How do I cancel level adjustments

[Hangman]

@GarryP Is this not what Snapshots already effectively do?

[GarryP]

30 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Is this not what Snapshots already effectively do?

I don’t think so.
As I understand them, Snapshots take a 'copy' of the document as a whole, whereas what I am proposing is simply making a temporary note of the settings for an adjustment type – a very much simpler thing.

[Ron P.]

So far GarryP's idea sounds more workable, and would do what the OP is after. It's like creating a Adjustment Setting's Snapshot.

Using your old calculator MR example, once a Memory is created, would pressing it again cancel/overwrite the previous settings, or add additional? If additional, pressing MR to recall, which step or would the user be provided a list of some sort to choose how far back?

[GarryP]

15 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

once a Memory is created, would pressing it again cancel/overwrite the previous settings, or add additional?

I imagine it working just like the MS/MR buttons on a calculator.
“Remember” (MS) creates a new ‘memory’ if one doesn’t already exist, or overwrites whatever is already there if a ‘memory’ does exist.
“Recall” (MR) would simply apply the ‘remembered’ settings from ‘memory’ but not clear that ‘memory’, so the ‘memory’ was available at a later stage if needed.
Store(Overwrite)/Restore, nothing more complicated than that.

[Hangman]

Wouldn't that mean you could only ever go one step back? If you made Change A, clicked MS, saved your doc, then made Change B, clicked MS and saved again, then made Change C, saved again, you could only ever go back to Change B with MR?

To be honest as mentioned above if you have Save History with Document set it already does this and you have the ability to go backwards or forwards as many steps or stages as you like so in the above example after Change C you can close your document, reopen it and then go back to Change B or Change A...

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Ron P. said:

From what I've found, using CMD/CTL + Z or the Undo in the Menu, does nothing different than pressing the Reset button.

Seldom. Try an obvious setting + close + reopen the window + try another obvious setting. Then you will notice that Undo works different from Reset.

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

This sounds like it could turn into some kind of ‘undo Gordian Knot’

It appears odd that first you wrote not to write because of too many options for interpretation and now this topic gets widened to a far more general discussion about Undo respectively History Panel. I'd say again, Undo is worth a separate topic because of its context related nature and branches in the History Panel.

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

Would this be a reasonable compromise which would fit most (but probably not all) requirements?

For this thread a compromise is not required. It would be absolutely sufficient just to have a Revert button in adjustment windows for a more direct handling, according to the existing Delete and Reset buttons and with the existing function of Undo. No need to alter this Undo function in a Revert button.

[GarryP]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

Wouldn't that mean you could only ever go one step back?

My proposal was not about going ‘a number of steps back’, it was about having a single ‘saved settings memory’ for each adjustment type. Just one ‘memory’ for each adjustment type which could be stored and restored, nothing else.

In my proposal there is no history, or going back two or three steps; the user presses the “Remember” (MS) button and the software stores the current settings for that adjustment type. If the user wants to restore those settings then they press the “Recall” (MR) button.

And that’s it, no snapshots, no ‘undo tangles’, no extra information saved to the document, nothing. Just two simple buttons with simple functions.

If the user wants to use Snapshots to do this then they absolutely can but this functionality is for users who don’t want the 'complexity/overhead' of using snapshots and only want to be able to simply experiment with some settings and go back to how it was before they experimented without storing/managing snapshots with their documents.

I don’t know how to say it any other way: Press “Remember” to temporarily save the settings; Press “Recall” to get those settings back. That’s all it is, nothing more than that.

[carl123]

If I'm ever in a situation where I might want to play around with an already adjusted adjustment layer, I just duplicate that layer then hide the original adjustment and play with the duplicate

The benefits being that at any time in the future (i.e. after several edits to the document) I can still toggle between those two adjustment layers to see which I like best

...and even if I close the document to work on it later, I still have access to those two adjustment layers.

[thomaso]

45 minutes ago, GarryP said:

In my proposal there is no history, or going back two or three steps; the user presses the “Remember” (MS) button and the software stores the current settings for that adjustment type. If the user wants to restore those settings then they press the “Recall” (MR) button.

And that’s it, no snapshots, no ‘undo tangles’, no extra information saved to the document, nothing. Just two simple buttons with simple functions.

So such a "Recall (MR)" button in fact would take a Snapshot – but just deletes eventually snapshots taken before?
If you mean that button would work only for a current adjustment window then it seems to be equal to the existing Undo function, which "recalls" already the state of this adjustment before any additional change was done.

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

The compromise, inspired by pocket calculators, it that we have two extra buttons in the Adjustment Panel, one called “Remember”, one called “Recall” (equivalent to the “MS” and “MR” buttons on said calculators).

This I could get behind.

Currently if I do something (just changing the layer selected is enough) and then undo that then start to mess with the Levels I can toggle from new  one to the previous setting by hitting the Branch in the History panel instead of using Command + Z and Command + Shift + Z. I am not describing this very well but the key is to use the Branch symbol to get a toggle between two settings.

