Using the Select tool in Paint by Zaweba
The Select tool (V) in Paint by Zaweba picks the layer under a click, moves it, resizes and rotates with handles, and opens the right editor on a double-click.
At the top of the toolbox in Paint by Zaweba sits the Select tool, on the V key. It is the tool you will probably use more than any other, because it is how you pick things on the canvas and move, size and turn them, without having to find the right layer in the Layers panel first.
Clicking to select
Click on something in the picture and the Select tool selects the layer under that click. For a design with a dozen layers, a background photo, a few shapes, a logo and some text, that is far quicker than scanning the Layers panel for the right name. Click the logo, and the logo's layer is active. Click the heading, and you are on the text layer.
With a layer selected, drag it to move it. This is the everyday job: nudging a product shot into place, sliding a caption down a little, lining up a badge with the edge of a photo. Snapping and Smart Guides work as you drag if you have them switched on in the View menu, so you can land things against guides or see when gaps are equal.
Handles for size and rotation
A selected layer shows square handles round its edge and a round handle for rotation.
Drag a square handle to resize. Hold Shift to keep the proportions, which is what you want almost every time with photos and logos, since stretching them looks wrong straight away. Hold Alt to scale about the centre, so the layer grows or shrinks evenly in every direction without drifting.
Drag the round handle to rotate. That is handy for angled labels, tilted photos in a collage, or straightening something that was placed slightly crooked.
Double-click to edit
The Select tool also knows what kind of layer you have clicked, and a double-click opens the right way to edit it. Double-click text and it opens for typing, so you can fix a word without switching to the Type tool. Double-click a shape and Shape Edit opens, where you can work with the shape itself. Double-click a pixel layer and Free Transform starts, with its fuller set of options for distorting and skewing.
One reassuring detail: the Select tool never rasterises text. Move it, resize it, turn it, and it is still live text you can edit later. That matters for anything you might reuse, such as a template for weekly posts where only the words change.
Select, Move or Free Transform
The Select tool is the general purpose tool for arranging layers. The Move tool is still there for moving layers with linked layers following and arrow-key nudges, and Free Transform (Ctrl+T) offers more exact control with typed values and distortions. Think of Select as the quick everyday tool, and the others as the specialists you reach for when Select is not enough.
Working well with it
Keep V as your home tool when building layouts. Go out to a drawing or painting tool, then come back to V to arrange. If you find yourself selecting the wrong layer because things overlap, click on a part of the layer you want that nothing else covers, or pick it in the Layers panel and move it from there.
Frequent errors
Resizing a photo without Shift is the most common mistake, and it leaves faces and products squashed. If something looks off, undo and try again with Shift held. The second is double-clicking a pixel layer by accident and finding yourself in Free Transform; back out of it without making a change and carry on.
Simple as it is, the Select tool is what makes Paint by Zaweba comfortable for layout work, not only for editing photos.
