Moving shape/marque by holding down space bar

[paaljoachim]

Rectangular marque.
Begin drawing eks elliptical marque. Hold down space to move the marque to another position. Space bar changes the size of the shape and does not move the shape.
Holding down the spacebar should move the marque.

Click eks Rectangle tool.
Start to draw the size of the shape and hold down space bar to move the shape. One is able to move the shape by holding down the spacebar.

 

Conclusion any tool that draws a shape Rectangle tool, Marque Tool or anything else.
As one begins to create the shape holding down the space bar should move the shape around, so one has better control over where one begins. 
This means the short cuts (keyboard command) for the Rectangle tool should should also be reflected in other tools. As it would keep a nice consistency in regards to similar methods/techniques.

 

 

NB! 
1. One begins to draw out a shape and notices one wants to readjust the starting point.
2. One then holds down the space bar to align the starting point. (moves the shape one is drawing out)
3. One then continues to draw out the shape.

Having a way to adjust the starting point by holding down the space bar is a technique I have used a lot in Photoshop as it helps me to realign where the shape begins.

Edited January 19, 2020 by paaljoachim
Additional information.

[fde101]

I hadn't noticed before that you could do that with the space bar while creating shapes.  Very nice, and I agree that it would be nice to have that added to the pixel selection tools also.

[markw]

The space bar is not needed to move a selection area, just click hold anywhere inside the selected area after drawing it out and you can drag it to another position.
For altering the selected area, in addition to using the standard Selection modes of Add, Subtract, New, etc…, you can also go into QuickMask mode  (or hit the Q key) then switch to the Move tool which will allow you to resize, rotate, shear, and again move the selection area.

[fde101]

11 hours ago, markw said:

The space bar is not needed to move a selection area

This is true, after the selection is made you can drag it freely.  This functionality is referencing a shortcut which is available when creating shapes that does not seem to have been applied consistently to the creation of pixel selections.  For shapes, this is used while initially creating the shape - before letting go of the mouse while dragging out the shape to begin with - to allow you to adjust the position while still creating it.  Yes, you can move and resize it after the fact, but this may be a bit quicker sometimes.

[GRAFKOM]

We already wrote about this functionality in 2017. but Serif seems to have more important things to do.
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/52011-drag-selection-while-creating/&tab=comments#comment-262750

I would also like to make it possible to move the selection to the right place while creating the selection by pressing the space key. As I wrote - when creating a selection.

[paaljoachim]

7 hours ago, GRAFKOM said:

We already wrote about this functionality in 2017. but Serif seems to have more important things to do.
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/52011-drag-selection-while-creating/&tab=comments#comment-262750

I would also like to make it possible to move the selection to the right place while creating the selection by pressing the space key. As I wrote - when creating a selection.

Then it is about time this little but important usability feature is added to Affinity Photo as well as Affinity Designer and Publisher.

 

[kjs]

On 1/19/2020 at 5:51 PM, fde101 said:

This is true, after the selection is made you can drag it freely.  This functionality is referencing a shortcut which is available when creating shapes that does not seem to have been applied consistently to the creation of pixel selections.  For shapes, this is used while initially creating the shape - before letting go of the mouse while dragging out the shape to begin with - to allow you to adjust the position while still creating it.  Yes, you can move and resize it after the fact, but this may be a bit quicker sometimes.

How do you resize a selection after the fact?

[markw]

14 minutes ago, kjs said:

How do you resize a selection after the fact?

Hello kjs,
You can use Quick Mask. See my post near the start of this topic.

[kjs]

45 minutes ago, markw said:

Hello kjs,
You can use Quick Mask. See my post near the start of this topic.

Thanks. It's nice to know how to do that.

Holding the spacebar to move a selection around while it's being created is practically the standard in apps. It's like on iPad the two finger tap for undo.. it's a thing. 

