Crop tool and guides in CS4 dont work well

[Hansm]

I installed CS4 about one week ago but face sometimes the problem that the croptool is not working properly.
If I want to make a crop and place it in the image, when clicking the crop jumps to a dimension I cannot change. The values for crop size however are blank.
Also when I want to drag a guideline from the rulers into the image They don't appear.
This is not always the case and it's also not file related. Stopping and starting Photoshop does not always fix it, but when it works in the end I have no problem with any of the pictures opening. Only after closing and opening Photoshop again, it can happen that the problem shows up again, but it also happens that I can start working without any problem.
I never faced this problem with CS3.
Some extra information: It's an official package with official license, so no crack or whatsoever.
It's installed on a Mac with Snow Leopard.

Is there a setting that I overlook or did someone else face this same problem and found a solution?

Thanks in advance for input.

[pwnage101]

I experience this on my windows 7 64bit laptop (cs4), but not nearly as frequently as it seems you experience it. It seems like there is a constant mouse position offset that changes at each restart. It's normally about 200 pixels in any direction. This extends beyond just using tools; when i'm dragging a filter preview, it always jumps to that arbitrary offset and I have to constantly reposition my mouse.

But like I said, I don't get the problem nearly enough to worry about it. I just wanted to point out that I have it on a different operating system, it annoys me, and I haven't found a solution. sorry

[Colin Southern]

No problems like this with CS4 on either of my Windows 7 x64 PCs.

[Hansm]

Anyway thanks for your input.

It looks like I'm not the only one since pwnage101 faces intermittently similar problems.

I will post it to the Adobe side and see if there is a solution for this.

[Terry Tedor]

No problem in 32 bit Win 7 here either. I'm curious - do you have "Snap" checked by any chance?

[Hansm]

Hi Terry

Either Snap checked or unchecked gives the same problem.
If I select the croptool and place the cursor somewhere in the image, at the moment I click the crop is made from thew top left corner to the position of the cursor. After that I'm not able to change the size of the crop. The fields in the top are empty.
It is really irritating and Yesterday I used CS 3 instead where there are absolutely no problems.
I have a feeling that it has something to do with the workspace but tried different spaces with same problem.

[Hansm]

Just back from a trade show where Adobe also presented.
I posted my prob there but no one had an idea what it could be.
When browsing on the Adobe forum I found a tread about lots of problems with CS4 i.c.w. Snow Leopard.
Some work without any problem, some rally get stuck on it.
So it looks like I'm not the only one with weird behavior of CS4.
I will do a clean install of Leopard on a separate disk and load CS4 on that one. See how it behaves.

I keep you posted about me results and if in the mean time someone ales has a solution or idea please let me know.

[Hansm]

By coincidence I discovered a trick to get rid of the problem.
I open PS. Try to crop but same problem.
Then I change to an other space and move back to the space where PS is opened.
Problem gone!
It's a way I can live with but still I'm waiting for an answer from the Support team of Adobe.

[dgrieux]

I have similar problems on my MacPro with Leopard and CS4.

If I want to make a crop and place it in the image, when clicking the crop jumps to a dimension I cannot change. The values for crop size however are blank.

If the fields are blank, you can try to hit the "Front Image" button. The fields should fill in automatically with the image size and resolution values. Then you can change them. Here is the trick: navigate through the values with TAB only, and then remember to press TAB one more time for the last field you want to validate. It should work fine now. However if it doesn't, save a tool preset for the crop tool and then you'll have no problem at all. It is definitely a bug with the interactive toolbar, because it has problems when changing font sizes as well. I only use the floating box for this.

Also when I want to drag a guideline from the rulers into the image They don't appear.
This is not always the case and it's also not file related.

I've also experienced this and yes it is a random behaviour. When it happens I press Cmd+H twice. Sometimes it works. It's just like for some reason the guides are hidden by a previous accidental Cmd+H command. However, it doesn't work all the time therefore it's a bug. If pressing Cmd+H twice doesn't work, just draw a dummy rectangle mask and hide it and then show it back again. It will show your dummy mask and your guides including the previous ones which didn't show up. Basically it's the same double Cmd+H but this time it has an object to hide (your mask). I've never closed and open the file in order to make them appear. I hope this will help you.

Regards,
Petre

[Hansm]

Hi Petre,
I tried your steps for cropping and this works also in my case.
After this I can also drag guidelines into the image.
The other method I discovered by coincidence works also, meaning open PS, then jump to another space and move back to the space in where PS is opened.
Weird, but ok I have some workarounds now I can live with.

One question, are you using Leopard or Snow Leopard?