saving brushes & patterns

When you want to save a brush:
1. marquee around the new brush mark you've created on a transparent layer; remember to shut of the background so you are capturing the brush and NOT a square tile that includes the brush and the bkgrnd.
2. Go to Edit>Define Brush.Click OK and Deslect.
3. Go to Edit>Presets Manager. Click on Brushes. Scroll down to bottom. Highlight your brush or Shift Click to save several.
4. Click the Save Set button, name it, and direct the Brush Set to the Brushes folder inside of the Presets Folder inside of the Adobe Photoshop Program folder.

Patterns work the same way, except after you have used the rectangle marquee, choose "Define Pattern" from under the top Edit menu.