My cut command stays greyed out ! Help!

Question

Hi,

Suddenly, this morning, my cut command stopped working like it used to ;
Before : I'd press ctrl+x on the layer I'm working on, or on the image I'm working on, and either the image (or the part selected) or the layer would be cut, which would allow me to paste it elsewhere. Normal.

Now, apparently without having changed anything, and after a few reinstallation : The cut command stays greyed out in the edition panel when I've selected a layer in the layers panel (And it's just a normal pixel layer - this would happen also when I create a new document, with the first thing I 'd do is just adding a new raster layer -> still not able to cut it). So, on the layer panel side of things, this is the situation, I can't cut anything from the layer list, no matter what I do.
On the image side of things, it didn't work either until I found this little workaround : if I press ctrl+a (select all) or if I select a part of the image, the cut command reappears available. At least this is something. But it was better before when I could just ctrl+x without preselecting something from the image.

Please, I'd love your help, I've some work to finish and it's happening to both my pcs (so maybe it's a problem I have on the creative cloud?

Thank you for reading

Ps: it's not a computer problem, this problem doesn't appear in illustrator, or word, or anywhere. Ctrl+x works fine everywhere else
Ps 2: I've tried reinstalling previous versions of photoshop as well.. doesn't work it either 😞

(I'm on windows 10, and 11. And the bug is on all versions 22 and 23 of photoshop, that I've tried so far)

jane-e · Accepted Answer

Thanks again.
I guess I must be going crazy, or be really tired (or been using too much Illustrator recently, where I "ctrl+x" all the time - to move things around), because from what you say it seems like the thing that I feel I'm used to isn't a command that exist in Photoshop ^^' : To Edit > Cut when you click on a layer without having a selection pre-made (ctrl+m/Ctrl+a/etc). Or to Edit > Cut on the workplan without having a selection pre-made(ctrl+m/Ctrl+a/etc).

@sundaybaito wrote:

I guess I must be going crazy, or be really tired

No, it's me who is going crazy or is really tired, not you SundayBaito! Both Ctrl+X and Ctrl+Shift+J require a selection, and I mis-wrote it. I apologize.

Your targeted layer is "guitare". I think there is content on it, but I can't quite tell. The rest of the layer has transparency, so your selection does not have to be perfect. You can drag an imperfect rectangle or use Ctrl+A, then follow with Ctrl+X. Only the pixels will get pasted.

There is one other thing you can do. If your goal is to cut the guitar and paste it to another pixel layer to combine the content of the two layers, you can

move the "guitare" layer to be just above the other
make sure the "guitare" layer is still selected,
choose Merge Down from the Layers panel menu (Ctrl+E).

If any pixels overlap, the ones below will be replaced as they would with cut and paste. Also, you can't merge a pixel layer onto a shape layer (your "Rectangle 5").

I've been using PS since 1994 and don't remember Cut ever working differently.

For testing purposes, what happens in Illustrator when you go to Select > Deselect ("Ctrl+Shift+A")? Is Edit > Cut or Ctrl+X available? Or do you need to make a selection first?

Jane

jane-e · Answer

@sundaybaito

To cut part of the layer, make a selection first. You have the Rectangular Marquee tool. You can use it to drag out a selection, then Ctrl+X will work. (Or make a selection another way.)

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/moving-copying-deleting-selected-pixels.html

To cut an entire layer with nothing selected, go to Layer > New Layer > Layer via Cut "Ctrl+Shift+J" (or Copy "Ctrl+J").

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/create-layers-groups.html

This will also work with selections.

Jane

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