Magic Wand not working

[joelh33703351]

I am working with  the lastest version of Ps on a dell lap top. Despite the fact that what I am trying to do is rudimentary I am having myraid problems:

1) When I choose the magic wand I am given the option of watching a video or of learning more. If I choose to learn more I am told that I should choose "new selection" from the option bar but there is no such option. Nor can I seem to just choose the tool.

2) I have attached the dreamtime tear sheet. When I zoom in on what I want and choose the sign I want and either lasso or use the magic wand, I then under edit use copy. Then I go to my background and paste it but it only shows me the triangle of the sign, not the content. However if I go back and increase the selection to include the content of the sign not just the triangle, all of it becomes highlighted and yet I can no longer choose to copy it. What I really want to do is just extract the content of the sign and wonder if I were to magic wand just the content and use selection based on color range would that allow me to get the content. 

3) I seem to need to save this file before it will appear as a layer. I have attached the triangle jpeg which as it indicates does not have the content of the sign but only the triangle outline. 

4) Unrelated. When I open the background I want it appears in the middle of the work window with it's size indicated in "points" whereas I want it to fill the whole screen so I can work with it. Thanks

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Hi @joelh33703351 

1) go to preferences Tools and turn off "Rich Tool Tips" this will deactivate the video tutorials.

2) If you use the magic wand, you are selecting "contiguous" (connected) colors - so if you clicked the black outline it only selected that and not the interior content as well.

The files you keep referring to appear to me to be Illustrator vector files from Dreamtime - I would try using the Polygon Lasso Tool (found under the Lasso Tool) to "connect the dots" and make a selection around the sign instead of trying to grab each individual component.

[joelh33703351]

Kevin - Thank you thank you . Will try what you suggest. Grateful