Can you not adjust fill, stroke, etc. for more than one object at once?

[Stokestack]

Hi all.

 

I selected two triangles and wanted to change their fill color.  I can find no way to do this, because the properties disappear from the toolbar when more than one object is selected.

 

Am I missing something?

 

Thanks!

 

[Hokusai]

Stokestack,

 

I'm not quite sure but I would guess that your two triangles are composed of groups or they are themselves part of a group. Is that correct? For me, if I have multiple instances of an object and I select them, I can apply a colour to the fill or add a stroke to them as long as they are not grouped. If they are grouped or in a group then I can't. There are some things that don't work on grouped objects in Designer right now (whether that is by design or if will be changed in the future is a question only the developers can answer). I hope that helps.

Hokusai

[Stokestack]

Thanks for the reply, but no, they're not grouped.

 

You can try this by simply drawing two rectangles and selecting them both.  The properties disappear from the toolbar.

[Hokusai]

Stokestack,

 

Sorry I misunderstood what you were asking. If you create two triangles and then select them, yes the properties disappear from the tool bar but you can still apply a colour to them both by selecting a colour from the Swatches Palette. I hope that helps.

 

Hokusai

[Stokestack]

Ah yes, I didn't notice that way over to the right.  Thanks!  That works fine.

[Hokusai]

Stokestack,

 

I'm glad to hear it worked for you. It's funny because when I first read your post, I didn't even think about the properties in the tool bar, I normally always use the swatches palette and the colour palette for colour. I guess the saying "there are many paths at the foot of the mountain but all that reach the top view the same moon" comes to mind!

 

Hokusai

[Stokestack]

This is the second time I've run into an issue in Designer that results from partially redundant UI.  It would be better to consolidate the controls for each function into one place, rather than duplicating some of them in unexpected areas with no evident benefit.  When different control panels are presented for the same functions, and some of the controls are missing from one of those panels, the user is led to believe that the function lacks capabilities (because he might not have found the other panel).  For example, there's another thread where some of us didn't know there was an angle control for the gradient fill, because the gradient panel doesn't contain it or activate it.

[Hokusai]

Stokestack,

 

I can understand what you mean. It is nice to be able to access things in multiple places but sometimes it does cause confusion. There is a fine line between too much and not enough. I do like the effort that the developers have put into making things as easy to access as possible but somethings are not so easy to figure out. Once you know they are there, it's great but otherwise it is frustrating. I'm sure that over time, things will get worked out.

 

Hokusai