Minutely Adjust Rectangular Selections ???

I don't go back as far as E7, but under selections, is there not a "Transform selection" option? That's what you want.

My pleasure. I'm sure, though, that there's no way to migrate that facility to another program.

Thanks! and yet another way to skin the cat.

In E12, under the Select menu, there is an option "Transform" that puts movable handles on a rectangular selection, exactly like the Crop tool except without the shadowing; this Transform command is absent from the Select menu in E7.

At your suggestion, in E7, I made a rectangular selection on a blank white image and then chose Image > Transform > Free Transform; this put handles on my selection and I was able to drag the sides wherever I wanted; plus, I could rotate and skew the selection.

There is one glitch by using the Free Transform though; when I made the selection a bit smaller, red covered the area between the original selection and the new position; this red is the same as if one painted it there --- it does not go away; so, one would be advised to always do their selection manipulating on a blank layer that can be discarded; unless......., there is some way to prevent this red marking.

Anyhow, this new knowledge will allow me to accomplish what I was wanting and to accomplish it in E7.

I have probably every Elements book known to man, and have read them thoroughly; yet, there is always something you guys can enlighten me about that is not covered in any of my books; it is much appreciated.

Alas, I thought I had found a winner.
In E7, when I was investigating using Free Transform on a rectangular selection, I did all of my practicing on a single background layer.
When I saw it was leaving red wherever I moved the lines closer, I figured no big deal, I would just do my manipulating on a discardable layer and throw the red away; however, I cannot get this to work in practice.
If I try to manipulate my selection on a layer, instead of only moving the selection border, it squishes and resizes everything inside the selection lines; if using a blank layer, it appears to be doing what I want until I commit, at which point my selection disappears.
The only way that I can get it to relocate the selection lines without distorting everything inside the selection is to do it on the background layer; doing thus, it all looks fine and the very top all-visible layer appears to be unmolested; however, once I commit, there are those red markings on every layer in between.

Surely I am missing something or doing something wrong.


EDIT >>> UPDATE:   I found a workaround; it adds a couple steps, but avoids the unwanted red markings.
1. add a blank layer at the top of the layer stack
2. make my "rough draft" rectangular selection
3. stroke the inside of the selection with 2px red --- if you don't, it will not transform the selection --- there has to be some sort of image information at all selection borders
4. Image > Transform > Free Transform and slide my red border lines to where I want my selection, keeping in mind that the inner edge of the red border is going to be the selection.
5. Commit the transformation
6. Deselect
7. Magic Wand __ tolerance = 0  __ Contingent = checked __ All Layers = not checked
8.Click the Magic Wand inside the red border ---- that is my fine-tuned selection


This may seem like a lot of wasted effort, but there is a real reason why I need this.


If anyone knows how to do the Free Transform on a selection in E7 and avoid the red markings, I would like to know what the trick is.

Is the photo you are working on 'locked' (says "background" in the layers panel)
- because the behavior you describe (the background color being left over when you make a selection) happens only if your photo is a background layer - a layer which is locked.





In this example, I have erased on a background layer - because I have not unlocked it, the chosen background color - in this case red - was left over after I erased.  This same thing happens when you move a selection. 

After unlocking the layer - turning it into a regular layer - when I erased, all that was left was transparency.




Try unlocking the layer --
you can do this by:
-going to the layers panel and dragging the lock to the trashcan (it will then be called 'layer 0)
-or by right clicking on the layer and choosing "layer from background"
-or by duplicating the layer and deleting the original locked background layer



See the lock on the right side of the layer?  
Drag the lock to the trashcan to unlock it
Layer will then be called Layer 0

Note:  not all photos will come into your project as 'background' layers, but when they do, it's always better to unlock them to prevent grief when working with them.