"Close All" added to File menu

[Ash]

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows and macOS

New options added in file menu to close all currently open documents. If modified documents are currently open this will result in a prompt as to whether you want to save, with an additional option to Apply to All... 

The Default shortcut will be assigned as:

macOS: ⌥ ⌘ W

Windows: Alt + Ctrl + W

Expected behaviour on Close All:

All unmodified documents should close

The last modified document should produce a prompt to save, don’t save or cancel - with an Apply to All... check box option on the dialog.

Assuming Apply to All... isn’t checked then it goes through each modified file sequentially where you choose to save or not, still with the option to apply to all remaining documents at anytime.

Hitting Cancel at any time stops the operation at whatever point you got to, leaving open whatever documents were left. You should not get prompted to cancel for each open document, and Apply to All... is not relevant to the cancel operation.

If you have Apply to All... checked and hit Save:

All modified documents which have previously been saved just perform a save operation to overwrite the file and close.

All untitled documents give save as prompt, and goes through each one sequentially for you to give a file name / location for Save.

If you have Apply to All... checked and hit don’t Save, everything closes with no further prompts and nothing being saved.

 

[MikeTO]

I know you said this isn't finished on macOS yet so this is probably on your to-do list, but one minor point is that the command should replace Close when Opt is held down instead of always being present in the menu.

[MikeTO]

4 minutes ago, Red Sands said:

Yeah nah yeah. I assume that's Apple standard. But it's also minimalism that few understand.

Option for menu variations has been around forever - it's intended to hide variations and reduce menu clutter. FYI, holding down Option in Affinity will change File > New to New From Last Preset which is a handy way to bypass the New Document dialog. I agree Option as a menu modifier isn't the most discoverable approach but you can toggle Option on and off after opening the menu to quickly see which commands can be modified.

Apple does takes minimalism to extremes. Today I learned that in Preview if you export an image you can hold down Option before clicking the Format list to choose from far more file format options, including PSD. You can't press Option after opening the list and who has ever heard of using Option to modify a popup list.

[Andreas CH]

Hier fehlt die deutsche Übersetzung

 

[Patrick Connor]

1 hour ago, Andreas CH said:

Hier fehlt die deutsche Übersetzung

 

Die Übersetzungen hinken den englischen Versionen etwas hinterher, werden aber aufholen

[qwz]

Does it work for opened RAW files too?

[Chris B]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:10 PM, qwz said:

Does it work for opened RAW files too?

Hi qwz,

If the raw files are still in the Develop Persona, you still get the 'Quitting - At least one file is currently being developed' message and you have to close them one by one. 

[fde101]

On 2/15/2023 at 7:42 AM, MikeTO said:

minor point is that the command should replace Close when Opt is held down

Personally I would rather have that become Close Other as is done in Safari with tabs (Close Tab -> Close Other Tabs).

[Ash]

Hi All - an updated beta build (1709) is now available to download. This now includes the correct dialog on macOS to allow you to apply your Save / Don't Save option to all. Details are in this post.

[qwz]

On 2/20/2023 at 11:01 AM, Chris B said:

and you have to close them one by one. 

Oh, no. Not again.

[Ash]

21 hours ago, fde101 said:

Personally I would rather have that become Close Other as is done in Safari with tabs (Close Tab -> Close Other Tabs).

That's a nice idea

25 minutes ago, qwz said:

Oh, no. Not again.

I agree we should handle that better - we'll take a look.

[hy13]

What about "Save & Close" as an Option? Would speed up workflow a lot.

[Ash]

2 minutes ago, hy13 said:

What about "Save & Close" as an Option? Would speed up workflow a lot.

I think that is the behaviour now if you go Close All and then choose "Save" with Apply to all set to Y. All currently open documents will save and close. If you have any new modified documents open (i.e. that have not been saved before) then then for that one it will prompt to save as.

[hy13]

@Ash Well, you are right. And this is included in V2.0 already.

But that was not what I wanted to propose. Sorry for being not precise enough. I was thinking of a one step "Save & Close" operation without additional Yes/No Dialog box and this operation should also include the automatic deduction of the *.afphoto name from the opened source file (RAW, JPEG or other) if not defined otherwise already. So 12345.RAW e.g. would be saved as 12345.afphoto, on the same directory path where the RAW came from, without further dialog operation.

This would enable the workflow: Open RAW --> Edit --> Save&Close without additional save and naming operation.

An alternate way to do so would be the use of macros, but the "Save" and "Close" functions are not available for macro recording (same as in V1).

The "Close All" command is for sure a useful extension (when there is no need for affirmation on a file by file basis). I think, however, that in straight forward photo editing, e.g. after a holiday where 50 photos are to be processed in one sequence, it is more common to have only one file open at a time. To stick to my sample: 50 files open at once for editing would end up in a mess for me.

