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Can I turn off tool rotation?


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I want the V key to select the move tool, and that’s it. I do not want it to rotate between tools, which leaves me frequently checking to see which tool I’m using, or doing something I didn’t intend.

 

This and Command not acting as a hot key for the move tool (and instead having to mash the escape key furiously) are easily the two most frustrating aspects to my use of Affinity apps, which I otherwise love.

 

Thanks!

 

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I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the V key rotating between tools or having to mash the escape key repeatedly to use it.

 

Except while in text entry mode (where tapping the V key obviously has to be interpreted as entering the letter "v" or there would be no other way to enter any word with a "v" in it) the only toggle function the V hot key has is to alternate between selecting the Move tool & whatever other tool you last used.

 

So for example if you have the Node tool selected & tap the V key, you get the Move tool. Tapping V again returns you to the Node tool. Tapping it a third time returns you to the Move tool, & so on.I do not believe there is any way to turn this off. It can take some time to get used to that behavior but once you do it can be a time saver.

 

Regarding using the Command key as a hot key for the Move tool, this is not possible because many of the other tools already use that key as a modifier, for example with the shape tools to draw shapes from the center, with the Pen tool to temporarily switch to the Node tool, or with the Selection brush tool to toggle on or off snapping to edges.

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So for example if you have the Node tool selected & tap the V key, you get the Move tool. Tapping V again returns you to the Node tool. Tapping it a third time returns you to the Move tool, & so on.I do not believe there is any way to turn this off. It can take some time to get used to that behavior but once you do it can be a time saver.

 

This is exactly what I don’t want to happen. I want the V key to switch me to the Move, and stay on the Move tool with subsequent presses. It doesn’t save me any time compared to pressing the A key to switch to the node tool.

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"It doesn’t save me any time compared to pressing the A key to switch to the node tool."

 

True, but it can save time when using it to toggle between the Move tool & one of the tools that does not have an assigned keyboard shortcut key or one of the ones that share the same key that selects a different one each time you press their shared key.

 

And of course, you often don't need to switch to the Move tool at all, since for tools that display bounding boxes just moving the pointer to an edge of the bounding box, one of its control handles, or its shear points will automatically enable the Move tool function without the need to press any key at all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This model of tool selection fall flat on its face the moment text is involved. Hitting the V key to switch back and forth works until you have some text selected. This is where I often have to hit the Escape key 3 times to deselect the text object and move onto the next.

 

As I’ve requested before, making the command key a hot key for the move tool while text is selected would help immensely. That way I could select another object, or click elsewhere to deselect the currently selected text object.

 

I’ve been doing a lot of flyer design work with Designer in the past couple of weeks and it’s becoming more and more frustrating compared to everyone’s favourite competitive application. Designer’s tool and object selection scheme is just plain slower for design and layout work.

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Bond, I am totally in agreement with you.  I want to be able to hit the V and know it's in Move, I don't want to have to keep looking to the tool list to see if it's in Move.  Likewise for all the other tool shortcuts.  I'd like to see this as an option that can be turned off.  The one that bites be the most is probably the corner tool and the node tool, I can't tell by looking at the screen which tool is active.

 

FYI https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/3783-ambiguous-tool-shortcut-keys/?hl=move&p=17178

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) with macOS Sierra

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Bond, I am totally in agreement with you.  I want to be able to hit the V and know it's in Move...

Keep in mind that in text entry mode the V key must still be available for character entry or you could not enter any words with the letter "v" in them.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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Keep in mind that in text entry mode the V key must still be available for character entry or you could not enter any words with the letter "v" in them.

This is precisely why Command should be a hot key for the Move tool.

 

We’ve come full circle. Adobe solved this issue well. I can’t see any reason not to add this feature to make Designer easier to transition to, and quicker to use in general.

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Bond,

 

I'm just curious but how often when you are entering text do you want to move or resize something other than that text block?

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It’s less about immediately moving or resizing something else, and more about either quickly selecting the next object I want to edit, or deselecting the currently selected object. It currently takes too long to get out of text editing, which is why I said I find myself constantly mashing the escape key to move on to something else.

 

When I’m fine-tuning a bunch of text, having to triple click in order to start editing, then hit the escape key 3 times to get out quickly becomes a nuisance. Then I have to triple click the next text object, etc.

 

In Illustrator, I can select text within a nested group easier, hold the command key to select another group, release the key, select text, edit, etc. It’s faster and requires far less clicking and keystrokes.

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  • 1 year later...
6 hours ago, Fixx said:

 

solution is in your very words.. press escape

 

Right. But you have to press it twice if you have text selected. For me, this leads to unintentional "V"s within text frames (from trying to switch to the move tool). Now I'm just hitting ESC twice to always be safe. I think that's one too many.

 

A single ESC press signals my intent to stop editing. If I wanted to move elsewhere within the text frame I can just use the arrow keys.

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Just now, yeffdaley said:

A single ESC press signals my intent to stop editing.

I don't know what it is like for Windows, but on Macs pressing the ESC key can also signal that you want to exit a special text mode for entering alternate or accented characters, for example as described here in the Type accented characters section:

Quote

To choose one of the characters displayed, type the number that appears under the character, or click the character you want to use. If you decide you don't want to type an accented character after holding a key, type another character, or press the escape (esc) key.

