Alternative Ctrl+Enter Target for Exiting Text Tool (not Convert to Curves)

[JLukeW]

Right now, to switch from text to another tool requires pressing "esc" or a mouse click before the shortcut for another tool. The universal command in other applications for "finish editing text" or "submit text" is Ctrl+Enter (Adobe, Microsoft, Browsers, and even on this forum!).

Can we have a valid command to assign Ctrl+Enter to that mimics the escape key currently required to exit text editing mode?

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, JLukeW said:

Can we have a valid command to assign Ctrl+Enter to that mimics the escape key currently required to exit text editing mode?

Interesting idea.

But for now, all you can do is pick something innocuous to assign it to, so if you hit it it doesn't do any harm.

[JLukeW]

The issue with not having a valid keyboard deselection target is that there's currently no alternative to pressing "Esc." in order to use a keyboard shortcut to select another tool. "Escape" is (rightly) "undo text" in every other design application I've used (Corel, Adobe, GIMP).

Current workflow: Click to start text, type, press esc. (once or twice depending on context), press "b" to select brush, paint/draw.
Desired workflow: Click to start text, type, press ctrl+enter (or have an assignable target for an alternative shortcut), press "b" to select brush, paint/draw.

[fde101]

On 6/12/2020 at 10:10 PM, JLukeW said:

"Escape" is (rightly) "undo text"

The escape key is usually used to imply cancelling (preventing) something or closing / backing out of something; this is true on most modern platforms, including both of those which the Affinity applications have been released on.  The overall model of the Affinity products seems to be that when you are editing text in a document you are modifying it directly, in place, on the document.  That means that as soon as you type the letters and they show up on the screen, the edit is done.  It would be too late to "cancel" the edit (as the escape key might imply) as it was done already, so you would need to undo it instead, which is command+Z (or control+Z) rather than escape.  Thus using escape to back out of edit mode would be leveraging the key for its other typical behavior, which seems perfectly appropriate to me.

[JLukeW]

"The escape key is usually used to imply cancelling (preventing) something or closing / backing out of something..."

Agreed. Other software treats creating a text box with text as an action that can be cancelled, and Affinity doesn't. That's okay.

The issue is that Affinity is the only piece of software that has only one valid keypress to non-destructively finish text editing (and re-enable keyboard shortcuts instead of text entry). The escape key does something different in almost all other software under the same conditions. It is not rebindable, and there are no alternatives that behave as a "finish text editing" key.

Even if its behavior is "appropriate" in Affinity, it is unique. My suggestion above is simply to create an action target that acts as an alternative to pressing escape.

[4CardsMan]

What a struggle!  I finally worked out that to go from the text tool to another tool, you press <esc> plus the new tool.  Apparently there is no keystroke that simply exits the text tool. It would be nice if this were documented somewhere.

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, 4CardsMan said:

What a struggle!  I finally worked out that to go from the text tool to another tool, you press <esc> plus the new tool.

There’s no need to press Esc. You can simply select another tool.

[4CardsMan]

No.  When I select another tool by keystroke, it simply adds the shortcut to the keystroke to the text.  I ended up with a lot of extra v's when trying to select the move tool.  Of course, I can select another tool with the trackpad, but I strongly prefer keystrokes to mouse clicks.

[Alfred]

56 minutes ago, 4CardsMan said:

No.  When I select another tool by keystroke, it simply adds the shortcut to the keystroke to the text.  I ended up with a lot of extra v's when trying to select the move tool.  Of course, I can select another tool with the trackpad, but I strongly prefer keystrokes to mouse clicks.

My apologies. I didn’t notice you were depending on keyboard shortcuts.

[chrismcqueen]

Hi everyone, giving Affinity a try and I immediately hit a wall with this. I thought the program was unusable because when I pushed Command-Return to complete a text box I could no longer edit the text and everything went haywire. I'm realizing now that I had accidentally discovered the keyboard shortcut to turn text into curves.

Anyway, +1 on being able to change this keybinding. I mean, sure, I can get used to it, but why not give the option? Especially when you're trying to (presumably) woo users from other apps?

[JLukeW]

I'm glad this post was resurrected. 8 months later, this is still an issue for me. My workflow improved when I bound Ctrl+Enter to "Deselect" (or "Deselect All"?), but I continue to recommend that Affinity look into the option of mimicking some more traditional behavior for text editing.

[Intuos5]

I would also like to use Ctrl+Enter to exit text editing. I think it doesn't hurt to have this in the shortcut options and not have any key associated to it by default either. I would at least like to have this option.

[Inc_]

Joining the request. I'd also like to be able to reconfigure ctrl+enter. (signed up just to say this)

[MikeTO]

Just to clarify this suggestion, what is being asked is for the ability to assign shortcuts with modifiers to the Tools. You can of course assign Ctrl+Enter to any menu command, I've assigned it to insert column break, but the Tools are limited to single key shortcuts.

[AdroitAndroid]

Having a reliable way to enter "Normal Mode" is really important, and Ctrl+Enter seems like a good keystroke for that given alignment with other suites. It's especially important because Esc doesn't work reliably. For instance, if you have some text selected, the first Esc clears the selection. But if you press the key for the next tool at that point, it will just insert it as text at the insertion point. This is super annoying, especially since sometimes you only need Esc once, and having to think about which situation I'm in slows me down. Ctrl+Enter is also just more ergonomic than having to reach for the Esc key.

Thanks to @JLukeW for suggesting binding Ctrl+Enter to Deselect. I've done that in System Preferences on my Mac, and it's working very well. Still, this isn't quite the same thing, and it would be great if Affinity could fix this.

Edited October 9, 2023 by AdroidAndroid

[sansnom]

🇬🇧 Hi, for the past few days, I have been getting annoyed by this behavior.
In my workflow, I need to quickly access tools by invoking them with keyboard shortcuts, without additional manipulation. And the software does not allow you to exit an input field quickly.
And this morning, after searching for a solution for a long time here in this forum and on the web, I found a solution that is worth what it is worth: double click in the canvas. It's not ideal, but it saves having to move the cursor, at least. Then, all keyboard shortcuts are accessible without them entering the input field!…

🇫🇷 Bonjour, depuis quelques jours, je m'agace avec ce comportement.
Dans mon flux de travail, j'ai besoin d'avoir rapidement accès aux outils en les invoquant avec un raccourcis clavier, sans manipulation supplémentaire. Et le logiciel ne permet pas de quitter un champ de saisie rapidement.
Et ce matin, après avoir longuement cherché une solution ici dans ce forum et sur le web, j'ai trouvé une solution qui vaut ce qu'elle vaut : effectuer un double click dans le canvas. Ce n'est pas l'idéal, mais cela permet de ne pas avoir à déplacer le curseur, au moins. Ensuite, tous les raccourcis clavier sont accessibles sans qu'ils ne viennent s'inscrire dans le champ de saisie !…