[GarryP]

47 minutes ago, thomaso said:

So such a "Recall (MR)" button in fact would take a Snapshot – but just deletes eventually snapshots taken before?

No.
The “Remember” (MS - Memory Store) button would take a note of the settings for that adjustment type, nothing more.
The “Recall” (MR - Memory Recall) button would restore the adjustment settings from that note, nothing more.
When the “Remember” button is pressed, whatever the settings that were taken note of previously would be overwritten.

Forget about undo, and snapshots, and histories, and everything else like that.
This is just about the user, via the “Remember” button, telling the software to make a note of the settings they have used, for that particular adjustment type, and then, maybe sometime in the future, if they press “Recall” then those settings will be applied to the current adjustment.

I really don’t know how I can be any clearer on this.
Its just two buttons, one makes a note of the current settings and the other applies those settings at some point in the future if the user wishes to do so. Nothing more than that, just like how it works on a pocket calculator.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, GarryP said:

I really don’t know how I can be any clearer on this.

Is this interpretation correct or close: You are suggesting a Per adjustment layer MS and RM "snapshot" setting. So when I open up the Levels adjustment layer I could hit the MS button and then do some fiddling about, and not liking any of my new choices I then hit the RM button and I am back at the settings I had originally. Quite simple yet very useful. [here is a kudos emoticon]

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Forget about undo, and snapshots, and histories, and everything else like that.
This is just about the user, via the “Remember” button, telling the software to make a note of the settings they have used, for that particular adjustment type, and then, maybe sometime in the future, if they press “Recall” then those settings will be applied to the current adjustment.

I really don’t know how I can be any clearer on this.
Its just two buttons, one makes a note of the current settings and the other applies those settings at some point in the future if the user wishes to do so.

So would I need to press "Remember" every time I reopen an adjustment window to be able to "Recall" any previous setting?
Or, as long "Remember" was not pressed, would "Recall" just work like "Undo" or "Revert"?

[Old Bruce]

7 minutes ago, thomaso said:

So would I need to press "Remember" every time I reopen an adjustment window to be able to "Recall" any previous setting?

I would expect that if you once pressed MS that set of settings would be remembered until the end of time.

7 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Or, as long "Remember" was not pressed, would "Recall" just work like "Undo" or "Revert"?

I would design it so that if MS has never been pressed (so there would be nothing in the memory) MR would be greyed out, or unavailable.

 

 

(Or ,currently, we could use the presets keeping in mind that well thought out names would be necessary and good housekeeping is a must. Meaning delete the ones you do not want to use again.)

[GarryP]

19 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You are suggesting a Per adjustment layer MS and RM "snapshot" setting. So when I open up the Levels adjustment layer I could hit the MS button and then do some fiddling about, and not liking any of my new choices I then hit the RM button and I am back at the settings I had originally.

Yep. That’s what I’m suggesting.
Just a simple “Remember these settings” button and another simple “Put the settings back as you were told to remember them” button.

17 minutes ago, thomaso said:

So would I need to press "Remember" every time I reopen an adjustment window to be able to "Recall" any previous setting?

I would expect that you would be in the Adjustment Panel as that’s the only place where this functionality would apply.
This functionality would not affect anything other than the current adjustment settings and it would only affect the current adjustment settings if you press “Recall”. Pressing “Remember” would have no affect on anything as far as the document itself or its contents were concerned as it’s just the software making a note of the settings.

18 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Or, as long "Remember" was not pressed, would "Recall" just work like "Undo" or "Revert"?

If you have not pressed “Remember” for that adjustment type then the “Recall” button would be disabled as there is nothing to recall.

[carl123]

17 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I would expect that if you once pressed MS that set of settings would be remembered until the end of time.

I think it was started previously that the "set of settings" would only be remembered until the application (document?) was closed

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, GarryP said:

If you have not pressed “Remember” for that adjustment type then the “Recall” button would be disabled as there is nothing to recall.

As soon I alter any parameter in an adjustment window there IS something to recall: its current state before any change – regardless of pressing any memory button.

With your description we could request 3 additional buttons – instead the one "Revert" which is requested by the OP in this topic.
Why not filling such a memory automatically with the current setting as soon an adjustment window gets opened? Then your "Recall" button could be used as "Revert".

[Old Bruce]

Just now, thomaso said:

Why not filling such a memory automatically with the current setting as soon an adjustment window gets opened? Then your "Recall" button could be used as "Revert".

Perhaps I don't want that setting remembered. I want the setting I made earlier remembered. I am just using the current setting while I mess about with other adjustment layers and masks. I intend to come back to that layer and do some more messing about with it later. I definitely want the earlier setting remembered, I put a hell of a lot of work into getting the black setting to the 25 mark and don't want to lose that 25 even though currently the black setting is at 10.

I do think that @GarryP's suggestion should be a Feature Request for the whole suite.

