected so we can better assist you in making this selection. I can think of a dozen possible scenarios.

You might also go to Edit menu > Toolbar and then click Restore Defaults to show any tools that might be hidden.

Jane

[litefish]

apologies for the time lag!

the previous version would have been fine.  

I ended up downloading 2024 (don't ask) and it's perfect.

(BTW the tool I could not find was "Magic Wand."  

It wasn't on the tip of my tongue because I've been using

PSD for 30 years, and work withoiut thinking about the names

of tools.

Very odd how it disapeared, and I couldn't select and feather the

selection edges.

But very happy with a dated version.  It is perfect for the work I do

these days.

[Bojan Živković · Accepted solution]

By the way, you can downgrade your version to the last "as expected".

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html

[creative explorer]

@litefish If you just want the selection tools, the keyboard short is 'M' 

[litefish]

I'd wanted a selection that was not a circle or square,

and wanted to feather.

Also wanted Magic Wand.