the shortcut system in afpub: apply, arrange, re-arrange

[jweitzel]

I would like to suggest to the programming team of (not only!) afpub/seriflabs to convoke a dedicated team to have a fundamental view on the shortcut system.

I'm in typesetting, typography and graphics since about 25 years, and I use to use shortcuts as often as I can. I've seen coming and going Quark, InDesign and much more. And I do not demand, that shortscuts should be always the same (that's impossible). But it would be very very useful,  if there are shortcuts applied to functions from the most important one/most used menu points down to the more "apocrythal" menue items...

I just finished very successfully my first greater piece of design with afpub, an artist's catalogue with 148 pages. I'm enthusiast about afpub! It's a real great piece of software.
But there have been a lot of routine tasks, where I missed a shortcut. (e.g. certain spaces in typography, jump to page ..., in text: continue in next column/frame/page and much more).

Everyone here in forum will demand it's own "important shortcuts". There will be a mess (and I think, there *is* already a mess if we open a public discussion or poll.

Therefore there should be a dedicated team, focused on the shortcut-system in afpub (and certain shortcuts over all three personas).
Even if I would have to learn the shortcuts in new in a future version of afpub. That doesn't matter. But "lots of shortscuts are better than missing a shortcut for often used actions".

Johannes
Germany

Edited February 9, 2020 by jweitzel
tags added

[fde101]

You can already customize many of the shortcuts from Preferences, but admittedly there are a lot of features of the software which cannot currently be assigned there.

[jweitzel]

Many thanks for your answer!
It's not my aim to allocate the shortcuts of my own. This will end up in a whole mess - and I never can sit before the screen of an other person.

Such a shortcut system has to come "all of a piece" from one single instance, preferably from the manufacturer. And I never thought about tweaking the shortcut system of Quark to Indesign, and I will never do from indd to afpub. Each software has its own shortcut system and I'm willing to learn it.

Best wishes
Johannes

[garrettm30]

I am of the opposite opinion. Since everyone has different needs and different preferences regarding which shortcuts are needed, I prefer that only the commonly used functions are assigned shortcuts by default, so that the user still has some reasonable key combinations left to assign to the functions that are particularly useful in his own workflow, but without the need to unassign a default shortcut.

[jweitzel]

Sorry, as often in internet and forums: You didn't read my posting and intention exactly - and express an opposite position where no one is in discussion.
"Too much is alway too much, and too few is always to few".

Sorry again.

Johannes

[fde101]

4 minutes ago, jweitzel said:

You didn't read my posting and intention exactly

I don't follow.  You are asking for many shortcuts by default to avoid needing to create your own.  @garrettm30 wants basic shortcuts by default and more flexibility for users to create the additional ones they need.  Those seem like essentially opposite viewpoints to me?

[U. Dinser]

It would be much more important to remove the connection between the shortcuts of the keyboard and the number pad. With the current very bad solution, the possible combinations are very limited.

Shortcuts for character formats, paragraph formats, etc. must be restricted to the number pad. Conversely, program commands must be restricted to the normal keyboard.

With the current solution, effective working is not possible.

[dominik]

3 minutes ago, U. Dinser said:

must be restricted to the number pad.

While I personally like the num pad very much (since my keyboard has one), we have to keep in mind that there are many computers out there that don't have a number keypad. A restriction of certain shortcuts to just these keys would cause much less flexibility 😮

d.

[jweitzel]

Hello to all!

From my software development projects I know: Ask 10 users for functions, and you will get at least 15 answers and endless discussions. Therefore I plead for an authoritarian solution.

Originally, I have undertaken not to take the "bad word" in my mouth, but: A piece of software like .indd shows us, that it is possible to reach about all important menue items/functions via shortcuts. Now *we do not want* or, may be, we are not allowed by law to "imitate" indd. But it shows, that there is a practical solution possible.

And that's my proposal.

Johannes

[fde101]

49 minutes ago, jweitzel said:

Ask 10 users for functions, and you will get at least 15 answers and endless discussions.

Those 10 users probably do 12 different things while working 15 different ways and would benefit from 20 different solutions.

Thus a solution which allows for a significant amount of customization so that those users can adapt the solution to their way of working and to the tasks at hand would provide the greatest overall efficiency.  Instead of dictating one way of working which may be optimal for at most one person trying to do one task, the solution could be adapted to the needs of a diverse range of people, each one configuring and arranging it to suit the task they need to accomplish.

[Hilltop]

1 hour ago, jweitzel said:

From my software development projects I know: Ask 10 users for functions, and you will get at least 15 answers and endless discussions. 

Johannes, you are one of those '10' users.   😉

[garrettm30]

4 hours ago, U. Dinser said:

It would be much more important to remove the connection between the shortcuts of the keyboard and the number pad.

I agree. I would love to be able to use the num pad for text styles. ⌘-num0 for body text; ⌘-num1 for Heading 1, etc.

 

4 hours ago, dominik said:

we have to keep in mind that there are many computers out there that don't have a number keypad.

I agree and disagree: I agree in that it would be a bad idea to assign Affinity default shortcuts to the number pad when not all users can use them. I disagree that we should therefore deny the option for the user with a numpad to assign his own shortcuts for his own uses.

I suggest that ignoring the unique benefits of the numpad based on the fact that some computers do not have them would be equivalent to ignoring the Touch Bar because some (even most) computers do not have them. Yet Serif has made use of the Touch Bar, if I’m not mistaken. My keyboards do not have them, but I am not offended that Serif has made use of the Touch Bar for people equipped with them. On the other hand, my keyboards do have numpads, so I would appreciate if I could take advantage of that extra functionality they provide.

The Mac does distinguish input between between numbers in the main keyboard and the number pad, so it should not be hard for Serif to implement.

[dominik]

1 hour ago, garrettm30 said:

I disagree that we should therefore deny the option for the user with a numpad to assign his own shortcuts for his own uses.

Perhaps I was not clear in my other posting. I am not saying that there should be no distinction between regular number keys and the numbers on the numpad. I would highly like to be able to assign shortcuts to these (and do this in other programs I use).

I just wanted to point out that if some shortcuts could only be assigned to numpad keys then this would leave out many users with out a numpad.

I think, basically we agree that a very variable way of assigning shortcuts to as many input devices as possible would be of benefit.

d.

[garrettm30]

I appreciate the clarification. As I understand you now, it seems you and I are quite of the same opinion in on this matter.