Symbol Sync toggle needs a shortcut

[Raptosauru5]

As app UI/UX designer, I am often working with many Artboards, showing different states of similar app screens.

Symbols make this task much easier, because I can do tweaks on design and changes are linked! (Thanks for this amazing feature!)

 

However, I need to often toggle it on and off, when I want to do some change that should be exclusive to just one case or so.

And pretty much every time I am reaching for the Symbols Sync toggle, I am clicking on Layers in the same time.

My Layers are docked on the Right side of the screen and my Symbols are docked on the Left, so I have quite a cursor travel across the whole screen to do this. 

Floating Symbols Sync toggle would be nice, but I think making a Keyboard Shortcut would be best!

So far I think the shortcut input does not exist in the settings. ...speaking of, the Shortcuts category in Settings REALLY needs a search feature!

 

Thanks for your hard work with this software! It is a good time to be a designer!

[Old Bruce]

17 hours ago, Raptosauru5 said:

My Layers are docked on the Right side of the screen and my Symbols are docked on the Left, so I have quite a cursor travel across the whole screen to do this. 

Is there any reason you cannot just move the Symbols to the Righthand Studio?

[fde101]

If you are on a Mac and have Keyboard Maestro, as a workaround, Keyboard Maestro has a feature which will search the screen for an image (take a snapshot of the button) and click at some point relative to that image.  If the button is at least on screen and stays in a reasonably consistent place, you could set a search area around that and code a macro to click the button for you when you use a key sequence.

It is not optimal, but it is something.

[Raptosauru5]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Is there any reason you cannot just move the Symbols to the Righthand Studio?

I am using the whole Righthand vertical space for Layout. I am doing App UI and I am working with around 50 Artboards atm. I even moved Colours panel into a viewport as floating window, to gain more Layouts space.

If the Symbols Sync button could be floating window, it would work great, but the whole Symbols window itself is really big.

 

32 minutes ago, fde101 said:

If you are on a Mac and have Keyboard Maestro, as a workaround, Keyboard Maestro has a feature which will search the screen for an image (take a snapshot of the button) and click at some point relative to that image.  If the button is at least on screen and stays in a reasonably consistent place, you could set a search area around that and code a macro to click the button for you when you use a key sequence.

It is not optimal, but it is something.

Nice workaround. However, using Mac for work would be a major productivity downgrade. 

Thanks for an idea though, I think I can achieve this with Autohotkey!

I still think it would be best if this feature would be built-in though.

[loukash]

16 minutes ago, fde101 said:

If you are on a Mac and have Keyboard Maestro, as a workaround, Keyboard Maestro has a feature which will search the screen for an image (take a snapshot of the button) and click at some point relative to that image.

Surprisingly, the Symbols panel and its elements are accessible via System Events, so they can be addressed directly. You can check that out using the Accessibility Inspector via Xcode; each button even has an AXidentifier. I've already made a few such experimental scripts before, see e.g.

5 minutes ago, Raptosauru5 said:

using Mac for work would be a major productivity downgrade

Haha. I see it exactly the other way around, by full 180°.  
But to each their own as they say…

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, Raptosauru5 said:

If the Symbols Sync button could be floating window, it would work great, but the whole Symbols window itself is really big.

I am a little confused. Are we talking about this panel? Here it is as a floating panel next to the Colour panel.

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Here it is as a floating panel

… which reminds me that the Light UI bug where various buttons fail to display their on/off state still hasn't been fixed.  (For that reason I've actually started to use the Dark UI although I don't like it…)

[Raptosauru5]

19 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I am a little confused. Are we talking about this panel?

Well, you do not have 30 items in it. Even though I know I can scale to window down, the panel is still taking valuable working space and I would have to scroll or drag it every time I want to access some symbol. When I have it docked on the Lefthand side, it can stay very tall.

 

@loukash

Nice idea with the System Events. A bit more elegant! That could be a workaround for now  👍

[loukash]

23 minutes ago, Raptosauru5 said:

Well, you do not have 30 items in it.

The problem with the Symbols panel is that the content UI is only half-baked. The "list view" is actually pointless as long as you can't ven change the thumbnail size. (Uh… just noticed that Symbols panel does not have a list view. Duh.)
As every so often within the Affinity apps, it seems as if the Serif UI department employees would each one sit in their own lone booth, refusing to communicate with each other.  

Edited October 15, 2023 by loukash

[Raptosauru5]

50 minutes ago, loukash said:

The problem with the Symbols panel is that the content UI is only half-baked. The "list view" is actually pointless as long as you can't ven change the thumbnail size. (Uh… just noticed that Symbols panel does not have a list view. Duh.)
As every so often within the Affinity apps, it seems as if the Serif UI department employees would each one sit in their own lone booth, refusing to communicate with each other.  

List view and scaling would be nice too! 

But I think they are so incredibly busy, they just wanted to quickly introduce a Symbols feature, as simple as possible, so it could be featured as soon as possible. I believe we are seeing only the early version and they will eventually expand it when more important things are done... But making a shortcut should not be too much to ask for

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Raptosauru5 said:

I believe we are seeing only the early version

Er… well, Symbols are there since v1.5. That was like… 7 years ago…?

[carl123]

On 10/14/2023 at 11:12 PM, Raptosauru5 said:

My Layers are docked on the Right side of the screen and my Symbols are docked on the Left, so I have quite a cursor travel across the whole screen to do this. 

On Windows you can have multiple vertical columns of panels on the right-hand side which are docked not floating

So, you can either add a new column just for your symbols (if you have the screen space) or move/drag the entire Left studio and dock it next to the existing Right studio, which would maintain your existing design area.

That should reduce "cursor travel" when accessing different studio panels

 

[Raptosauru5]

11 hours ago, loukash said:

Er… well, Symbols are there since v1.5. That was like… 7 years ago…?

dammit! ...well, I guess we need to be patient with Affinity.... still better than sticking with Adobe products! 

 

6 hours ago, carl123 said:

On Windows you can have multiple vertical columns...

I know about it, but I really like the symmetry of my workspace.

I will give it a go though, maybe it will turn out more efficient for the other tools too.

(I still want a shortcut though! Shortcuts are completely superior to mouse/trackpad aiming and clicking)

[loukash]

Just now, Raptosauru5 said:

I guess we need to be patient with Affinity....I still prefer it over Adobe products

I hear you. I bought ADe in 2014 and APh 2015, but I wasn't ready to leave Adobe CS5 behind until 2019 when finally Publisher was released…

[Raptosauru5]

11 minutes ago, loukash said:

I hear you. I bought ADe in 2014 and APh 2015, but I wasn't ready to leave Adobe CS5 behind until 2019 when finally Publisher was released…

Yeah, I started with APh and AIl when I decided to be a graphics designer. Burned a lot of money and when I decided to cancel my annual subscription, they still fined me the remaining 6 months! Completely greedy, dick move by Adobe. I can't support that company for moral reasons and I do not want to build any dependency on any of their products. Now unfortunately they bought competition Figma and are now leaving it to die.
....ok, rant is over, I feel better now, that was a bit off-topic...  

Anyway, the point is, Affinity is a complete blessing and I love these guys! That is why I am defending them so much. They are making this industry a better place