Can I increase the indentation of nested layers in Layers panel?

[scott2023]

Asking about Affinity Designer on Mac OS (but this same question also applies to Affinity Photo and Publisher)…

In the Layers panel, nested (contained) layers are indented/offset slightly to the right from the parent layer.

Is it possible to increase the amount of indentation used? The current 10px of indent is extremely subtle, to my eyes. When I am working in a document with lots of artboards and layers, it is very easy to misjudge which layer lives within a certain group or artboard. (This happens to me a few times a day.)

It would be my personal preference to set an indent more like 50px or 100px. I get that 10px is very design-y (much like gray text on a gray background), but it is too subtle for my brain. (Also, when writing code, I prefer huge indents — I am a tabs, not spaces, guy and I won't apologize for it!) 😁

Bonus question: Is there a keyboard shortcut to "collapse all" in the Layers panel tree view? While working, groups expand. I frequently want to "reset" and re-collapse everything to reduce clutter, but without manually having to click lots of little disclosure triangles. (I used to have a keyboard shortcut for this in Sketch.)

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[carl123]

24 minutes ago, scott2023 said:

Bonus question: Is there a keyboard shortcut to "collapse all" in the Layers panel tree view? While working, groups expand. I frequently want to "reset" and re-collapse everything to reduce clutter, but without manually having to click lots of little disclosure triangles. (I used to have a keyboard shortcut for this in Sketch.)

Layer > Collapse all in Layers Panel

No default shortcut but you can assign one of your own

[jmwellborn]

@scott2023  Your indentation question is one I have often thought, too. Perhaps it might be better posted in the Feedback part of these Forums, since that part of your post is not so much a need for a solution to a particular issue (collapsing all layers) as a suggestion for how the apps might be made easier to work with.  🙂

[Brian_J]

2 hours ago, scott2023 said:

Bonus question: Is there a keyboard shortcut to "collapse all" in the Layers panel tree view? While working, groups expand. I frequently want to "reset" and re-collapse everything to reduce clutter, but without manually having to click lots of little disclosure triangles. (I used to have a keyboard shortcut for this in Sketch.)

In addition to what Carl123 mention:

• Right-click any layer in the Layers panel and select 'Collapse All Parents.'
• Alt-click (Option on Mac) the layer chevron to expand/collapse the Layer/Group and all children.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, scott2023 said:

Bonus question: Is there a keyboard shortcut to "collapse all" in the Layers panel tree view? While working, groups expand. I frequently want to "reset" and re-collapse everything to reduce clutter, but without manually having to click lots of little disclosure triangles. (I used to have a keyboard shortcut for this in Sketch.)

In addition to Old Bruce's idea, you can click on the vertical bars to the left of the layer icons (and under the left edge of those disclosure triangles) to collapse everything at that level. (Note: the existence of these bars may be hard to see/understand depending on your OS, and whether you use the Light or Dark interfaces, and how you have your interface contrast settings configured.)

[scott2023]

@carl123 — Ah, thank you! I didn't realize there was a menu bar item (which I now have assigned an OS keyboard shortcut to).

@jmwellborn — Good idea, thanks!

@Brian_J and @walt.farrell — 🤯 Those tips just blew my mind. I never would have known. Thank you!