Rectangular Marquee, Elliptical Marquee, Single Row Marquee Tool and Single Column Marquee Tool

Shortcut – M.

The Rectangular Marquee Tool is used for making rectangular selections and the Elliptical Marquee tool is used for making elliptical selections. If you want to create perfect circles or squares hold Shift while dragging with the respective tool. If you want to move the selection while creating it, hold Space. To add to an existing selection press and hold Shift BEFORE using the tool – you’ll see a little + sign next to the tool cursor. If after you see the + sign next to the cursor you release and press Shift key you will create perfect circles or squares. Holding Alt before dragging will subtract from an existing selection and holding Alt and Shift will intersect with an existing selection. If you’re subtracting from a selection a little minus sign will appear at the right of the tool’s icon and a little X for intersecting.

These little shortcuts for adding, subtracting and intersecting with existing selections apply to almost all selection tools so I won’t be repeating them anymore.

I almost never use the Single Row Marquee tool or the Single Column Marquee Tool but maybe if you’re a web designer you’ll have a use for them. What do they do? If you select one of them and click once on the image you will have a 1px selection row or column.