Confused or overwhelmed by all the tools in the tool bar? Here is a summary of the vitals:

Note 1: Any tool with a dot in the lower right corner means there are other tools hiding behind it. Click and hold the mouse button down on the tool and the other options will appear.

Note 2: To change options on a tool (i.e. the size of a paintbrush or the font color of text), look at the options displayed below the top menu bar.

Using the move tool, you can move a layer and its objects around.
Using the magic wand, you can select a consistently colored area.

Using the marquee tools, you can select parts of your image to edit/modify.
Using the cropping tool, you can select and remove a portion of an image. This is useful to trim pictures or to provide focus/strength in a photograph.

Using the paintbrush you can draw in your image using free-hand. The pencil tool and the paintbrush share the same space. To switch between the two, hold your mouse button down on the button.

The clone stamp tool takes a sample of an image, which you can then color over another image or part of the same image. In other words, you can clone/repeat parts of a picture through coloring.

How? Put your mouse over your image. Hold the ALT key down and click once on the image.

Let go of the ALT key and the mouse turns into a paint brush. Continue painting as normal and notice that your image is being cloned.

Using the eraser, you can erase part of an image. You can change the color of the eraser by changing the background color (the square below the foreground color.)

The gradient tool will create a gradient on top of your image. The colors used by the gradient are chosen by the foreground and background colors. The paint bucket will fill the screen with the color in the foreground.

The smudge tool simulates the actions of dragging a finger through wet paint. The blur tool softens hard edges or areas in an image to reduce detail. The sharpen tool focuses soft edges to increase clarity or focus.

Using the dodge tool, photographers hold back light to lighten an area on an image. Using the burn tool, one can increase the exposure to darken areas on an image (burning). To subtly change color saturation, use the sponge tool.
Using the text tool, you can write on your image.

Using the various shape tools, you can draw rectangles, circles, etc. on your canvas. Using the custom shape tool, you can draw hearts, arrows, stars, footprints, and more!

Hold your mouse button down on any of the shapes below to choose any of the other shape options.
The eye dropper will select any color on your canvas by clicking on it and will match it in the foreground color. This is useful when you want to paint something using an exact shade already in the canvas.
Click on the magnifying glass to zoom into the image. To zoom out, hold the ALT key and click with the magnifying glass.
Using the hand tool, you can scroll up and down within an image.
The red square represents the foreground color, and the black square represents the background color. By clicking on either square, you can change the color.