sldx Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 (later edit: sorry for the bitchy title :ph34r: ) I know there's been a few threads requesting either unlock all or hideObject/unhideAll, but I'm so frustrated that I created an account just to post this. I think AD is pretty awesome, the transition was almost flawless except this. Not even sure how some people can handle it in the current state, I know I'm struggling. If I want to unhide something, I have to dig through countless layers and hope to not spend the next half hour scrolling, looking for a missing checkmark. It's silly, really silly. I know some people are fine with layer hunting, but in my experience they are always slower, for obvious reasons. I suppose AD is trying to change this lock/hide paradigm, but there is nothing to replace it with. Because there is no option to automatically focus the current object in the layer palette either (I know about the right click, but it's a laughable workaround). And there's no way to unhide an object or all objects without frustrating layer hunting. So can we please have shortcuts for lock/unlock all & hide/show all, at least till you figure out something better? A script, a plugin, anything. Thanks guys, and keep up the awesome work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later edit since Matt confirmed it's coming :) My usual workflow is something like this: I usually keep stuff grouped and use Isolation mode a lot (dbl-click on a group). I do my thing laying out whatever I'm working on, hiding stuff in the process. So, UnhideAll will usually unhide a few groups that are easy to hide again (click, click click, Hide, or just deselect whatever I wanted to unhide, and then hide the rest, because they remain selected. see below for details). When it gets too messy I either clean up old stuff or just move it to a backup layer. It also takes care of cleanup when sending files (just delete the backup layer). There are a few important aspects to Unhide/Unlock All to help keep your sanity: - Root layers are not affected by unhide/unlock all. If they were, it'd be a headache. - Whatever is unlocked/unhidden becomes selected. So, SO helpful for moving it around and lots of other tricks. - Objects that are in a Hidden or Locked layer are not affected. Just your "work" stuff. So if you separate your layout on regions of interest on layers, one unhide/unlock all is not gonna mess your scene. smallreflection, Broszets, waveman777 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sldx Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 So am I to understand I am the only one in this boat? How do you guys do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 sldx, Hello and welcome to the forums (as I see that you only have a few posts). This has been requested before by some people, myself included. In fact it is the one thing that I sorely miss from Illustrator. You can lock and unlock easily but hiding and showing all is not smooth at all. Lock and unlock can be applied with a shortcut but to unlock an item you have to select it or dig through the layer stack (which wastes time) and it doesn't seem as easy or as fast as Unlock All. If you look through some old posts you will see that there are indeed others who would love to see these features added to Designer but as users we don't know exactly what the developers have in mind, maybe they do have something planned that will be better than Hide/Show all and Lock/Unlock all? Also, I don't think that we should assume that adding any particular feature is "easy". As a designer I have had many customers tell me that something is easy to do, when in fact it was incredibly difficult or next to impossible. I'm sure the same is true for the programmers. What seems easy to you and me might in fact be really tough to do. Don't get me wrong, I too am hoping that Hide/Show All and Lock/Unlock All makes it into a future release or that they come up with something that works better (you are right, the current methods for hiding and unlocking pales in comparison) but until that time, we will make do. Designer is a great program and it keeps getting better and better all the time. There are so many things that Designer gets right and I'm sure that they will work this out too. So be patient and have faith in the Affinity team. Hokusai Like, would like more if… and smallreflection 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sldx Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thx for the reply. I am trying to be patient, it's not like I have any other option. And yes, AD gets more things right than wrong, so it looks like I'm gonna be here waiting for a fix. What I was hoping for is that maybe there are some tricks I'm not aware of, that could ease my pain for unlocking and unhiding stuff. But maybe there aren't any and people just deal with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 sldx, Sorry I wish I could give you some kind of work around but unfortunately for now there isn't anything that can replicate the speed and ease of "Hide/Show All" yet. What I do when I'm using Designer is I tend to put things on different layers more than I do when I use Illustrator. This saves me time have to hunt through the layer stack (which I hate) so I can simply hide the whole layer (of course I still have to go to the Layers palette and turn it off which is slower than a simple key stroke). It isn't always possible but it does help. Everyone's work flow is a little different and I don't know if it would work for you but you might try it. Plus in Designer, moving things between layers is much faster than Illustrator and so I sometimes create two layers and build the bottom part on one layer and the top part on a separate layer and then combine them later by simply cutting the top objects and then pasting them on the layer below (and combining them). This allows me to hide the parts more easily so I don't have to dig through the Layer stack. Sorry I hope that makes sense. I'm hoping that "Hide/Show All" and "Lock/Unlock All" will make its way into a future version of Designer (and hopefully a version that isn't too far in the future). Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sldx Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Thanks hokusai, I've been experimenting with not using "select all layers" but it seems to hold me down more than help. I'l try arranging stuff in the layers palette more, see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sldx Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Was also wondering if the devs ever gave a reason for not including unhide/unlock all. A good reason would help with the patience part, maybe some admins/devs would like to pitch in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 MattP or MEB, As a "pet request" of mine, I too was just curious if there was any plans on adding a Hide/Show All shortcut? No one responded to sldx's question about it and so I thought I would ask as well. I know that customizable shortcuts are planned sometime in the future but there currently isn't a menu item for "hiding/showing all". I know that you guys have a full plate and that you are busy working hard to make Affinity products great but for me it is a sorely missed feature and while I have been able to get by without it, I was hoping for some news on it. I also miss the "unlock all" command as well but for me "hide/show all" is my number one request! Keep up the great work! Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Anybody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted August 12, 2015 Staff Share Posted August 12, 2015 Hi Hokusai & sldx, Sorry - I didn't spot this post until now :( I try to read through as much of the forum as I can, but I also have to get some coding done otherwise there will be no new features! ;) I think this is simply a case of "I didn't use it before, so I didn't add it to the program because I didn't notice it was missing..." By this, I simply mean that I love to draw things with vectors and always have, so when we started we fleshed out all the tools and features by actually getting to the point where myself and the creative team could use the program happily without getting annoyed about limitations... Clearly, this is one of those workflow things that if you need it, you need it and you find it a real problem if it's not there - but on the flip side, I can't imagine actually ever using it so that's why it never cropped up at me as something that we were missing - and for this, I can only apologise. I will try to make sure it is added as soon as I can - I am currently focusing on getting the boolean geometry operations to work properly, but after that I will try to set aside some time to add this functionality :) Thanks again for your patience - it is much appreciated :) Matt sldx, ronnyb and Hokusai 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 MattP, Thanks for the response and thanks for considering to add "Hide/Show All" to Designer. If you added "hide/show all" to Designer, I would be a very happy camper! For me it is one of the few things that I actually miss from Illustrator (and I thought Freehand had it too but it has been too long since I last used Freehand and I can't remember whether it was there or not). I know that you guys are busy and I appreciate you and the rest of the team taking the time to read the forums and listen to so many requests (even if sometimes we, the users, get impatient)! Designer is a great app and I'm looking forward to seeing what it will be like in another year! Thanks again, Hokusai MattP and MEB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gear maker Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Hokusai, I'm curious about using the show all/hide all. As I remember it the problem I used to run into was if I had a sprinkling of hidden layers in a large project, you know layers that were used to create areas and I just wasn't ready to delete them so they were hidden. Then when I used the hide all and the show all, the layers I had hidden also became visible so I had to go back and find the ones I didn't want to see and hide them again. It got to where I gave up using the show all. Since then I have tried to use a hierarchy groups so I could easily hide areas without touching others. And I could have a sprinkling of hidden layers mixed in with no problem about their sate changing. How did you handle this? Or do you just attack it from the other side and never keep layers "just in case"? I realize it's probably a bad habit, but... Maybe I'm a layer hoarder! Mike Quote iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) with macOS Sierra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Gear maker, Good question, hide/show all is completely separate from turning off or turning on a layer's visibility. A good way to think