[paaljoachim]

The way I usually create a screenshot on the Mac is like so:
1. Hold down shift+cmd+4
2. Drag the cursor around the area where I want to take a screenshot.
3. Let go of above shortcuts. While the left mouse button is pressed I hold down the spacebar to move the marque/selection. I let go of the spacebar to adjust the size of the marque/selection.

In Affinity Photo (perhaps also the other software from Affinity...) The process of creating a marque section.
1. I click the Marque tool.
2. With the cursor and left mouse button held down. Drag out a marque selection area.
3. There is no step 3. It would be nice to be able to hold down the spacebar to move the marque selection around.

The option to create a marque selection to make a screenshot on the Mac is better then creating a marque selection in Affinity Photo.

 

[Old Bruce]

I mark out the marque selection and then with the Marque Tool still selected I move it into the selection and there it changes into a four pointed arrow shape which allows me to move the selection.

[paaljoachim]

Hi Bruce

Ahhh yes. Thanks for sharing. One can create a marque selection area and move the cursor inside the marque and move the selection around.
 

 

[apeak]

The crucial thing that the spacebar shortcut allows is for the user to freely adjust both the size and position of the marquee while creating it.  This is very handy for easily aligning the top and left edges of the marquee to whatever you are trying to select.

As the marquee tool works today, you get one chance to choose the size of the box before you let go of the mouse button.  Then you can freely move it around, but you lose the ability to resize it again.  If you need to change the size, you have to start again from scratch (or follow some other laborious process like entering quick mask mode, or doing a boolean ADD with a second marquee box).

In GIMP, this solved a different way (though slower to use in my opinion): once the selection has been created, you can both move and resize it, similar to placing a dynamic rectangle with the rectangle tool.  

I definitely agree with kjs and paaljoachim that this is pretty standard interface these days as it's what Photoshop users have come to expect: so much so that it's available across every other tool in Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher, just not the marquee tool in Photo...the one place where it's really needed since marquee boxes aren't freely resizable!

Most of these points were made by others above, but I just wanted to summarize and cast my vote for adding this.  This is literally the only thing in Affinity Photo which I ever feel is missing compared to Photoshop, and I notice it every time I use the application.

[Gigiga]

Just one of the many small things for long term Adobe users. Please implement this as it is already possible for vector points. Couldn't be that hard to implement. Everything else is a pain in the a**.

[EMZ80]

Did this basic functionality even make it in v2? this has been discussed since 2015!!!!

[paaljoachim]

Testing version 2.0 of Affinity Photo.

"Holding down the spacebar should move the marque." 
This feature has not yet been added. I will just assume that it has been overlooked and that we need a staff person to add it to the list to add it to the next 2.x version.

 

 

[Kevin Teljeur]

Just adding my voice here, for what it's worth. FYI: Apple Image Preview has this feature too. I'm still amazed that this hasn't been implemented in Affinity products. It is even implemented when you draw shapes in Affinity Photo.

Was it intended or announced for Affinity Photo 2.0 and dropped, or was just a hope that it would be added?

[Kevin Teljeur]

It has been finally added in 2.1! Going to throw a street party here, I'm pretty sure that the neighbours will be onboard when I explain it to them.

Yes, it was the first thing that I checked when I saw that 2.1 had landed on my Mac.

[paaljoachim]

YESS!!! Awesome! Finally!

Thank you for posting @Kevin Teljeur and letting us know about this!

[Kevin Teljeur]

Affinity 2.1 is the Affinity 2.0 that we were all waiting for. I imagine that there was some significant internal pressure to ship it, and it left the building as beta rather than the quality we would expect (1.x raised the bar very high, to be fair). But it's here now. I hope that lessons were learned (but again, I suspect that they had economic pressures to ship, and then fix bugs as they were flagged, which is a shame).

[paaljoachim]

There are so many concerns and reasons why something does or does not happen.
Heck. We got it in 2.1 and that makes me happy! :)
 

[EMZ80]

Yay, it only took 8+ years!