How to select parent Group when clicking on an object

[MartinMHC]

In Affinity Designer 1.10.5 I have a group of many objects (all curves) as a ,well, group. When I click on the individual objects, the curve rather than the group are selected. I want to select the group as a complete group rather than the object as an individual element.

I have read the help topic here ( https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/ObjectControl/group.html?title=Grouping objects ) , which states:

To select objects (or groups) in a group:

• Double-click on the object. If the object itself is in a group, the group will be selected first—double-clicking again will select the object.

But this does not happen. When double clicking on the object in the group the object becomes focused and zooms to fill the screen. I want to automatically select the whole group when clicking on a child element.

I have also tried locking all child elements in the group and this sort of almost does what I need, in that the child curves are not selectable but it also excludes them from passing the focus of [double] clicking on to the parent group, so I can only select the group from the layers tab.

How can selecting only the parent group when selecting a child element be done? Thanks.

[thedivclass]

- perhaps, select > select parent?

- add a custom shortcut in preferences (I use the backslash '\'). 

hope that helps

[GarryP]

12 hours ago, MartinMHC said:

When double clicking on the object in the group the object becomes focused and zooms to fill the screen.

This sounds like you are double-clicking on the thumbnail of the layer in the Layers Panel rather than double-clicking on the layer on the canvas. (This is expected behaviour for double-clicking on the thumbnail of the layer.)

Try single-clicking at a position on the canvas which is ‘over’ a non-transparent area of the group instead; that should select the group first, as mentioned in the Help.

Also, as mentioned by thedivclass above, if you have a child layer selected then you can use the menu “Select → Select Parent” to select the group (if the group is the immediate parent layer of that layer).

[MartinMHC]

2 minutes ago, GarryP said:

This sounds like you are double-clicking on the thumbnail of the layer in the Layers Panel rather than double-clicking on the layer on the canvas. (This is expected behaviour for double-clicking on the thumbnail of the layer.)

Try single-clicking at a position on the canvas which is ‘over’ a non-transparent area of the group instead; that should select the group first, as mentioned in the Help.

Also, as mentioned by thedivclass above, if you have a child layer selected then you can use the menu “Select → Select Parent” to select the group (if the group is the immediate parent layer of that layer).

No, this is what happens when double clicking on the child on the image itself.

The solutions presented all seem like workarounds. Maybe a possible solution is as mentioned to select the child and press a key to move up to the parent but that's the closest solution so far.

[GarryP]

I can’t remember this ever happening for me.
Is it possible for you to record a video of this happening?
(I don’t know if there is a preference setting for this sort of thing which I have forgotten about.)

[Dan C]

Hi @MartinMHC,

13 hours ago, MartinMHC said:

To select objects (or groups) in a group:

• Double-click on the object. If the object itself is in a group, the group will be selected first—double-clicking again will select the object.

This is slightly incorrect - and I'll be sure to raise this with our documentation team - when selecting a Group of objects on the canvas directly with the Move Tool, a single click will select the group layer & a double click will at first select the group, then the object within.

13 hours ago, MartinMHC said:

When double clicking on the object in the group the object becomes focused and zooms to fill the screen.

This happens for me when double clicking on the Group thumbnail in the Layers Studio, and this is expected behaviour.

As suggested above, are you able to provide a screen recording of the steps you're taking currently please?

If you're unsure how to take a screen recording, please check out our FAQ linked below - 

Many thanks in advance

[MartinMHC]

Thank you both. I will check this out tomorrow and try to create a video.

[IOIO]

@MartinMHC I was facing the exact same problem and just found the solution after a wasted hour of trying around and searching the web. 

There is a rather hidden option that only appears when you have selected a layer or group. So select something and then toggle the tiny button marked on my attached screenshot. After that, selecting groups and layers works like expected. 🤜

Edit: I'm already on Affinity v2 and it might look a bit different in v1. But I'm pretty sure it's also there.

[momsthewordus]

On 11/10/2022 at 11:56 AM, IOIO said:

@MartinMHC I was facing the exact same problem and just found the solution after a wasted hour of trying around and searching the web. 

There is a rather hidden option that only appears when you have selected a layer or group. So select something and then toggle the tiny button marked on my attached screenshot. After that, selecting groups and layers works like expected. 🤜

Edit: I'm already on Affinity v2 and it might look a bit different in v1. But I'm pretty sure it's also there.

Thank you! This has been driving me crazy since I switched to version 2. I have been trying to figure out what setting I must have accidentally changed. Looks like that solved it.

[tftas]

@IOIO OMG thank you!! This has been driving me crazy. DANKE!!