How To Do Very Basic Stuff?

[Blighty]

(11-05-2017, 09:13 PM)abrogard Wrote: an image with a fresh copy on it is not an image?  it only becomes a workable image after being made a 'new layer'?

When you do a paste, the paste shows up in the layers dialogue as Floating Selection.
There are now 2 options:
1. Make the paste into a new layer (Right click on the Floating Selection and choose To New Layer)
2. Merge the paste into the currently active layer (Click the Anchor icon)
Many things are disabled until this choice has been made.

Most often option 1 is the correct choice.