The Marquee Tool is a commonly used tool when digital scrapbooking with Photoshop Elements. Familiarize yourself with the options of the rectangular and elliptical marquee tool, and you'll be able to do more with your selections. (To become familiar with the Marquee Tool icon and other tool icons, please see The Photoshop Elements Tool Bar for Digital Scrapbooking Part 1 and Part 2). This guide is going to show you not only where the additional marquee options are located, but it will also give you a brief overview of what each option does as well.
1. Marquee Tool Sub-Menu
When the Marquee Tool is activated, a whole new sub-menu opens up below the main menu. This is where you will find additional settings to use for your selections.
2. Selection Type
This first set of icons allows you to choose how you’re going to use your Marquee Tool. The first icon is “New Selection” and is usually active by default. This allows you to make a standard, new selection with either the rectangle or ellipse marquee. The second represents “Add to Selection.” Use this if you already have an active selection that you’d like to add to. The third icon is “Subtract from Selection.” Choose this type if you need to subtract from an active selection. The final choice is “Intersect Selection.” When you have an existing active selection you can choose this option, make a new selection with some of the area overlapping into your first selection and end up with only the intersected area actually selected.
3. Feather
The feather tool allows you to create a soft, faded edge on your selection. Type a number in the box to set how many pixels into the selection you’d like the feather to be.
4. Anti-Alias
Check this box to slightly smooth jagged edges in your selection. The difference won’t be extreme, but it will help.
5. Selection Mode
The selection mode drop down lets you choose whether you’d like your selection to be normal, a fixed aspect ratio or fixed size. Normal means that selection will be whatever you select with your mouse cursor. Choosing “Fixed Aspect Ratio” and setting a ratio value (e.g. 1:1 ratio would be a square selection, 1:2 ratio would be a vertical rectangle, 2:1 would be a horizontal rectangle, etc.) will make sure that when you drag the selection, it always conforms to the ratio you’ve set. Choosing “Fixed Size” and entering a pixel value for the height and width will make a specific sized selection appear any time you click in your canvas with the Marquee Tool active.