Need help with PSP Pro 8 and clothes making....

Hello everyone! I just bought the MAKE YOUR OWN CLOTHES book for psp/gimp/photoshop. I am fairly familiar with Paintshop and am using that. My question is this....

Once you've made your design it says:

*Click Edit, Then Click Copy
*Click File, Click New, Make sure it's 512 x 512 and click OK.
*Up Top Click Layers, Click Merge, Click Merge All.
You should have a white background.
*Select The Fill Tool and Dark Grey, fill in the white background.
*(Right hand layers) Click 'New Raster Layer'
In the layers panel you should now see 2 layers, a raster, and a background, click the little eye next to background so that it's got a red cross on it. Now you should have a gray and white squares grid.
*Edit, Paste, Paste into Selection.

****The problem here is that there seems to be a step missing, If I do this exactly as it describes here, I cannot choose paste into selection. That option is greyed out. Does anyone know the problem? Or have a suggestion please? I appreciate any help, thank you!****

Oh God, a published book is actually telling you to flatten your image? Where do these people get their ideas, and why haven't they all been shot yet.

NEVER FLATTEN!

You want to keep your layered work preserved, always.

Anyway, I'm guessing the reason you can't paste into selection is because you don't currently have anything selected.

I have to agree with chosen on flattening, whowever the solution in the above instructions (after hiding the background) would be to select the elements that show above the transparency grid, and then hit copy (ctrl+c)....that's your missing step

I'd also higly disagree with using a grey background, since this could cause halos at your clothes edges if they aren't painted past the edges (likely to show up on things like sleeves and inner edges) especially if those areas aren't solid color... you should probably match your background to the colors in the clothes for best effect. or use colors that compliment the edge as a shadow or highlight. all assuming medium grey doesn't fit the above criteria.

when you save as, your image will be automatically flattened if the format you save to requires it, always save the layered version in a format that handles layers (like .psp) and then save a copy as your target format for uploading (like .tga)... you can safely delete the non-layered version after upload, and if necessary recreate it quickly by svaing as operation on the layered file, while keeping the layered file you can edit specific parts w/o redoing all the work... one such tshirt or pants file could make dozens of similar items.

I don't want to sound like a parrot but I have to agree with Chosen and Void. Same your designs in the default psp mode. If you can't view them in thumbnail, I have a way around that too (i mean in windows). I have also found that PSP is great for the non graphic artist as it is 80% photoshop capable. And I use it exclusively myself.

Where do I get this book... thanks...