Could we have an on-screen modifier panel to complement the modifier keys?

[GarryP]

Currently a lot of the tools have multiple modifier keys which can be used in unison, and that’s great if you have good hand coordination but some can be difficult to use, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Right-Mouse+Drag with the Node Tool.

It might be nice if we could have a little panel – maybe at the bottom of the Toolbar, or at the left/right of the Status bar, or wherever – which allows us to select which modifiers we want to use by activating an icon instead of having to use the keyboard. (Keyboard modifiers would still work, this would just be an on-screen alternative/complement.)

By having these modifiers available on-screen we could use them without having to keep applying them with each use – they would be in effect until we switched them off.
This might also make things easier for people with limited mobility as they could use the software more with only the mouse. In particular, for example, one-armed users would probably find it very useful.

In my quick and crude mock-up you can see that the Shift and Alt modifiers are in effect, see red arrow (better icons would obviously be needed, and more modifier icons than I have given).

I haven’t thought this through fully but I thought it might be a nice idea to play around with to see if it might actually be useful (which is why I’ve posted this in the Questions section rather than the Feature Requests section).

Edit: I only expect this proposed ‘Modifier Panel’ to affect anything when the user is doing something on the canvas, not while they are using the rest of the UI (otherwise it would cause all sorts of problems).

Can anyone see any good or bad in this idea? (If someone can prove that it’s a terrible idea then I’d be fine with that.)

Edited February 14, 2021 by GarryP
Added extra note.

[Move Along People]

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[GarryP]

I haven’t used my drawing tablet in a while but that’s a good point.
If you can think of any specific ways in which an on-screen modifier panel would be most useful then please add them here so people can know about them and they can be discussed. There are probably lots of usability issues that I have not thought about.

[loukash]

On Mac:

System Preferences > Accessibility > Keyboard > Enable Sticky Keys > Options > Display Pressed Keys On Screen [choose position]

[GarryP]

Windows has similar functionality – Setting, Ease of Access, Sticky Keys, etc. – but I’ve never used it.

However, Sticky Keys etc. are system-wide functionalities.
What I should have pointed out is that I only expect this proposed ‘Modifier Panel’ to affect anything when the user is doing something on the canvas, so it won’t affect other UI stuff like Sticky Keys would.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, GarryP said:

Sticky Keys etc. are system-wide functionalities.

Turn on and off when needed.
On Mac:

• press 5×Shift key
• System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Accessibility > Show Accessibility Controls (activate or assign a shortcut of your choice)

~~~

Also worth to explore while I'm at it:

System Preferences > Accessibility > Switch Control
That opens quite a few possibilities, e.g. having floating palettes with buttons executing keyboard shortcuts for functions that otherwise don't have buttons, e.g. Merge Curves:

(Note that Merge Curves doesn't even have a keyboard shortcut by default. I've opted for cmd-7.)

On El Capitan the Switch Control UI is a bit clunky but perhaps it's been more polished on subsequent MacOSs.
But for those who don't want to buy Keyboard Maestro, that's yet another possibility to run certain macros with a single click, as you can records several keyboard shortcuts in sequence. Or run a System Events AppleScript to control Affinity beyond existing shortcuts.

And I haven't even read the Switch Control documentation yet…

[GarryP]

Interesting, but I’m thinking about functionality within the Affinity applications themselves, not in OS X.
Whatever gets implemented – if it ever would – would need to work in both OS X and Windows (I don’t know what happens on iPad).

[loukash]

14 minutes ago, GarryP said:

functionality within the Affinity applications themselves

Each Switch Control panel can be set to work per app, not just globally:

Same for Keyboard Maestro:

But if you already have Keyboard Maestro or a similar advanced app, then there's not much use for Switch Control which seems pretty basic, unless you really need certain special accessibility assistance.

[GarryP]

Keyboard Maestro is only available for OS X (and costs $36).
For this thread, as I have already said, I’m only interested in functionality that all desktop users can use, not just OS X users.

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, GarryP said:

For this thread, as I have already said, I’m only interested in functionality that all desktop users can use, not just OS X users.

Fair enough, so back on topic:

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

Can anyone see any good […] in this idea?

Frankly, not really. Simply because this is a system function. Apps that are modifiying keyboard input on the fly – like karabiner-elements.pqrs.org that I'm also using since many years – need to do quite some low level things that I don't fully understand. Is it worth the investment of developer time when there's still so many things we also want? (Like, er, bug fixes? )

What I'd rather like to see first is the option to set custom modifiers for all these mouse actions:
E.g. even though there's now also the "Mac-standard" option-drag to duplicate, at the same time it disables snapping! So if you want to snap, you still have to remember to use cmd-drag anyway…

[GarryP]

18 hours ago, loukash said:

Frankly, not really.

That’s fair enough.
I’m not 100% behind the idea myself as I’ve not put a lot of thought into it and there may be some good reasons why it’s a bad idea.
Also, I agree that there are many things which I think should be way-higher priority, which is why I didn’t put this in the Feature Request section; it’s just something to ponder.
I still think it would be nice if there was a way to use more of the software without having to remember and use keyboard modifiers but, for me, it’s not a major requirement.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

it would be nice if there was a way to use more of the software without having to remember and use keyboard modifiers

Hm… why "remember"? Just read the contextual info bar at the bottom.

As for "use", I think technically there could be a "button switch" that would simply disable the requirement to hold a modifier for the given function and internally redirect the function directly to the plain mouse input. But I, for one, still cannot imagine much benefit. Because on the other hand, you would still need to remember to disable the switch afterwards. That seems rather more contraproductive (literally) to me.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, loukash said:

Just read the contextual info bar at the bottom.

Although… on a second look at your screenshot, the info bar itself could need some UX improvement to accommodate all contextual info on small displays.
Oh well…

[GarryP]

On larger (e.g. HD) displays the status bar help can almost reach the end of the bar so any further modifier additions may take it off the edge.
Maybe there’s a better way rather than just mirroring the modifier keys on-screen, like adding extra functionality to the Context Toolbar or something like that.
In 2021 there’s surely a better way of doing this than expecting people to have to use keyboard modifiers to be able to access some of the functionality.