Paint Shop Pro brush and tool tips

Tool and Brush Tips

(Written for PSP 7 and earlier, but I believe 8 and 9 are similar)

Set your interface to be a neutral color (mine has black toolbars and plain gray windows - see some of the screenshots). Right-click on a blank area of the screen (in Windows, not Paint Shop Pro), go to the "Appearance" tab, set everything to neutral colors (black, white, shades of gray), and save it under a name like "PSP" so you can pull it up later when you need it. A colored interface may cause an optical illusion that your photo has a cast of the same color. For example - if your windows are blue, your photos may appear to have a bluish tinge even if they really don't.
When using most brushes and drawing tools, the eyedropper is available just by pressing the CTRL key. (PSP 7)
When correcting color in a photograph, use the eyedropper regularly to check areas that should be neutral (black, white, or gray). For example, if someone in the photo is wearing a white shirt, you can check to see whether it's really white by moving the eyedropper over it. The values for red, green, and blue will be displayed under the color palette along with a swatch displaying the selected color. If the three numbers differ only slightly, the color is close to neutral. If there are great differences between two or more of the numbers, you still have a color cast or tinge to deal with.
In PSP 8 and later, Ctrl + Alt + M will open a magnifying window. This magnifies the image at 500 percent - great for detail work. This will stay up with the eyedropper panel open.
If you need to move a selection, select the Mover tool (the fifth tool from the top that looks like a four-way arrow). While holding down one of the Ctrl keys, RIGHT-click with your mouse on the selection and drag it to its new location. This can be very useful when you are trying, for example, to make a circular selection of a pupil with red-eye, but can't quite land exactly on it.