Let's talk layers. LAYERS gives you all your different layer options. Starting with the basics such as ADDING A NEW RASTER and ADDING A NEW VECTOR, NEW LAYER GROUP, NEW MASK LAYER and NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYERS.  If you are a new user you will be working mostly with just the NEW RASTER LAYER.  If you do not understand the concept of Vectors verses Rasters I have a tutorial on the JASC website that explains them here.

DUPLICATE does just that, duplicates which ever layer is active in the layers palette. DELETE does just that too, deletes which ever layer is active in the layers palette. UNGROUP LAYERS will ungroup any layers that you may have grouped, again this is a little more advanced option I don't think you will need right off. PROPERTIES brings up the layers property box which contains pretty much the same information that you see in the layers palette. MATTING offers the DEFRINGE option and the remove BLACK and WHITE MATTE options.

ARRANGE, VIEW and MERGE contains options for moving your layers around, such as moving to top, moving to bottom etc.  MERGE contains the sub-menu for merging only visible layers or all layers, to make a layer NOT visible click the eyeball in the layers palette and this will "turn off" the layer. This menu can  also be accessed by RIGHT CLICKING any layer in the layers palette which I find much easier to access than going this route- Layers then Merge etc. The next set of options contains options for editing Mask layers, this too is also a more advanced function and once become familiar with mask you will be using this quite often. CONVERT TO RASTER converts a VECTOR LAYER to raster. PROMOTE BACKGROUND LAYER promotes the background layer to a layer, this is used a lot in creating tubes, editing images since many functions can not be performed on a background layer itself. COUNT LAYER COLORS will count all colors within THAT layer only.

OBJECTS contains commands primarily for working with Vector objects. Most people are scared to death of vectors but they really are not that bad.

ALIGN and DISTRIBUTE tells how to place the vector objects in each layer and the MAKE SAME SIZE will take all objects in the selected layer and make them all the same size. ARRANGE allows you to send objects to bottom of pile, or bring to top etc.  GROUP allows you to group several objects to make one shape that can be exported and saved for future use. UNGROUP simply ungroups anything you have grouped. PROPERTIES brings up the dialog for the object so that you may changes colors, patterns, size etc.  FIT TEXT TO PATH applies VECTOR TEXT on a path. CONVERT TEXT TO CURVES allows you more function and editability to each single letter or the entire shape.

SELECTIONS gives you different options for selecting various parts or all of an image.  SELECT ALL will select the entire image. SELECT NONE will deselect anything that may be selected at the current time. FROM MASK will create a selection from any mask you may have and FROM VECTOR OBJECT will create a selection from the vector object that you have made. INVERT will reverse your selection and select exactly just the opposite of what you had selected. MATTING offers the defringe options etc. MODIFY will allow you to modify a selection one or more pixels as at time. The HIDE MARQUEE OPTION let's you hide the marquee (better known as marching ants) that appears around your selection. The area will still be selected you just won't see the marching ants. LOAD/SAVE SELECTION gives you loading options from disk or any selection that may have been saved to the alpha channel. EDIT SELECTION allows you to edit the selection as if it were it's own image. PROMOTE TO LAYER will deselect your selection and promote it to it's own layer. FLOAT will "float" your selection up off and out of the rest of the image. DEFLOAT will stop the floating.

The WINDOW option is pretty self explanatory and is like any other WINDOW option. It offers you options for tiling your windows. It also allows for duplication of windows that you have. You can also view your image full size from this menu too.

The WINDOW option also allows you to see what windows are currently open in your PSP. They will appear at the bottom as well as listing what you are viewing them at percentage wise.

Last but not least you have your HELP options. Here Jasc offers you various help options which come in quite handy!  You can choose HELP TOPICS and enter a topic that you are needing help on,  The KEYBOARD MAP shows your keyboard shortcuts and how they are assigned to each key in PSP and what function that they do. You may also access online help from Jasc from the sub-menu option of Jasc Software Online. You can email tech support from here, register your copy of PSP or visit the online help area of Jasc web site. This is quite handy if you can remember that it is there.

ABOUT PAINT SHOP PRO will bring up the splash screen with information about your version of PSP. For detailed system information click SYSTEM INFORMATION and you can see lots of info about your puter and PSP.

Well that about covers the basics of the text menu, now we can move on to the next part of our interface and nose around the toolbars that I have mentioned several times through out this part already.  Below you will see circled in red what is considered the "Standard Toolbar". This Toolbar is the most used for anyone I do believe, this toolbar contains all your basic editing options, many of those that we covered in the text menu but all out here and easy to access.  You can add tools to the toolbars or remove tools that you don't use simply by dragging and dropping them onto the toolbar.

I have placed the options that I use most on the toolbar in a place that they are comfortable for me. You may add your own and arrange them anyway you like depending on what you use the most. RIGHT CLICK anywhere on the toolbar and choose CUSTOMIZE, a new dialog box will appear like below. To add a tool to the toolbar simply click>hold and drag and drop it to where you want it to be on the toolbar.

Since I already have mine pretty much how I want it I will add the BROWSE OPTION ICON to my toolbar as an example. If you add something and later decide you do not want it on there, right click the icon and then choose DELETE.

Continue to bring up the toolbars that you want to show by right clicking the toolbar and choosing the ones you want to appear, Then select each one and choose CUSTOMIZE and fix them up to suit your needs.  Once you are happy with the way you have your layout, tools etc. be sure and CLOSE PSP and REOPEN to set them in stone, if you do not, and something would happen that you would crash you will have to start all OVER AGAIN! NOT FUN! trust me! This too, is also why I suggest you saving a workspace that you are comfortable with.

This should pretty much cover some of the basics for you on getting started with PSP. I have other tutorials for setting your preferences and numerous other things that you can check out if you like as well on the main Newbieville 8 Page.  From there you can pick and choose to go through all the tutorials if you are a new user and need a lot of information or select only the ones that cover the areas you need help in.