'Properties Panel' not showing correct properties

[1Eyed_Blackbird]

I was following a basic photoshop tutorial on how to make a star using the polygon shape tool. i followed everything step by step, but when the guy in the tutorial went to do something in the properties panel, it looked completely different than mine.

His (left pic) was showing the shape properties, mine (right pic) is only showing mask options (density/feather).

I couldn't figure out what i was doing wrong or how i could change the settings of this window. I also haven't found anything on this forum or elsewhere that had a working solution.

Normally i only use Photoshop for Freehand Drawing so i'm new to this kind of problem.

I'm currently using Version 21.2.12. All help appreciated.

[D Fosse]

The panel changes according to what element in the document is targeted/active. You have a mask targeted, and the panel shows mask properties. Target the shape, and the panel shows shape properties.

Look in the layers panel, and you see the mask icon has a frame/brackets to indicate it's active. Anything you do now will affect the mask only.

Click the shape icon to target the shape, and it now gets the frame/brackets to show it's active. Anything you do now will affect the shape.

Similar for pixel layers, and adjustment layers. Each active state has its own properties panel.

[1Eyed_Blackbird]

Thank you for the quick answer 🙂

Just one more dumb question: how/where can i target the shape? where can i find the shape icon?

[D Fosse]

Look in your Layers panel.

[1Eyed_Blackbird]

I did look for it right after you first answered me, i couldn't locate it. Could you maybe send me a screenshot showing where i can find it?

I'm sorry if i am making all this unneccesarily complicated, english is not my first language, so maybe i just didn't understand it right. (but my photoshop is set to english, so thats not the problem).

Thank you for your patience

[jane-e]

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@1Eyed_Blackbird wrote:

I did look for it right after you first answered me, i couldn't locate it. Could you maybe send me a screenshot showing where i can find it?

You can open all panels from the Window menu. They are in alphabetical order, so Window menu > Layers.

Can you show two screenshots? 

• The entire screen from the tutorial that shows the polygon
• Your screen with the polygon shape, Properties panel, and Layers panel

Jane

[1Eyed_Blackbird]

This is the screenshot of the tutorial:

This is the screenshot of my photoshop screen:

I always have my layers and properties panels on the bottom right, so finding those isn't the problem, i just don't know where IN the panels i can find the shape icon to target the shape.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

As far as I remember, Live Shapes for polygons were added in Photoshop 2021 (which is version 22). So in v21 you won't see that panel for polygons (you will see it for rectangles).

Dave

[1Eyed_Blackbird]

Thank you! Did not think of that.

Tried it on the newer version and it worked like a charm. Who knew things could be so simple 😅