[Ash]

Ok I see what you're saying, makes sense.

I think probably in this case there would be a requirement to have some level of config available (for example your save location - yes some people might want to go to same path as the source file, other people may want to specific a specific folder that everything goes in). Interestingly this is potentially similar to what is needed to offer a quick export option which has been talked about elsewhere (i.e. config what your quick export settings are, PNG, etc. as well as file location you want to export to when you initiate a quick export). Then workflows could also include RAW -> Edit -> Export as JPG and close. All using your preferred JPG compression options and folder location without any further prompts.

But yes the other view is that this should be a macro / scripting thing!

[hy13]

@AshThanks for your reply.

Extending macro functionality would be nice. But will there be a chance to do so shorthand (V2.2) ?

The other way, which you mentioned above, too, seems a lot easier. After one once had supplied a path, one could reuse that until it is changed by "Save as..." instruction. This would work for export as well as for other save operations. There is no extra config operation necessary, but it would be great to save paths by type of operation automatically (e.g. one for export and one for *.afphoto, for designer and publisher there may be additional ones, but I think they will be limited in number). And whenever "Close&Save" will be used, AP looks for a stored path and uses this one in one shot without further dialog, or calls "Save as.." operation instead when there is no path available yet.

[dominik]

14 hours ago, hy13 said:

And whenever "Close&Save" will be used, AP looks for a stored path and uses this one in one shot without further dialog, or calls "Save as.." operation instead when there is no path available yet.

I expect many users will not be aware of an automatism of this kind. This will lead to documents saved all over the place and users will not find their documents again.

I do support the idea of speeding up the process of closing multiple documents but in a very controlled way.

d.

[hy13]

@dominikWell, I can understand your position, because I suffer from that just right now. My approach therefore is: leave the step by step procedure for those who like it safe and enable additional intuitive speed workflow for those who need it to get their work done.

At present, when starting an editing session after a new shooting, I have to follow the sequence Open RAW-->Edit-->Save as... and then Export-->Save and finally Save-->Close, whereas Save-->Close are logically two unnecessary actions because I do not alter pics after exporting, AP on the other side requests for system reasons always an extra Save after exporting.

When I want to avoid this, I could alter the sequence like: Open RAW-->Edit, then Export-->Save as... then again Save as... (because AP does not remember the Export path just used) and finally Close. That is shorter, however the danger to store "somewhere" is huge, because one must do the Save as.. twice. Whenever you forget to set the new path you will have to search for your files later.

Conclusion: When you want to speed up there is always the risk for errors, but the above proposed way seems to me more intuitive whereas the existing Workflow needs more concentration to avoid errors.

For all those who normally edit 2 or 3 files per session that makes no difference. But those who use the editor often with reasonable amounts of files it would be a help. And, the solution proposed by Ash is a way that other software vendors use a lot and I found it ok as well when AP would implement it instead of my proposal.

On the other hand: How often do you open a bunch of documents? For Panorama, HDR and Stacking workflows there exist already dedicated solutions. And complex compositings for most users certainly are a rare work. But the CloseAll command is ok for me, nevertheless.

[dominik]

51 minutes ago, hy13 said:

My approach therefore is: leave the step by step procedure for those who like it safe and enable additional intuitive speed workflow for those who need it to get their work done.

 

 

@hy13, if it were accomplished this way in terms of options for users who are knowing what they are doing then I agree. But it should be something that needs to be enabled beforehand. Just like those checkmarks with the option 'Show this message always on...'

d.

[hy13]

@dominikNothing against an "expert" mode or something like that, but as we talk in this case of option keys, that would be kind of expert mode  already, I think.

[fde101]

@Red Sands, the idea was that Close All would be a separate option in the File menu, independent of Close, while Close Others would replace Close when the option key is held down, something sort of like the File menu in Safari:

 

Without option key:

 

With option key:

[walt.farrell]

On 2/20/2023 at 3:01 AM, Chris B said:

If the raw files are still in the Develop Persona, you still get the 'Quitting - At least one file is currently being developed' message and you have to close them one by one. 

That seems to have changed at some time, and now there is no prompt when you try to Close a RAW file that is still being Developed. Was this intentional? Or is it a bug?

It could easily lead to losing work if adjustments have been made to the image but Develop wasn't clicked.

Additional discussion: 

Note: This is just with using Close, not Close All, but I'm posting in this feature topic as it feels like they might be related.

[Chris B]

I've just woke up a really old bug where raw edits can be closed off by clicking the X and now using Close All. In my opinion, this should not happen—we are getting History entries in the Develop Persona and they are being lost.