ctrl-selecting text object *sometimes* switches to text mode

[Tokamak]

I'm using Affinity Designer 2 on windows, and a behavior is different from what I came to expect from Designer 1.

I use Designer to lay out a comic, so I have a mix of images and polygons, and shapes and text, in a lot of nested groups. In Designer 1, I could ctrl-click on an object (with the move tool active) to select it. This worked for any object type. If I wanted to automatically switch to the text tool so I could edit text, I had to double click.

Now when I do that to select a text object, *sometimes* it just selects the text object...and sometimes it automatically switches to the text tool, even though I am 100% certain I single-clicked, not double-clicked. When I'm moving around a lot of text objects, this gets very annoying.

Instead of "ctrl-click, drag, ctrl-click, drag" I have to go "ctrl click, escape to exit text entry, hit V to go back to move tool, drag, ctrl-click on next object, escape to exit text entry, hit V to go back to move tool..." and so on.

I can't tell why it sometimes works the way I'd like, keeping me in move tool mode, and other times auto-switches me to text mode. I *must* be doing something different, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is.

This behavior, and more to the point the inconsistency of it, is really messing with my workflow.

Can anyone advise as to what might be happening?

[walt.farrell]

What OS do you use?

[Tokamak]

Windows 11.

[MikeTO]

In v1.10.6 on macOS with the Move tool selected, Cmd+click (ctrl+click on Windows) on a text object, whether or not it's part of a group, does nothing.

In v2.2.0 on macOS, Cmd+click on a text object, whether or not it's part of a group, places the text cursor in the text object.

I assume this change was by design but perhaps not.

[R C-R]

Could this possibly have anything to do with the new Auto-select options in V2? I have as yet not quite understood how it is supposed to work.

[Tokamak]

52 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Could this possibly have anything to do with the new Auto-select options in V2? I have as yet not quite understood how it is supposed to work.

Oh, that's useful! If I change "auto select" to "objects" then I don't have to ctrl-click, and the issue doesn't happen. That works too. I'll just have to retrain my muscle memory to not hold ctrl. Thanks!

(Somehow I didn't see that option, but there's a lot in the toolbar XD )

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, Tokamak said:

Oh, that's useful! If I change "auto select" to "objects" then I don't have to ctrl-click, and the issue doesn't happen. That works too. I'll just have to retrain my muscle memory to not hold ctrl. Thanks!

(Somehow I didn't see that option, but there's a lot in the toolbar XD )

Yes, but remember it's modal and sticky for the rest of the session so you have to turn it off or you won't be able to select the group at all. 

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

or you won't be able to select the group at all. 

Except via the Layers panel, of course  

[Tokamak]

That works, because I have literally never wanted to select a whole group from the main viewport. Thank you for the help!

[geneM]

Kinda related to this, but have there been bug reports about the accidental switching to the text tool when using a drawing tablet?

If I use my laptop's trackpad, single-clicking a text object is fine; the move tool remains active. But when I use my drawing tablet, doing a single click almost always switches to the text tool.

Alt+LMB or Alt+Shift+LMB on the text object seems to prevent the text tool from activating, but I was hoping I didn't have to use so many modifier keys for basic operations like this...

Edited December 21, 2023 by geneM