[walt.farrell]

55 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Is this interpretation correct or close: You are suggesting a Per adjustment layer MS and RM "snapshot" setting. So when I open up the Levels adjustment layer I could hit the MS button and then do some fiddling about, and not liking any of my new choices I then hit the RM button and I am back at the settings I had originally. Quite simple yet very useful. [here is a kudos emoticon]

In other words, what Undo does now.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

In other words, what Undo does now.

Not at all. There is no way to get back to the (this is what is suggested we need but don't have) "saved" or "memorized" settings. Make a levels adjustment layer put black at 25 and hit the MS (Memory Store) button, change black to 12. Close and do some other edits, now open it change the black to 40, change it to 30 then 15 then 68 and on and on. If I want to get to the original 25 I have to undo multiple times. And currently I don't know if I want to go all the way back through the edits I made just to get to the 25 I stored.

Kind of a one off unique preset per adjustment layer. Good only for that one layer.

[thomaso]

18 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I do think that @GarryP's suggestion should be a Feature Request for the whole suite.

Yes, that is my impression too. That's why I still think it should be a separate, new topic about Undo / History / Recall – leaving this current topic what is was meant to be: requesting a "Revert" button with the existing function of the current Undo in an adjustment but just with an additional UI as button next to "Delete" and "Reset".

21 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I want the setting I made earlier remembered.

9 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

In other words, what Undo does now.

To me it sounds rather as if a new ability to set a new branch in the History Panel at any time & manually by the user is requested here. The ability to go back to a certain state without going back in the steps of other actions in between but only in one specific, for instance a certain adjustment window. As if the entire UI would have lots of single histories saved, each for a certain part of the interface.

In my imagination it would be rather useless because I would loose the overview of possibly set "Recall" points in such a complex / split History, even if every UI item (e.g. window) would get its own set of "Remember" + "Recall" buttons.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Old Bruce said:

Not at all. There is no way to get back to the (this is what is suggested we need but don't have) "saved" or "memorized" settings. Make a levels adjustment layer put black at 25 and hit the MS (Memory Store) button, change black to 12. Close and do some other edits, now open it change the black to 40, change it to 30 then 15 then 68 and on and on. If I want to get to the original 25 I have to undo multiple times. And currently I don't know if I want to go all the way back through the edits I made just to get to the 25 I stored.

Kind of a one off unique preset per adjustment layer. Good only for that one layer.

In your scenario that I reacted to, you said:

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

So when I open up the Levels adjustment layer I could hit the MS button and then do some fiddling about, and not liking any of my new choices I then hit the RM button and I am back at the settings I had originally.

Today (for me), this scenario works:

1. Create an adjustment layer, such as Levels. Make some adjustments. Close the dialog.
2. Reopen that adjustment layer, make any number of changes.
3. Decide I'm not happy with what I did in 2, and Undo. At that point, I'm back to the settings that existed at the start of step 2 (i.e., those from the end of step 1). As long as I do not close the dialog during step 2, it's one action to get rid of all those changes. This works because you get only 1 entry in the History panel until you close the dialog. Then when you reopen the dialog, your first change again gets you 1 History entry, and no matter how many changes you make at that point a single Undo gets you back to before that single History entry was added.

[Old Bruce]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

In my imagination it would be rather useless because I would loose the overview of possibly set "Recall" points in such a complex / split History, even if every UI item (e.g. window) would get its own set of "Remember" + "Recall" buttons.

I would think that this would be a document set of one off per Adjustment Layer (Live Filter Laye and Effects layer) preset. It would be written into the layer and would not be in a separate History department.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

Today (for me), this scenario works:

1. Create an adjustment layer, such as Levels. Make some adjustments. Close the dialog.
2. Reopen that adjustment layer, make any number of changes.

For me what I do is 

1. Create an adjustment layer, mess about with some adjustments having two that I kind of think will be good/useful. Close the dialog.
2. Do some other stuff like adding different adjustments. Placing a graphic etc.
3. Reopen that adjustment layer from step one, I do not want to have to undo all the work in step 2 just to recall the first group of settings I made in step one

Granted I would perhaps never actually use this future feature, the way I work is make manual adjustments as I go, looking at the result and I am quite content with the current lack of a MS and MR pair of buttons. I just think this would be a useful addition for some people.

Just think of it as a (unique to each individual levels layer) Preset, not a History entry.

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

3. Reopen that adjustment layer from step one, I do not want to have to undo all the work in step 2 just to recall the first group of settings I made in step one

Sorry, but I don't understand.

The adjustment layer from step one is just as you left it. You didn't say anything about modifying that adjustment layer in step two. So there's nothing to Undo at the point you reopen that adjustment.

Undo only comes into play if you make some changes to that adjustment layer after reopening it, and decide you don't like them and want to go back to what you had in that adjustment at the beginning of step three. Undo gets you there. And it does not affect what you did in step two.