Affinity Photo - Are there separate shortcuts for selecting and deselecting multiple object?

[Alex_M]

Hi,

Making a box/marquee selection with SHIFT held down both selects and deselects objects. Are there separate shortcuts for these 2 actions? In most programs these are separated into 2 different shortcuts to avoid mistakes.

Thanks in advance!

[Michail]

4 hours ago, Alex_M said:

Are there separate shortcuts for these 2 actions?

Why?

[Alex_M]

Because the current implementation is very counterintuitive. It both selects and deselects objects at the same time in the same action. For example, If I have a row of 10 squares and I have selected the first 5 and then I do SHIFT + drag select over all 10 squares, Affinity Photo will deselect the first 5 squares and at the same time select the other 5 which were never selected to begin with. It's very confusing and counter intuitive, especially when I want to select or deselect a bunch of objects among other objects that I don't want to touch.

[Michail]

24 minutes ago, Alex_M said:

Because the current implementation is very counterintuitive.

Have you ever thought of using shift-clicks instead of dragging frames? Both methods can also be combined.

[Alex_M]

Not helpful. It's easy to select/deselect objects when they are neatly laid out like this. In a complex composition with tens of objects or more it's impossible to add or remove particular objects from my selection, because the SHIFT+drag hotkey both adds and removes objects from the selection at the same time. This doesn't make any sense. No other software does selections like this. There are always 2 separate hotkeys for adding and removing objects from the current selection.

[Alex_M]

I used that example just to illustrate a point. I do know how to effectively select a few neatly organized squares. Thanks anyways.

[Michail]

11 hours ago, Alex_M said:

No other software does selections like this. There are always 2 separate hotkeys for adding and removing objects from the current selection.

That is a very absolutist statement. Just out of interest: Can you tell me a known and widely used programme that uses two different shortcuts for selecting and deselecting. I would consider that a bit cumbersome.

[PaulEC]

11 hours ago, Alex_M said:

No other software does selections like this.

I must be honest and say that two "reasons" for doing, or not doing, something always fail to impress me. Firstly, "no other software does it like this", and, secondly, "that's how other software" (usually Adobe) does it! Just because you're used to doing something in a particular way doesn't necessarily make it "better". Personally I'm quite happy with the way selections are made in Affinity!

[Ron P.]

{RANT ON}

I agree 100% with PaulEC. Adding to that, is the constant demands(requests), for Serif to change their products to match others, primarily Adobe. This is the most ludicrous, thing I've seen. Just change the products from Serif & Adobe to Hoover & Kirby, or Porsche & Bugatti, Ford & GM. Go to them and demand or request one changes to make their product like the other.

How about confronting Adobe or Corel, and request they change their products to be like Serif's? But, but, but.... no, sorry there's no, none, zilch legitimate reason. Just because Adobe or Corel has this feature, or it works this way, and I've used theirs for 100 yrs, still does not legitimize requesting another corporation to alter their product to match. Learn to use the new product, just like you had to learn to use those others.

I can understand having improvement ideas, but using the above reasons are absurd at best.. {RANT OFF}

 

[thomaso]

On 3/10/2023 at 1:11 PM, Alex_M said:

Making a box/marquee selection with SHIFT held down both selects and deselects objects.

For a Marquee Tool selection: how about using the add / subtract / intersect buttons ?

On 3/11/2023 at 12:43 PM, Michail said:

Have you ever thought of using shift-clicks instead of dragging frames? Both methods can also be combined.

I rather miss a similar feature for a Move Tool drag-selection. It can become tricky with objects whose bounding boxes are overlapping. Yes, click does work but with increasing number of objects a drag-selection can be appreciated / more efficient.

Simplified sample below: I try to select the central parts only, horizontally + vertically. See some horizontally items getting deselected while the vertical selection would require an "add to selection" option.

An additional problem – especially in Affinity – seems to be that starting a drag-selection within an existing selection bounding box it always moves the selected items instead of adjust the drag-selection, – even if the starting point is an empty area (transparent / paper white).

[Michail]

@thomaso

Also note the following points:
- You can also make the selection in the layers panel.
- Notice "Preferences" > "Tools" > "select object when intersects with selection marquuee"
- Group objects that you need to select often.
- Lock layers whose objects you do not want to move.

[thomaso]

@Michail, the mentioned preference is activated, nevertheless, deactivating would not generally prevent from the shown problem of objects getting deselected unintentionally. Also the 3 other aspects don't avoid the issue and rather concern other aspects than the subject of "drag-selection". Especially a selection in the layers panel would be a lot more cumbersome in such a situation, not only because of the order of layers which usually is not identical to the order of objects on the page, but also because of the need to click-select every single object while drag-select isn't possible in the layers panel.

[thomaso]

On 3/11/2023 at 12:47 PM, N.P.M. said:

And also it is just dragging instead of shift dragging, just let go of the button!

On 3/12/2023 at 12:27 AM, N.P.M. said:

Next time post a real life example explaining what you are looking for, this would give you better answers or make it clear that something is possible or not.

Although I am not the OP and am not sure what was meant by "box/marquee selection", I am interested in efficient drag selection with the Move Tool. Can you show in your square example a drag-de-selection of the inner squares while all other objects remain selected? – Or is click-(de-)select the only way in this situation?

To me it seems to be prevented by the fact that an empty area within an existing selection box can not be used to start a drag-selection. (i.e. the white space between the gray squares).

I am aware about the alternative of 4 separate drag-selections around the inner squares. I am looking especially for options to edit (refine, alter) a drag-selection by dragging, similar to the add-subtract-intersect options for the pixel selection tool (M).

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

Shift+click is the procedure to deselect an object from the total selected objects.

However, if I understand correctly, (several) clicks are always required in this situation and there is no way to solve this by dragging only, – right?

(I am aware of workarounds – similar to the OP I just want to be sure about knowing all available options for drag-selection)

[thomaso]

10 hours ago, N.P.M. said:

is there any reason why this is something you cannot find out yourself?

There may be various reasons. It is not unusual that even long-time users for "any" reason never used a specific feature although they would have liked to, simply because of not being aware of its existence.

The confusing effect in this thread is the fact that all the replies seem to express that the OP's question (or mine) would be irrelevant / unnecessary / useless – while none seem to literally inform what exactly is and is not possible with a drag-selection. So, the alternative click-select workflows or other options mentioned around "select" are misleading me rather than answering the initial interest – as if to avoid clarity on whether a feature in question exists in Affinity.

[lepr]

On 3/11/2023 at 11:18 AM, Alex_M said:

Because the current implementation is very counterintuitive. It both selects and deselects objects at the same time in the same action. For example, If I have a row of 10 squares and I have selected the first 5 and then I do SHIFT + drag select over all 10 squares, Affinity Photo will deselect the first 5 squares and at the same time select the other 5 which were never selected to begin with. It's very confusing and counter intuitive, especially when I want to select or deselect a bunch of objects among other objects that I don't want to touch.

 

Yes, I agree and a precedent for better marquee selecting has been set in Node Tool.

Node Tool (on macOS) has:

• drag to make new selection
• drag+Shift to add to selection
• drag+Ctrl to remove from selection
• drag+Shift+Ctrl to invert selection state

Move Tool has only:

• drag to make new selection
• drag+Shift to invert selection state

Move Tool should have the same modified dragging as Node Tool, in my opinion.

If you haven't already posted a request for this, you should do so.

(Also, Move Tool would benefit from the lasso selection and polygon selection that is in Node Tool.)