Double-clicking textbox in Transform could allow adding text instead of overwriting

[Raptosauru5]

So far when we click the textbox, the content gets highted so it can be quickly overwritten. This is good feature so you can quickly input new position.

The workflow of a Graphics Designer however often means adding or subtracting values, e.g. "206px+8". The calculator feature inside the textboxes in Affinity is AMAZING and I love it btw!

For this, I would suggest that there would be a way to quickly add number to the existing one, instead of overwriting by default, perhaps using double-click or right/middle mouse click.

Right now I have to click the text box several times before it understands that I want to add text instead of overwriting. Seems fine if you click, wait and click again. But if you keep clicking on the textbox fast, in never places the cursor to the end. Unfortunately this is what I need 90% of the time in my workflow, so it becomes pretty important.

 

Result could be following:
Single click:

Double click (or other shortcut equivalent):

 

...there can also be dedicated button or whatever

Thanks for considering

[carl123]

56 minutes ago, Raptosauru5 said:

Right now I have to click the text box several times

I just click once then use the Right Arrow key

[walt.farrell]

Or, for the specific example of 206px+8 you could just let it select the complete text, and just type +8 to replace it. You don't need the 206px part of it.

[Raptosauru5]

17 minutes ago, carl123 said:

I just click once then use the Right Arrow key

I know, but for this I have to put my left hand across the whole keyboard, slowing down my flow.
 

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Or, for the specific example of 206px+8 you could just let it select the complete text, and just type +8 to replace it. You don't need the 206px part of it.

THANKS!!! I was not aware of this! I think the feature I am asking for is not needed then.
This solves everything 👍😊

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Raptosauru5 said:

I was not aware of this!

You might find this section of the Help useful: https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

[Raptosauru5]

@walt.farrell Thanks for very useful info!!
Interestingly enough, it all works, but nothing happens if I select W or H textbox and type negative number like "-16" ...is it a bug? Works with "+16" and works in X and Y textboxes.

[walt.farrell]

44 minutes ago, Raptosauru5 said:

Interestingly enough, it all works, but nothing happens if I select W or H textbox and type negative number like "-16" ...is it a bug? Works with "+16" and works in X and Y textboxes.

For minus, perhaps you have to use the form shown in the Help, -=16 ?

[Raptosauru5]

-=16 works

...strange

[GarryP]

When you type “-16” into either the X or Y fields (or many other fields), that sets the value to -16 rather than subtracting 16 from the existing value.

If you want to subtract 16 from the value you can type “-=16” instead (e.g. value = value - 16, rather than value = -16).

The same sort of thing happens for W and H but “-16” for W or H (and some other fields) doesn’t make sense (a negative width or height is impossible), so those inputs are ignored.

[Alfred]

2 minutes ago, GarryP said:

a negative width or height is impossible

A negative width/height could be interpreted as “flip horizontally/vertically”, but the developers chose not to do that.

[Raptosauru5]

That makes sense, I did not realize that -16 might actually be a desired position 😄

Well then "-=16" is the only way.... 🤔 but "=" is pretty far away from the "-" sign on the keyboard. In this case I feel the textbox still could use some QoL improvement to speed up the flow