# The Selected Tools panel: building, ordering, and tweaking your pipeline

URL: https://helpcenter.readypixl.com/articles/selected-tools-panel
Markdown: https://helpcenter.readypixl.com/articles/selected-tools-panel.md
Section: Getting Started
Summary: A guide to the right-side panel in the ReadyPixl editor — where your pipeline lives. How to add tools, reorder them, change settings, save presets, and start over.

The Selected Tools panel is on the right side of the editor. Every tool you add to your pipeline shows up here as a **step**. It's the most-used part of the screen once you're working.

## Adding a tool to your pipeline

1. Find the tool in the **left tool sidebar** (use the **"Search plugins..."** box if you know the name)
2. **Click the tool** — it appears as a new step at the bottom of the Selected Tools panel
3. The canvas live-preview updates immediately to show the effect

That's it. The same approach for every tool.

## Each step's anatomy

When you click a step in the Selected Tools panel, it expands to show that tool's settings:

- **Settings controls** — sliders, color pickers, dropdowns, text inputs (different per tool)
- **Live preview** — the canvas updates as you tweak each setting
- **Default values** — every setting has a sensible default; you only change what you need

Click the step's header again to collapse it back to a one-line summary.

## Reordering steps

Steps run **top to bottom** in the order shown. Order matters — see [The pipeline concept](pipeline-concept) for why.

To reorder:

- **Drag a step** by its handle (left edge of the step row) up or down
- Steps snap to their new position

Common orderings that matter:

- **Color Removal V2 → Trim → Reposition** — remove the solid background color, then crop edges, then place on target canvas
- **Resize (smaller) → Color Removal V2** — shrinking first makes Color Removal V2 much faster

## Removing a step

Two ways:

- **Click the X icon** that appears on the right edge of a step when you hover it
- Or open the step → click the trash / remove option in its settings

The pipeline updates immediately. The canvas live-preview re-runs without that step.

## Duplicating a step

Sometimes you want the same tool twice with different settings — like two Filter steps, one with Sharpen + one with Vignette.

- **Hover a step** → click the duplicate icon (when present)
- Or just **click the same tool again** in the left sidebar — it adds another instance at the bottom

You can have the same tool in your pipeline as many times as you want.

## Saving the pipeline as a preset

This is the highest-leverage thing in ReadyPixl. **One click and your whole setup loads next time.**

1. Build your pipeline (add steps, set settings)
2. Click **Save Current Preset** (button near the bottom of the Selected Tools panel)
3. Give it a name you'll remember (e.g. *"Etsy listings 2000"*, *"Social posts 1080"*)
4. Save

Next time you open ReadyPixl:

1. Open the **preset dropdown** (next to Save Current Preset)
2. Pick your saved preset
3. The whole pipeline (steps + settings + order) loads in one click

For full preset details see [Saving and loading presets](presets).

## Starting over

Two reset options at the bottom of the Selected Tools panel:

| Button | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Reset All** | Resets every setting to its default **and switches off all your steps** (they stay in the list, just disabled). Switch the ones you want back on to reuse them. |
| **Remove All** | Removes every step from the pipeline. Starts you over from scratch. |

These don't affect your saved presets — those are stored separately and loadable any time.

## Tips

- **Build small first.** Add one tool, see what it does to your preview, then add the next. Easier than adding 5 at once and trying to figure out which is doing what.
- **Don't be afraid to remove and re-add.** Steps are cheap. If you're not sure what a tool does, add it, look at the preview, remove if not useful.
- **Save the preset before you make a big batch run.** Pipelines disappear on browser refresh if you haven't saved them. Saving takes 5 seconds.
- **Search the left sidebar** instead of scrolling. Typing "color" or "watermark" finds the tool faster than scrolling through the full list.

## What to read next

- **[The pipeline concept](pipeline-concept)** — why order matters
- **[Saving and loading presets](presets)** — the full preset workflow
- **[All tools at a glance](../pipelines/all-tools)** — every tool you can add, with one-line descriptions
- **[The canvas and filmstrip](canvas-filmstrip)** — for previewing your pipeline on different images