# Photoshop Elements 2020 - Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679 "2020-02-28T22:36:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/1 "2020-02-28T22:36:49Z")
I rarely use a photo editor – and then only to add captions – so I need some help. [ul][li]Photoshop Elements 2020[/li][li]MacBook Pro[/li][li]MacOS Mojave version 10.14.6[/ul][/li] I want to take two images and merge them together. I can open them in Photoshop, but I can’t see a way to copy one onto the other, or to copy them both into a new document. I looked online, and it says to open a blank document and drag images into it. Photoshop opens in fullscreen. Ordinarily, I’d just resize the window by grabbing a corner and dragging. It’s not letting me do this. I can Maximise, Minimise, or Close the window, but I can’t resize it. I can open a Finder window over Photoshop; but when I drag a file onto a blank document, it just opens the image as if I used Open. If I try to drag another image into the space, it opens another document. So: Since I can’t drag images into a workspace, how to I merge two images together? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/2 "2020-02-28T22:46:48Z")
I don’t use Elements, but they way you do this in Photoshop is with Layers. And, if you want it to open in a Window, put your pointer at the top of the screen, and then click the green button when it appears. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/3 "2020-02-28T22:59:06Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I don’t use Elements, but they way you do this in Photoshop is with Layers. I opened Photoshop, clicked on Help, and typed ‘layers’. It gave several options, each of which pointed to places on the toolbar. All of the choices were greyed out. I tried the same after opening a blank document (or whatever they’re called in Photoshop) with the same results. I need help getting started. > [@beowulff](#): > > IAnd, if you want it to open in a Window, put your pointer at the top of the screen, and then click the green button when it appears. I clicked on the green button, the window shrunk to one that I could resize. Thanks. FWIW, I was able to create the image I wanted by dragging the two images into a Word document, then using command+shift+4 to get a screenshot. But I’d like to learn how to do this in Photoshop. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/4 "2020-02-28T23:22:27Z")
In Photoshop there’s several ways, here’s one: Ctrl/Command+A to Select All, Ctrl/Cmd-C Copy, go the the other window and ctrl/cmd paste and you get both layers in the same window. The one you just pasted will be topmost. In Photoshop you can see them both in the Layers palette and choose opacity and blend mode for each. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/5 "2020-02-28T23:24:58Z")
Again in Photoshop, not Elements, the bottom most layer is special and called the Background layer. You can’t drag it around unless you unlock it / convert it to a regular layer. There’s a little ‘lock’ icon in the layer palette that you can click on and the background turns into a regular layer. Then you can use the Move tool (four-arrow icon) to drag it around and even into another window. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/6 "2020-02-28T23:54:51Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > In Photoshop there’s several ways, here’s one: Ctrl/Command+A to Select All, Ctrl/Cmd-C Copy, go the the other window and ctrl/cmd paste and you get both layers in the same window. The one you just pasted will be topmost. In Photoshop you can see them both in the Layers palette and choose opacity and blend mode for each. I tried (once again) to drag the files onto the blank page. I was hoping to avoid screenshots, but [this is what I got](https://imgur.com/a/JvJUp4S). You can see that at the bottom of the page is a thumbnail for the blank page, a thumbnail for an image, and a thumbnail for the image on the active page. I can cmd+A and I get the dashed outline letting me know the image is selected. When I cmd+C, it goes _ **ding!** _, which is how this computer says ‘I don’t wanna.’ ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/7 "2020-02-29T01:04:36Z")
Man I wish I had the app in front of me. How about this? With the setup I see in your screenshot, cmd+A, cmd+C, then click on the blank page image at the bottom. You then should see that same blank page at the top, correct? Now cmd-V. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/8 "2020-02-29T01:07:19Z")
cmd-C is where it fails. I get a \ ***ding!** , indicating that the function was not performed. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/9 "2020-02-29T01:13:10Z")
Also try running in Expert mode at the top, perhaps the program is turning off features in Quick mode. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/10 "2020-02-29T01:19:48Z")
[This guy shows what to do.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXaKxDl-nus) He copies a layer at 5:48, but watch all the intro stuff about how he sets the app up in Expert mode. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/11 "2020-02-29T01:25:53Z")
And he does a copy / paste of a layer at 12:44 ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/12 "2020-02-29T04:12:59Z")
Did that work for you? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-elements-2020-mac/848679/13 "2020-02-29T15:53:31Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Did that work for you? DIdn’t have a chance to try it last night. Just got up. No coffee yet.