Move data entry improvements

[n_shcherbakov]

@lenogre yep. This was the first suggestion when the feature was released.

On 8/2/2023 at 12:41 PM, n_shcherbakov said:

Very cool, but it would be even cooler if there was an option to add this as an effect or entity to the appearance panel like is done in Illustrator. This approach opens up many options for experimentation. 

 

[Ash]

Yes, that's on our radar as a possible feature in future...

[Ash]

On 10/25/2023 at 1:11 PM, Frozen Death Knight said:

I also can't re-activate the operation by pressing Enter while using the Node Tool.

Yes, you can only initialise the function while using certain tools (Move, Shapes, Artboard, Frame) 

The thing with node tool is that we do intend to offer a similar option specific to the node tool, i.e. so if you have a node(s) selected in node tool you can hit enter to then move those selected by a specific distance. It will be slightly different as the duplication options for example will not be relevant in this case.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Ash said:

Yes, you can only initialise the function while using certain tools (Move, Shapes, Artboard, Frame) 

Any chance you could at some point add the AD Gradient & Transparency & maybe a few others like the Corner & Contour tools to that?

[Petar Petrenko]

Please, add sliders to the other elements as for "Number of copies".

[Hangman]

On 10/29/2023 at 1:43 PM, Petar Petrenko said:

Please, add sliders to the other elements as for "Number of copies".

Does click-dragging the field labels not suffice? IMHO a much neater option than physical sliders...

[Tim France]

On 10/29/2023 at 1:43 PM, Petar Petrenko said:

Please, add sliders to the other elements as for "Number of copies".

You could perhaps argue a slider would work for the angle and rotation values but the others are unbounded, so it's hard to choose a sensible range for the slider.

[Return]

35 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Does click-dragging the field labels not suffice? IMHO a much neater option than physical sliders...

May I add the option to mousewheel up/down while hovering the field.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Return said:

May I add the option to mousewheel up/down while hovering the field.

That seems to be working for me on the Mac AD beta version so possibly just a Windows oversight?

[Tauridean]

On 10/28/2023 at 6:12 PM, R C-R said:

Any chance you could at some point add the AD Gradient & Transparency

Would be good!

[Return]

9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That seems to be working for me on the Mac AD beta version so possibly just a Windows oversight?

I said may I add in respect that that option is also available.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Return said:

I said may I add in respect that that option is also available.

I don't understand what you mean or what you added or where. Are you saying it is available but you want an option to disable it or something else?

Like I said, in the Mac Beta version of AD 2.3 it just works.

[ashf]

I  would like you to make it work with the Transform Origin.
This is especially useful for mirroring/flipping objects by a numeric data..

[Frozen Death Knight]

Just now, ashf said:

I  would like you to make it work with the Transform Origin.
This is especially useful for mirroring/flipping objects by a numeric data..

You can. Just click the transform origin icon with the Move Tool activated. Moving the origin will update the transformation without losing it.

[ashf]

2 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

You can. Just click the transform origin icon with the Move Tool activated. Moving the origin will update the transformation without losing it.

Ok... I can rotate copy them but it's not a mirrored. -100% scaling doesn't work either.
How do I flip them?

[Frozen Death Knight]

Just had a thought about using this feature for resizing objects. One thing that I have done a lot lately is resizing multiple images to have a specific pixel height. When doing this for hundreds of images, there is a lot of manual work that needs to be done, since the Transform panel doesn't allow this. Could Move Data Entry allow for resizing multiple selected images based on either scale or pixel dimensions, with the option to lock the aspect ratio?

[Ash]

Actually wonder if this should in fact be a transform panel thing and that if you have "transform objects separately" checked and type in an absolute value into the transform panel (e.g H=100px) then all the objects in your selection should adopt that height rather than it working proportionally based on the key object size?

Also we'll get round to adding a "Size to Same" function at some point!

[postmadesign]

I really like the improvements in this area. May I add a suggestion: add the ability to create a grid of objects with this. You could create a checkbox for this, but it would require two entry fields for horizontal and vertical copies. I find this very useful in InDesign, and seems to be a rather easy addition to improve this feature

[n_shcherbakov]

@postmadesign it will be possible if (when? 🙂) this suggestion will be realized.

On 8/2/2023 at 12:41 PM, n_shcherbakov said:

Very cool, but it would be even cooler if there was an option to add this as an effect or entity to the appearance panel like is done in Illustrator. This approach opens up many options for experimentation. 

 

[debraspicher]

4 hours ago, postmadesign said:

May I add a suggestion: add the ability to create a grid of objects with this. You could create a checkbox for this, but it would require two entry fields for horizontal and vertical copies. I find this very useful in InDesign, and seems to be a rather easy addition to improve this feature

With some tools at least, it can be done with Quick Grid.

[postmadesign]

3 hours ago, debraspicher said:

With some tools at least, it can be done with Quick Grid.

Thank you for reminding me of this, but I always found this method very hard to work with and not precise. I would like a numbers based approach with a preview.

[debraspicher]

11 minutes ago, postmadesign said:

Thank you for reminding me of this, but I always found this method very hard to work with and not precise. I would like a numbers based approach with a preview.

Yes it's a great concept, but as you say, it's sometimes hard to work with... it's not the most user friendly. Especially if there needs to be a controlled gap and in my case my nudge distance is often set really low for pixel-hinting...

[CM0]

It could be really useful and powerful to allow expressions in the input fields where there is a variable 'n' for the current instance number of the copy.

You could then create some interesting patterns.

[MickRose]

The Data Merge Layout Tool is worth looking at for Step & Repeat. A file is attached here. It's a bit clunky but maybe Serif could tweak the code a bit and have it as a separate Step & Repeat feature. I agree that the InDesign Step & Repeat command is very useful but the Affinity one has the potential to be much better - i.e. live rather than static.

Data Merge Layout Tool.afpub

[Tim,c]

great.afdesign

Edited November 25, 2023 by Tim,c
Sorry, I'm a new user. About where to type?