Panels always above windows.

[abn5x]

As the tittle says, it's annoying and BAD UI/UX. As you can note, the window is active but the panels are still above.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, abn5x said:

As you can note, the window is active but the panels are still above.

You have the panels floating, not docked, and at that point you are responsible for their placement. You can either dock them (and they should behave as you want), or move them, or hide them.

[abn5x]

47 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You have the panels floating, not docked, and at that point you are responsible for their placement. You can either dock them (and they should behave as you want), or move them, or hide them.

The Active Window Should ALWAYS BE ON TOP(at least if not specified otherwise) of the inactive ones. The floating inactive panels are set by default to get behind the active ones, why would windows or sheets be an exception? It doesn't make any sense. If I want something to be on top, I select it, otherwise it should be in the back not disturbing or occupying foreground space.

[Jowday]

1 hour ago, abn5x said:

The Active Window Should ALWAYS BE ON TOP(at least if not specified otherwise) of the inactive ones. The floating inactive panels are set by default to get behind the active ones, why would windows or sheets be an exception? It doesn't make any sense. If I want something to be on top, I select it, otherwise it should be in the back not disturbing or occupying foreground space.

Panels are not windows. They are panels. Panels are always on top of documents/drawings/photos - that is how it works in Photoshop/Illustrator too. Their purpose is to offer their functionality and to be visible even if inactive. They do not hide behind any document. Otherwise we would have to look for them to access basic features. It would be chaos. Panels must be accessible. Panels are very flexible and can be docked or minimized for this very reason. Or closed.

Panels require some discipline, granted. Here an example from Photoshop where they behave like this too:

Several floating panels is a mess - I keep floating panels at a minimum - close irrelevant ones - when I can I dock them in the rights side like this - sometimes I keep the color or layer panel floating:

 

 

[Sean P]

Hi abn5x,

We do have this reported to development - specifically that the New document dialog does appear below the panels. I will get your comments passed on.

Thanks,

[Jowday]

7 minutes ago, Sean P said:

Hi abn5x,

We do have this reported to development - specifically that the New document dialog does appear below the panels. I will get your comments passed on.

Thanks,

Oh, right, THAT window should be on top, of course.

[abn5x]

2 hours ago, Sean P said:

Hi abn5x,

We do have this reported to development - specifically that the New document dialog does appear below the panels. I will get your comments passed on.

Thanks,

Thanks! This also happens with the EXPORT sheet. Glad that at least the moderators are receptive of critique!

[abn5x]

2 hours ago, Jowday said:

Panels are not windows. They are panels. Panels are always on top of documents/drawings/photos - that is how it works in Photoshop/Illustrator too. Their purpose is to offer their functionality and to be visible even if inactive. They do not hide behind any document. Otherwise we would have to look for them to access basic features. It would be chaos. Panels must be accessible. Panels are very flexible and can be docked or minimized for this very reason. Or closed.

Panels require some discipline, granted. Here an example from Photoshop where they behave like this too:

Several floating panels is a mess - I keep floating panels at a minimum - close irrelevant ones - when I can I dock them in the rights side like this - sometimes I keep the color or layer panel floating:

 

 

Floating panels should obviously be above the opened documents at the moment, but not above other active floating panels/modal windows/sheets/settings/etc, and seems that the Affinity Team agrees with me.

[Jowday]

1 hour ago, abn5x said:

Floating panels should obviously be above the opened documents at the moment, but not above other active floating panels/modal windows/sheets/settings/etc, and seems that the Affinity Team agrees with me.

Agreed

[Jowday]

1 hour ago, abn5x said:

Floating panels should obviously be above the opened documents at the moment, but not above other active floating panels/modal windows/sheets/settings/etc, and seems that the Affinity Team agrees with me.

Ah, you are on a Mac. It must be an OS X issue only - it is working flawlessly on Windows. I never experienced such problems on Windows 10.

[abn5x]

btw, wanted to say that the same bug happens to the color selectors for stroke and fill from the tool conditional parameters.

[Jowday]

45 minutes ago, abn5x said:

btw, wanted to say that the same bug happens to the color selectors for stroke and fill from the tool conditional parameters.

That is one more observation for the bug, @Sean P (You probably get a notification)

Just to be a little extra annoying a little movie from Windows 10 Pro where it works like it should 🤭

[Sean P]

Thank you both, I've updated the issue to mention the Export, Open and Save dialogs, as well as the pop up Panels from the context toolbar.

[spinhead]

On 6/5/2020 at 7:47 AM, Sean P said:

Hi abn5x,

We do have this reported to development - specifically that the New document dialog does appear below the panels. I will get your comments passed on.

Thanks,

The challenge I have is that on my two-monitor system, with all the panels on the secondary monitor, the 'open document' explorer opens behind the panels on the secondary monitor, so I dig around to find it, move it to the primary monitor, open the file, WHICH OPENS BEHIND THE PANELS ON THE SECONDARY MONITOR, then I move it over.

EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I cannot conceive of a scenario where I would want the document I'm working on to hide behind my tools instead of being on the whacking great open unused monitor over here.

[thomaso]

On 6/20/2020 at 6:00 AM, spinhead said:

The challenge I have is that on my two-monitor system, with all the panels on the secondary monitor, the 'open document' explorer opens behind the panels on the secondary monitor, so I dig around to find it, move it to the primary monitor, open the file, WHICH OPENS BEHIND THE PANELS ON THE SECONDARY MONITOR, then I move it over.

All dialog windows (like Open, Save, New, Edit Text Style, etc.) should open in front of panels windows. – As another workaround instead moving panels you can use the tab key to hide the panels, but it requires to get pressed before opening the "Open..." dialog. You can close an invisible Open dialog by quitting it with cmd . (fullstop).

Additionally I would appreciate much to have the Tools Panel always in front of others, and the Adjustment option windows as well.

The "Open..." issue is reported & logged, too.

 

[spinhead]

Any chance this is going to be fixed? It may well be the most frustrating thing I experience with Serif tools. Just opened and moved more than a dozen images. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, spinhead said:

Just opened and moved more than a dozen images. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. Click, move to the other monitor. (…)

As a workaround / for the time being: After you moved the first document window keep it active + choose menu "Window" > "Merge All Windows". This will collect all open document windows into the currently active window as separate tabs.

[spinhead]

That works, as a workaround. Messes with my workflow, but it's better than nothing. Danke, @thomaso