When I do a select by color, the marching ants appear around the blob of color I selected.

But, if I then select the move tool with the tool option move selection clicked, only the march ants move the color blob I selected stays put.



I'm confused.

Mac

Try Ctrl-X to cut, then Ctrl-V to paste.
This will paste the selected blob as floating selection.
Right click then "To New Layer"
Then you can move it wherever you want (make sure you moving layer in Tool Options and not moving selection).

"Move selection" is really "Move selection mask". To move the selected pixels, either:

- copy/paste them to a new layer and move them with the regular move tool
- while still in the selection tool, depress Alt+Control and drag from inside your selection.

Ok, I see how that works. Seems like a lot of work to move some pixels I already have selected and I end up with two layers, the first of which now has a whole where the blob was...

And, if that's how you move a selection, then what is the Move > Selection button for?

Script Coder: I hit reply before I got your second post.

I can make the copy/paste work, but, alt-ctl drag just moves the ants...

Duh...never mind.

I see what you meant by "while still in the selection tool" now.

"Moving the ants" is "Moving the selection mask".

It move the selection mask. You can obtain a selection on some part of the image (for instance, a fuzzy select on a shape) and then move that selection mask elsewhere to select the same shape. Not a very frequent usage, though.

When you have the selected blob of colour, click on Select > Float and the selection will move to wherever you position it on the canvas (don't forget to anchor the floating layer afterwards.) That's how I do it, doesn't involve creating a new layer or anything weird, yes you get a hole appear where the selection was made but that's normal.