Selections and the Status Bar
Being able to understand the status bar is a critical part of working with most selections and I refer to it in many of my tutorials. I too often have taken for granted that people understand how to use it and all too often have been asked to explain what the heck I am talking about. So with that in mind here is a mini tut explaining how to use the status bar (which is the bar running across the very bottom of your workspace..lol).
Resources- PSP 8 or 9.
Let's get started
*Please note: If you install this tutorial as a quick guide you may get a script error when trying to view the images, just click "yes" at the prompt and the images will show properly. Don't know how to install quick guides? then check out the tutorial found HERE.- Open a new image 250 x 250px. White background. Add a new raster layer. Do not move your cursor over the image yet. Get the rectangular selection tool.
Take a look at the status bar. On the left you should see "Selection Tool: Click and drag to select. Use Shift to add to the existing selection, or Ctrl to remove." And on the far right you should see Image 250 x 250 x 16 million. The left side of the status bar tells you what tool is selected and what the tool does. If you hover your mouse over any of the icons in the workspace, such as on the layers palette, the status bar will tell you what that icon does.
The right side of the status bar at this point tells you the size of the image (250 x 250) and how many colors the image contains (16 million). These will remain constant as long as the image is open. It should also be noted that if you open your image in inches instead of pixels the size of the image in the status bar is still represented in pixels as is the cursor position.
- Now slide your cursor over the image and watch the right side of the status bar. You should see something like this:
The numbers in the parenthesis represent where your cursor is in pixels at any given moment and are called the coordinates. The letters X Y represent points from the left edge (x) and from the top edge (y). So in the example above my cursor is over from the left 113 pixels and down from the top 173 pixels.
Even though you do not click on the image, once you have hovered your cursor over it the status bar will register the coordinates. If you move your cursor off of the image the last coordinates will still register until you move your cursor off of the workspace.
- Move your cursor over your image until your status bar looks like this:
- Now left click and drag out the selection until the status bar looks like this:
You now have a perfectly square selection 150px x 150 px. The numbers in the first set of parenthesis are the starting coordinates (x50 y50), the numbers in the second set of parenthesis are your ending coordinates (x200 y200) and the numbers in the third set of parenthesis is the size of the selection (150px x 150px)
The number in the bracket reflect the ratio between the longest side and the shortest side (width and height) of the selection. Since our selection is a perfect square (height and width are equal) our number shows 1.00.
- Ok select none. Now place your cursor at x50 y50 and draw a rectangle ending at x200 y100. Keep an eye on your status bar and notice the numbers in brackets.
If the number in brackets is a whole number, in this case 3, the longest side is the width. Conversely, if the height is greater than the width the number is brackets will be a decimal number. When drawing with the circle, square and rounded square this number will always be 1, since in all case width and height are equal. You will rarely use the number is brackets, in fact, the only example I can think of would be illustrating a word problem from a math book. I am sure there must be more advanced uses for it since the developers put it there but since I am no brainiac I don't know what they would be 
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And that is all there is to it!. I hope you learned something useful and enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to .
