There's an unexplained "paragraph" button that does nothing

[Stokestack]

I was trying to find how to convert artistic text into paragraph ("frame") text. I pressed the "paragraph" button in the toolbar, but it did nothing. The ToolTip says, helpfully, "Paragraph."

Come on, guys.

 

[walt.farrell]

It opens the Paragraph studio panel, if it is not open, or makes it the active tab in the studio if it is already open.

[carl123]

10 hours ago, Stokestack said:

I was trying to find how to convert artistic text into paragraph ("frame") text.

Can't be done

You have to copy the artistic text and paste it into a Frame Text object

[R C-R]

@Stokestack please refer to your other topic about this.

[Stokestack]

Thanks for the replies.

I’m mystified as to why there’s a cryptic button with no info in the ToolTip, to invoke this one panel.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Stokestack said:

I’m mystified as to why there’s a cryptic button with no info in the ToolTip, to invoke this one panel.

It isn't just that one context toolbar button. The "a" button works the same way to open the Character panel.

The features of both Studio panels are explained in the built-in & online help. Searching in either one using "paragraph" or "character" as a search term will quickly find the relevant topic.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

It isn't just that one context toolbar button. The "a" button works the same way to open the Character panel.

The features of both Studio panels are explained in the built-in & online help. Searching in either one using "paragraph" or "character" as a search term will quickly find the relevant topic.

There's also the button further to the right in the Context Toolbar when you're using the Frame Text Tool that opens the Text Frame studio panel:

Basically, that Context Toolbar offers shortcuts to get to some studio panels that are often needed when working with Frame Text, and/or with Artistic Text.

There are additional buttons on the Context Toolbar when one has the Table Tool selected, for getting to panels related to tables.

[lacerto]

The tool tips could ideally mention that they open a the Character Panel etc, because it is easy to misunderstand this as e.g. a switch that changes controls on the toolbar itself (which would be better behavior, IMO, and something many are likely to expect). But just adding even the word "Panel" after the current tooltip text improves the feature. It is a good feature but with many panels visible here and there it is not immediately obvious what the button does, especially if the panel is visible already, and espcially if it is docked.

[Stokestack]

Thanks for the replies.  We can debate the arbitrariness and lack of graphical distinction to these buttons, but really there's no excuse for the useless ToolTips. As you can see, it's possible to have multi-word ToolTips that convey useful information.

Also, if pressing the button activates the panel, why doesn't pressing it again remove it? And the Paragraph and Character panels are integrated into the same tabbed pane... but only one is shown per button press. So if you want both, you have to run around pressing the buttons separately... but there's no way to remove one panel afterward, so why not immediately show them both if either "Character" or "Paragraph" is pressed, but with the appropriate one focused?

And finally: It's a floating panel, disguised as a docked panel by placing it over (and matching the size of) the other controls in the right pane. You discover that when you resize or move the main window, and the text panel stays behind on your desktop. It's also needlessly cut off at the bottom, which can hide that fact that there are more controls available (especially since there's no frame).  Why?

Quote

The features of both Studio panels are explained in the built-in & online help. Searching in either one using "paragraph" or "character" as a search term will quickly find the relevant topic.

A. I had no way of knowing that "paragraph panel" had anything to do with this button.

B. I don't have questions about using those panels.

C. Help often doesn't work: 

 

 

[R C-R]

Like the other panels, these two can be docked or floating, in a tabbed studio group or not. Double-clicking on a Studio panel or tabbed panel group collapses it to just its title bar without closing it, & single-clicking on the collapsed title bar expands it. Docked panels & tabbed panel groups can be dragged out & dragged back into different places to configure them in just about any combination of docked & floating panels & groups you could want.

The context toolbar Character & Paragraph buttons do not toggle, but if you set up custom keyboard shortcuts for them they will toggle those panels on & off.

All this is 'sticky,' meaning it remains the same unless you change it, even after quitting & restarting the app.

[Stokestack]

Thanks for that info. The question is why floating panels were disguised as docked panels by default.

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, Stokestack said:

Thanks for that info. The question is why floating panels were disguised as docked panels by default.

They aren't, for me. They are quite clearly floating, unless I have already had them open and docked them.

[Stokestack]

I did a fresh installation on a newly wiped computer, and they were fitted into the "docked" area and overlaid on the other panes there. I didn't even know they weren't docked until I dragged the right side of the main frame to the left and the text panel was left on the desktop.