of it is you "hide/show" objects and shapes while you "turn off/turn on" the visibility of Layers. Turning off the visibility of a layer hides the whole layer including all objects on that layer (hidden or not) while hiding an object just hides the object that was selected (it will hide multiple objects if they are selected or grouped). Designer has always had the ability to hide objects but currently we have to always go to the Layer Panel and hunt for and find the object and then click on the visibility icon to deactivate its visibility (or we can find the object in on the page and then do a right click or option click and then select "find in Layers Panel" which will show you its position in the Layers stack and you can turn off the visibility for it there). It requires a lot more clicks and it takes more time than simply hitting a "hide" shortcut. Show all just turns on the visibility for all hidden objects, and it doesn't affect the visibility of any of your layers. If you have the visibility of a layer turned off, show all won't affect it. Show all will show the object but you won't see it until you turn on the visibility of the layer. This one is even more of a time saver because as it is now, if you have a lot of objects in a layer stack and you have hidden some of them it will take you a long time to hunt through and find them all and turn them on, especially if you have hidden objects on many different layers. Using show all you can show them all with one keystroke, it is a huge time saver. Currently in Designer there is no way to easily find hidden objects and show them like the "Find in Layers Panel" from the contextual menu. Of course someone will say "Why do I have to show all? What if I want to just show some of the objects?", if you only want to show some of the objects and not all of them then you would have to navigate through the layers panel and turn them on individually like you have to do now. For me, it is easier and faster though to simply show all and select the objects that you didn't want to show and then re-hide them. Or you could separate your objects on different layers and then use the layer visibility to help control this. I hope that makes sense. To be honest with you, I'm like you, I often keep what I like to call a "Hold Layer" (the same as your "just in case" layer) where I make a copy of things that I might want to revert back to just in case I change my mind or make a mistake. Maybe I should call it "Plan B Layer"? Later on once I'm completely satisfied with my drawing, I go back and delete them but there is nothing wrong with being a layer hoarder (from someone who may or maybe not have a problem with layer hoarding). Of course, because Designer has non-destructive boolean operations I don't do it as much as I used to but I still do it (it is an old habit for me too). Hokusai anon1 and MeanKidneyDan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gear maker Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Many thanks Hokusai for the explanation. I guess I never used that feature in other packages. So it's a separate visibility from the layer visibility. It could be handy. I have many more questions but to keep this short I will abstain from asking them and wait until the feature is available. I appreciate the answer. One of the last steps in my workflow is to go through the layer groups and delete all the "just in case" layers. It's saved me a lot of work having them. Mike Quote iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) with macOS Sierra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sldx Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 I do sort-of the same as Hokusai, but with a different explanation :) I usually keep stuff grouped and use Isolation mode a lot (dbl-click on a group). I do my thing laying out whatever I'm working on, hiding stuff in the process. So, UnhideAll will usually unhide a few groups that are easy to hide again (click, click click, Hide, or just shift click whatever you wanted to unhide and then hide the rest, because they remain selected. see below for details). When it gets too messy I either delete old stuff or just move it to a backup layer that I keep hidden. It also takes care of cleanup when sending files because all the junk is already on a junk layer. There are a few important aspects to Unhide/Unlock All to help keep your sanity: - Root layers are not affected by unhide/unlock all. If they were, it'd be a headache. - Whatever is unlocked/unhidden becomes selected. So, SO helpful for moving it around and lots of other things. - Objects that are in a Hidden or Locked layer are not affected. Just your "work" stuff. So if you separate your layout areas of interest on layers, one unhide/unlock all is not gonna mess your scene. Overall, its advantage is it gives you so much speed because you basically don't touch the layers panel except to change the "global" active layers that you want to work on. And on layers that are unlocked AND visible, you have like a blank canvas of possibilities for locking and hiding stuff. You can use them as "faux temporary groups" – logo example: you make a version, then Group > Copy > Hide > Paste. Make changes, alter things, then again, Group, Copy, Hide, Paste, then more changes. You end up with a stacked list of different versions of a logo, all in the exact same place, size, and so on (Unhide all > Group). Easy to see differences, switch