### 7.6. Anchor Floating Layer or Mask

If you have created a floating selection, a temporary layer, called a “floating layer” or “floating selection”, is added to the layer stack. As long as the floating layer persists, you can only work on that layer.

To work on the rest of the image, you must “anchor” the floating layer to the former active layer with the Anchor Floating Layer or Mask command; or convert it to a new layer with the To New Layer command. The anchor menu command is only visible if a floating selection is present.

| Note
If there is an active selection tool, the mouse pointer is displayed with an anchor icon when it is outside of the selection.

#### 7.6.1. Activating the Command

You can access this command

- From the main menu through Layer → Anchor Floating Layer or Mask.

- By using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H.

- From the Layers Dialog, you can access it through the Anchor Floating Layer or Mask command of its context menu, or by clicking on the icon button on the bottom of that dialog.

#### 7.6.2. Alternative Ways of Anchoring a Floating Selection

Please refer to Section 4.5.4, “Anchor a Floating Selection”

7.5. Duplicate layers |  | 7.7. Merge Down

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