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Toggle a Panel to active without changing visibility


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(I suspect this has been asked before but I can't find the topic after searching, so...)

I've assigned shortcuts to various Panels: Layers, Swatches, etc.

When I hit, for example F5, I want it to make the Swatches Panel active.

However, if the panel is already open and not active then Affinity (Publisher) closes the panel and I need to hit F5 again to make it visible and active.

My question: is there a way of assigning a keyboard shortcut that will toggle whether a panel is active without closing it?

Thanks for any help!

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The the menu's items, and therefore the keyboard shortcuts, are toggles which will open if closed and close if open. I don't think there is a way to 'bring to front'.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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3 minutes ago, Patrick Gilmour said:

My question: is there a way of assigning a keyboard shortcut that will toggle whether a panel is active without closing it?

If you want to use keyboard shortcuts I'm afraid you'll just have to get used to pressing the key twice. Or remembering to dismiss the panel before switching to another one.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
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You're welcome.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7

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What's strange is that the Studio Panels that have a second menu item (think 'Cmd/Ctrl+T' for Character Panel, which is in the Text Menu and Studio ) do not toggle a panel's visibility. If it's active, they do nothing. If it's hidden or not active, they make it active, which is the behavior you expect coming from Adobe's Apps.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Patrick Gilmour said:

What's strange is that the Studio Panels that have a second menu item (think 'Cmd/Ctrl+T' for Character Panel, which is in the Text Menu and Studio ) do not toggle a panel's visibility. If it's active, they do nothing. If it's hidden or not active, they make it active, which is the behavior you expect coming from Adobe's Apps.

It is a somewhat annoying usability issue that the keyboard combos do not toggle visibility too. We only need some of these panels occasionally and often want to hide them again. Especially in a program like Publisher were tons of panels can be distracting. Why I can show them with a keyboard combo in Affinity program - but need the mouse to hide them I just don't understand. UX it.

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
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Yeah, there's definitely something to learned—and hopefully adopted—from the Adobe panel approach. The way it works right now is far too mouse centric for power users and/or keyboard junkies, of which there are a lot in the layout world.

That said, I'm midway through my first "real" Publisher/Photo project here, and I have to say I am *really* impressed and almost certain I won't be going back to CC, so kudos to Affinity/Serif!

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