Temporary Tool Selection Option - Earlier Request Boosted

[Glennsart]

Being new to Affinity Photo, I'm still discovering things about it, so perhaps this has been addressed?  

I would very, very much like to see the option to temporarily select a different tool by pressing down and holding that tool's shortcut key, then releasing that key to go back to the tool you were working on previously. I did find that request in this thread below:

Specifically, @hifred wrote, "What I am used to from  quite a variety of programs (including Photoshop) is that one may temporarily call another tool by pressing and holding down a letter key. That way one may lay down a couple of brush-strokes while actually drawing a path: Press (and release) P to call the path tool and click to lay down anchor points. In order to access to the brush tool one would press (and hold!) the letter B. As soon as you let go the B-key one reverts to the Pen tool exactly in the position where one had left off – one may continue laying down points in that path." 

I would reiterate and whole-heartedly endorse that idea, as when I was using Ps, that's a function I used very, very frequently. Not being a coder, I may be asking for a lot here, but there seems to be a great deal of support for this suggestion based on what I've read here, so again, I thought I'd bring it up here.

Thanks very much for reading, and I hope I'm not being a royal pain in the caboose by bringing this subject up again. Have a great day  .

Glenn

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, Glennsart said:

I would very, very much like to see the option to temporarily select a different tool by pressing down and holding that tool's shortcut key, then releasing that key to go back to the tool you were working on previously.

The default behaviour is that pressing a shortcut key once for a different tool switches to that tool, and pressing the same key a second time reverts to the previous tool. Doesn’t that give you the desired outcome?

[Glennsart]

Hi Alfred, thanks for the quick reply. I read somewhere that this was an option and it is a help, although it's still 2 button presses vs. 1 (nitpicking, I realize). If one needs to push a button again, it wouldn't it be just as expedient to push the button of the tool you want back?. In any event, I may be doing something wrong with what you're suggesting. I'm in the program now and I have the View tool up. I pressed the "B" key for the brush, which I got ok, but pressing it again just re-selects the brush again, not the View Tool. I am working on a Mac, which may matter here. Thanks Alfred, if you can see what I'm doing wrong please let me know.

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, Glennsart said:

I pressed the "B" key for the brush, which I got ok, but pressing it again just re-selects the brush again

Isn’t the Paintbrush Tool in the Painting Tools group? By default, each press should cycle through the tools in the group unless you override that by holding down the Shift key at the same time.

[Glennsart]

Oh, I see what you're saying. Ok, you're quite right. I actually have it selected to use the Shift key to switch between tool versions. What I'm referring to is let's say I'm working with the Brush tool, and I quickly need to erase part of a stroke. With the temporary tool mode option, I would hold down the "E" key to get the eraser and erase the strokes (all the while holding the "E" key), then simply release the "E" key and I'm back in the Brush tool again. It's a very quick way of making a fast change on the fly, rather than pressing the "E" key, erasing, then pressing the "B" key to get back to the brush. It doesn't sound like much of a deal, but I have found it to be a really big time saver over a longer session. This is what @hifred was referring to in his post as well.

[Old Bruce]

28 minutes ago, Glennsart said:

... let's say I'm working with the Brush tool, and I quickly need to erase part of a stroke. With the temporary tool mode option, I would hold down the "E" key to get the eraser and erase the strokes (all the while holding the "E" key), then simply release the "E" key and I'm back in the Brush tool again. ...

Let us say I have the ability to do this. What if I want to have the erase tool permanently chosen, meaning I do not want to have to keep holding down the E key.

I need to do some erasing and I over do a bit so I use Command + Z to undo. Under your way of working I would then need to hold down the E key again to erase again. It just seems much more work than hitting the E key erasing and hitting the E key again when I want to start using the brush again.

Conceivably I would never be able to use any tool without holding down that tool's keyboard shortcut the whole time I am using it.

This is how I have my preferences set:

[Glennsart]

Hi Bruce. If you wanted to keep the erase tool, then you simply hit the "E" key and release. It's the same as how it operates now. Similarly, if you have done that (selected the Erase Tool), and you want the Brush Tool, or View Tool, whichever, you simply hit the B or V keys as you do now. The only difference is if you hit and *hold* the key for the tool you want temporarily, then as long as you're holding the key down, that's what you get until you release the key. Otherwise, there's no change in the operation of the hot keys. 

The "Use Shift Modifier to cycle tools" option is strictly for tools within a "grouping" (i.e. the various Marquee tools for example). That's an important distinction. I'm referring strictly to tools that are not within the same grouping, such as switching between the View Tool (H), Brush Tool (B), Marquee Tool (M). I have the "Use Shift modifier..." option selected to use the Shift key, but that's just my personal preference is all (I may experiment without having it selected for a bit though), but that's a different function than what I'm referring to.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Glennsart

[Old Bruce]

21 hours ago, Glennsart said:

The only difference is if you hit and *hold* the key for the tool you want temporarily, then as long as you're holding the key down, that's what you get until you release the key. 

It is a simple request but there are a lot of things that would need to be worked out and even then users such as myself could become confused by what we see as erratic behaviour.

How is the computer to know that the Release of the key is not a very brief Press and Hold ? Would I have to press and wait one half, or a whole second, before the tool becomes only temporarily active? I see lots of timing issues causing lots of problems for using something like this. 

Do not get me wrong, people asking for this sort of thing makes software better. And I have a long history of saying "That will never work" and then happily taking up the new improved product. So who knows, maybe next year you and I will be both happy that Affinity now has this ability.

[Glennsart]

<LOL> I'm in a constant state of confusion so maybe I'm just "sharing the feeling" 😂. What I have avoided saying (given this is an Affinity forum) is that this is an operation present in (gulp) Photoshop (please don't beat me 🥴). I have no idea how hard it is to program so this might be pie-in-the-sky here, but it is a great feature and doesn't take any time to get used to. Basically the only thing different is as long as you're holding the key down, you have the tool you temporarily want. As soon as you release it, it goes back to the tool you were using. With that sole exception, everything else stays the same. So if you're in the Brush tool and you quickly need the eraser tool, hold the E key down, make your strokes with the eraser, then release and you're back to the brush tool. If you want to go to the Eraser tool for an extended period (as in, you're not looking for a couple of quick swipes), then simply tap the E key as you do now. It's just a down and dirty way of a quick and temporary use of another tool while doing extended work in your tool of choice. Again though, I'm not sure how hard that is to program, and I'd never want to see that implemented if it had any chance of messing up other operations. I also hope that that no one thinks I'm complaining that it's not in here. I converted (recently) to Affinity from Ps for a number of reasons and I'm extremely happy about the decision. Affinity is a terrific company that has done some fantastic work and I'm a true convert, which is saying something after 20 years of Ps. I'll take Affinity over Adobe any day of the week for more reasons than I can count here (and those reasons are growing every time I use the program). This feature idea though, is one that I found very useful when I was working "on the dark side" 👀.

Anyway, thanks so much for the input @Old Bruce. You and @Alfred have made good points. For me, if it gets in, great. If not, I'm fine with that too. This is Affinity, not Adobe  .

[litttleju]

yes we definitely need this option, i'm also looking for that but it seems thats it's not implemented