versions on the fly, etc. Hope Matt sees this :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted August 18, 2015 Staff Share Posted August 18, 2015 Yes, I've definitely seen it ;) I must confess that I also never realised it was intended to be a separate visibility state - I really need to try using it and see how it works for me because it's not what I expected at all! ;) ronnyb, sldx and Gear maker 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charleshb Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 PLEASE add the unlock all feature. As stated above, this is very useful in the creation process, and is one of the features that I miss most about Illustrator. We constantly use keyboard shortcuts to switch between tools, and unlocking all is just as important. Going to the side, opening up the layer, and individually unlocking, takes way too long! I absolutely love Affinity Design, and appreciate the continual efforts to improve the program! Kaze and Hokusai 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 Charles, I've been an advocate of adding "Hide/Show all" since I started using Designer. Having to dig through the Layers Panel is time consuming and it takes time and extra mousing, both of which I would like to reduce if possible. Unlocking is especially painful as there is no quick and easy way to do it now. Locking is easily done and hiding can be done but not nearly as fast as it could with a simple "Hide" command. Here's to hoping it gets added soon! Hokusai sldx, Zox, Schubi63 and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sldx Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 Been using Balsamiq for a bit and they have simple solution for unlocking: right click. ("simple" from UX point of view) At right click, besides other options, is a list of all the unlockable layers (at mouse position), by name and something like the major color in that object. But even just by name I'd find it pretty useful too. Cheers Zox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zox Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 Been using Balsamiq for a bit and they have simple solution for unlocking: right click. ("simple" from UX point of view) At right click, besides other options, is a list of all the unlockable layers (at mouse position), by name and something like the major color in that object. But even just by name I'd find it pretty useful too. Cheers Charles, I've been an advocate of adding "Hide/Show all" since I started using Designer. Having to dig through the Layers Panel is time consuming and it takes time and extra mousing, both of which I would like to reduce if possible. Unlocking is especially painful as there is no quick and easy way to do it now. Locking is easily done and hiding can be done but not nearly as fast as it could with a simple "Hide" command. Here's to hoping it gets added soon! Hokusai Just quick hit 00 (zero) for 0% opacity of selected layers. Tap 0 for 100% opacity. I Use this trick as shortcut for hide/show layers. Work great for me In AD and AP. Hope it help. Cheers guys Hokusai 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 Zox, Thanks for the tip it would be useful in some cases. While it works in some cases it still doesn't solve my main reason for wanting a Hide/Show All and a Lock/Unlock All and that is to keep me from having to travel to and select things in the layers panel. Doing so is inefficient compared to the way it is done in Illustrator. I'm not saying that Designer needs to be exactly like Illustrator but as it is now the method that you have to use in Designer is horribly inefficient. It is more efficient to be able to do things directly on the artboard (or canvas) rather than having to mouse over (tiresome on a big screen) to the Layers Panel and select or unselect things. As well, hiding a whole layer isn't ideal as there maybe objects that I would like to remain visible on that layer. That said, I will use your tip sometimes and it is a gem of a tip. Thanks Hokusai Zox and Krustysimplex 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zox Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 Hi Hokusai Glad my tips have been helpful. I used PS for around 20 years, so I fully understand the situation you describe, shortcuts are of fundamental importance, and their proper deployment greatly boost workflow! So, I totally agree your request! The Affinity Team with AP and AD have done a great job till now. I am confident that they will do something about it. Regards. Zox Hokusai 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted June 18, 2017 Staff Share Posted June 18, 2017 Thanks everyone- and thanks for your continued patience - we will get there hopefully very soon :) Zox and Hokusai 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronnyb Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 Zox great tip I been doing that one as well for a while, it's a great old Skool trick; I also served 20 years or so in adobe's photoshop maximum security penitentiary Zox 1 Quote 2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Sonoma 14.4.1 2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 Thanks everyone- and thanks for your continued patience - we will get there hopefully very soon :) MattP, I'm looking forward to it! Thanks for all the hard work! Hokusai Zox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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