Consistency for Shortcuts in Caret Cursor Navigation

[A_B_C]

Hey guys,

there is another small thing that *really really* bugs me.

Editing texts in Affinity Designer is a pain at the moment, and that is mostly due to the fact, that you seem to deliberately deviate from the system-wide shortcut behavior of navigating within a text block by using arrow and modifier keys. If I am mistaken about this, I would gladly be corrected.

Just have a look at the standard system behavior that we know from Text Edit, Mail, or Safari, for instance:

• Option + Left Arrow (Right Arrow). Move the caret cursor one word to the left (to the right).
• Command + Left Arrow (Right Arrow). Move the caret cursor to the beginning (to the end) of the present line.
• Shift + Option + Left Arrow (Right Arrow). Select the word to the left (to the right) of the caret cursor.
• Shift + Command + Left Arrow (Right Arrow). Select the phrase from the caret cursor to the beginning (to the end) of the present line.
• Option + Upwards Arrow (Downwards Arrow). Move the caret cursor to the beginning (to the end) of the present paragraph or, if its already there, to the beginning of the previous (the following) paragraph.
• And so on …

I believe we all are accustomed to using these shortcuts, and in my opinion it is a major fault in the present implementation of text-related shortcuts, that we cannot use them in Affinity Designer as well. Of course, I am well aware that you want to provide shortcuts for adjusting kerning or line spacing to the user, but in my opinion, it is pretty inconsistent, that you provide a way to customise and even disable them, while on the other hand you don’t allow us to use the shortcuts that we know from every other Apple application.

In order to sort this out, I would suggest to add all the shortcuts for text navigation that are available in Indesign. In this very special case I would suggest to have a look how they do it (one example below). By providing these additional customisation options, everyone can adjust his working environment to his or her liking and even go back to the standard system behavior.

Please consider this request. It would be a huge relief … 

Thanks, Alex

[Dave Harris]

In my default install of InDesign, alt+Left adjusts kerning. It does not move the cursor. cmd+Left moves to the beginning of the previous word, not to the start of the line. Likewise in other Adobe apps. Perhaps you have changed your keyboard assignments? This is the problem we are faced with: either support Adobe conventions, which are pretty much the industry standard, or support Mac ones. We can't do both at once.

[A_B_C]

Thanks for replying, Dave … 

First off, you are perfectly right, that I changed my Indesign shortcuts to match the standard Mac behavior. But the big difference is, that I can do so in Indesign, while I cannot do so in Affinity Designer.

Upon closer inspection, you will note that Indesign supports customisation options for all the keyboard shortcuts listed in my attachment below. So it seems quite obvious, that you could “do both at once” … just support customisable shortcuts for all the options below, and we would be fine.

Would you, please … I mean, pretty please …, consider this request another time? Just think of all the Affnity users who have no muscle memory from the long-term use of Adobe applications, but are instead accustomed to text editing in other Mac applications. Why would it make sense to force them into learning new work strategies and habits, when it is so simple to have the best of both worlds by adding some more customisation options? Please, don’t dismiss this idea lightly … 

Thank you so much for all you do,

Alex

[Dave Harris]

OK, I've logged this to be done.

[A_B_C]

Dave, you are my hero … thanks a thousand times …  :)