Photoshop: Simple double-click polygonal selection error fix

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

It's staggering that I've been using Photoshop for so many years, and this issue hasn't been addressed. I know it causes frustration for most users. It certainly has for me on a regular basis.

Scenario: you're using the polygonal selection tool, you've painstakingly clicked around myriad curves and corners, then BOOM...the selection area closes prematurely and you have to start over. It's hard to imagine how many groans of frustration this has caused the user base over the years. How has this not been fixed?

The solution I know every single user would be happy with is painfully simple: undo. You close the path accidentally, a simple undo should return you to the point just before the path closed. Now I'm no programmer, but I have to assume this is more complicated than it sounds or you'd have already done it. Either way, please find a solution for this. It's long, long overdue.

Thanks,
Jason

[TSTLOFT]

Absolutely so true, that I get a certain feeling in my stomach everytime I use the poly selection tool.

If undo is impossible, perhaps the path should start saving to it's own layer automatically. Somehow it should be addressed.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Same here! It's like playing the kid's game Operation, where you're concentrating so hard, and just waiting for the buzzer to go off. It's the only tool in the Adobe family that induces this measure of anxiety!

[TSTLOFT]

haha, or like stacking dominos carefully. One mis-step and all your work is poof.

I sometimes wish the selection tools could be a bit tighter, so we not have to use manual selection tools, but then I suppose anyone could do my job then!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Yes, click that last point too hard and whoosh! all gone. Continuously save clicks to a selection layer as you go must be reasonably easy, all the points have to be being stored anyway.

[sethshaw]

Hi Jason, 

If you were able to step backwards/undo multiple steps with the lasso tool, what would you expect to happen? Thanks for the feedback. Making a note of it and will bring it up with the team for discussion.

-Seth

[psd photography]

I'm just working on a complex car cut out now and in spite of proficiency with the Polygonal Lasso, have double clicked and completed a section where it's going to take me several minutes to unpick it via adding and subtracting from my erroneous selection, or about 10 minutes to redo it.   The Undo option should simply go back one step to the previous state of the selection being incomplete and at the last point clicked.    Whether each click of the polygonal lasso gets registered in the history or not doesn't matter to me, as long as I can immediately step back from a completed selection to the previous state. I know that backspace also goes back intermediate clicks for the lasso, that's why it may not be required to show each click in the history.  Possibly just a 'selection completed' line.

[strawbo13]

Why not just use the Pen Tool and convert your path to a selection? That way you can preserve the history, come back at any time, as well as feather the selection.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

fucck you adobe, these comments are 3 years old and there is still no fix, i just wasted a half hour making a selection, accidentally double clicking, and then digging through multiple years of users complaining about the same issue that has yet to be addressed.

[strawbo13]

*Samuel Cody Sorry this has been frustrating. It is not an easy thing to change in Photoshop.

Per my previous comment, I think there is an existing solution to the problem. If you use the Pen Tool instead of the Polygonal Lasso Tool, you can Undo each point, save the path for later, and also feather the selection if desired. I think it gives you all the functionality you want, and more, but I would love to understand if there is something about the Pen Tool that won't work in this scenario.

Instructions:

1. Select the Pen Tool
2. Click to create your path (you can use CMD-Z to undo the creation of any point)
3. Once you have created your path, press the "Make: Selection" button in the Tool Options bar
4. A dialog appears asking if you want to feather the selection

Let me know if this solves your problem.