 

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3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't know what it is like for Windows, but on Macs pressing the ESC key can also signal that you want to exit a special text mode for entering alternate or accented characters, for example as described here in the Type accented characters section:

 

 

I think it's clear in this case that your intent is to escape the special-character window. Requiring two ESCs makes sense here.

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6 minutes ago, yeffdaley said:

I think it's clear in this case that your intent is to escape the special-character window. Requiring two ESCs makes sense here.

I don't know if it is possible (or practical) to program the Mac Affinity apps for that case separately from the regular character entry mode without causing other issues. I also seem to remember other cases (maybe just in older OS X versions?) where the ESC key was used to exit some other special character entry mode(s), which would complicate things even more, but I don't remember any of the details of what those other cases might be.

 

But regardless of that, personally I think it would be confusing if the ESC key did not do the same thing in every case, so I prefer the double-press exit mode behavior. But that is just me.

 

Another way to quickly exit text entry mode is to move the pointer out of the text entry box & double-click. It isn't ideal in Affinity Designer because it won't work if you double-click too slowly on a shape layer -- that is interpreted as two separate clicks & converts the shape to a shape text object. But it works well enough if there is any empty space to click on the canvas, or if the only layer in the area where you double-click is a pixel layer.

 

There just doesn't seem to be any simple, straightforward way to exit text entry mode that works consistently in all cases, at least that I can think of.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't know if it is possible (or practical) to program the Mac Affinity apps for that case separately from the regular character entry mode without causing other issues. I also seem to remember other cases (maybe just in older OS X versions?) where the ESC key was used to exit some other special character entry mode(s), which would complicate things even more, but I don't remember any of the details of what those other cases might be.

 

But regardless of that, personally I think it would be confusing if the ESC key did not do the same thing in every case, so I prefer the double-press exit mode behavior. But that is just me.

 

Another way to quickly exit text entry mode is to move the pointer out of the text entry box & double-click. It isn't ideal in Affinity Designer because it won't work if you double-click too slowly on a shape layer -- that is interpreted as two separate clicks & converts the shape to a shape text object. But it works well enough if there is any empty space to click on the canvas, or if the only layer in the area where you double-click is a pixel layer.

 

There just doesn't seem to be any simple, straightforward way to exit text entry mode that works consistently in all cases, at least that I can think of.

 

The emoji picker is a system-level widget. When you hit ESC, it's registered by macOS, not AD. So there would be no need for AD to be reprogrammed for this scenario.

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6 minutes ago, yeffdaley said:

The emoji picker is a system-level widget. When you hit ESC, it's registered by macOS, not AD. So there would be no need for AD to be reprogrammed for this scenario.

I am not sure what the emoji picker has to do with exiting text entry mode. Can you explain a bit more about that?

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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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3 minutes ago, yeffdaley said:

I mean the alternate character palette https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201586 

Maybe I am just being more slow witted than normal but I do not see what that has to do with exiting text entry mode, with or without changing the behavior of the ESC key. AFAIK, Apple Color emojis are only available in the Apple Color Emoji font, & characters in that font can't be entered directly into Frame or Artistic boxes -- nothing is shown & there is just an empty placeholder where it would go in the text.

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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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19 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Maybe I am just being more slow witted than normal but I do not see what that has to do with exiting text entry mode, with or without changing the behavior of the ESC key. AFAIK, Apple Color emojis are only available in the Apple Color Emoji font, & characters in that font can't be entered directly into Frame or Artistic boxes -- nothing is shown & there is just an empty placeholder where it would go in the text.

 

Do you have Sketch? Open that up, fiddle with the text tool (using ESC) and you'll see how I think text tools should work. Maybe I'll screen-record something later to make my stance crystal clear.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Resurrecting this post as the tool cycling is once again driving me bonkers, as is not having the Move tool modifier, and Option click and dragging not copying in the Layers panel. These can all be preferences, and would make many Adobe switchers very happy.

 

These 3 items have resulted in enough frustration for me to mostly abandon Designer save for a few freelance projects that would be too time-intensive to rebuild in Illustrator, otherwise I would. That genuinely saddens me.

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I want also an option to deactivate this cycle.

Sometimes the cycling is helpful, eg fast switching between colorpicker / brush... but this is only valid DURING a process. After 3 minutes i did not use it, i have forget this "combination" and i´m confused about my brush... till i recognize its not the brush, its the dodge....

This cycling between 2 tools is just useful for a specific situation, so it would be nice if i could this activate, eg. by selcting two tools with right-mouse, or shift-key...., but if not and as normal behavior: The normal v-press (or whatever) should be always the move-tool (or whatever), does not matter which tool i had before. To deactivate just disable in the kontext-bar of each tool, the "link-option".

OSX 12.5  / iMac Retina 27" / Radeon Pro 580X / Metall: on! --- WWG1WGA WW!

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I agree, there should at least be the option to turn this cycling off. I'm forever dragging things across the canvas when I mean to zoom etc. At least ctrl+z behaves normally lol

 

I did make a feature request for a toggle to turn the behaviour on/off but only one person backed it.

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3 hours ago, BofG said:

I agree, there should at least be the option to turn this cycling off. I'm forever dragging things across the canvas when I mean to zoom etc. At least ctrl+z behaves normally lol

 

I did make a feature request for a toggle to turn the behaviour on/off but only one person backed it.

 

Well I certainly hope the backing of feature requests on a forum many people seldom visit isn’t their only benchmark for feature request validity. That written, I would have backed the heck out of your feature request.

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