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Switch back to move tool after Text Area has been drawn


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At the moment, tools in AD stay active even after the action is completed.

 

While is fine with shapes because you can easily switch back to the move tool with "V",

With the text tool is not possible because obviously pressing letters on the keyboard will type letters on the text area.

So I find myself continously performing an "unpleasant" esc+v combination to do something that I should be able to do without pressing anything.

 

Since is quite rare that someone will need the ability to draw text areas consecutively, I would propose to drop the text tool and switch back to move tool automatically once the text area has been drawn and we start typing.

 

I'm not suggesting this behaviour for all the tools because I feel that the decision to keep tools active was taken intentionally by the developers, but I have to admit that I would personally prefer a workflow where I don't have to manually switch back to the move tool using shortcuts everytime I create an object on canvas.

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When you say, "once ... we start typing", I don't follow what you mean. In order to type, you need a Text tool selected. We can't know when you have finished typing unless you do something to tell us.

 

We have made it a bit easier to get out of the Art text tool in 1.4.2, in that you can now get rid of a text selection by clicking on the canvas, and then V works. (Previously clicking on the canvas would create more Art text.) Presumably if you are wanting the Move tool, your hand has gone back from the keyboard to the mouse.

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Hi Dave, thanks for your reply.

 

Yes, clicking out of the canvas performs the same action as pressing "esc", but the Text Tool is still selected, so then you have to press "V" again to move it.

 

 

For better usability, should switch back to move tool automatically if the user clicks out on the canvas.

Also, to avoid confusion, the cursor should change to show the standard OS move tool arrow cursor default.png if we are mouse over on the canvas (just the cursor, the text tool still active and selected) suggesting that by clicking out, you are going back to move tool and not creating a new text.

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For better usability, should switch back to move tool automatically if the user clicks out on the canvas.

I disagree; I think consistency is more important. None of the other tools do that. However, there's another tweak which is in the current 1.5 beta but which didn't make 1.4.2, whereby double-clicking on the canvas switches to the Move tool. So if you have the Move tool selected, then double-click on text will switch to a Text tool, and then double-click on the canvas will go back to the Move tool. This also works with the Node tool and the Shape tools.

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That's why I think that should be default for all other tools as well.

 

Since pretty much no designer find himself creating different text areas, rectangles and so on consecutively, what's your insight behind the idea of keeping the tool active?

 

Then, if you want to keep that functionality for those rare situations you can still forcing AD to keep the tool by pressing a modifier and drawing things consecutively.

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It's actually very common to create some text and then want to type into it immediately. For the Art text tool, it's essential, because an Art object will disappear when the Move tool is selected if it has no content. It's also common to want to create several shapes consecutively. Or to create a shape and then want to tweak its nodes.

 

Another thing worth pointing out is that in Affinity you don't need the Move tool as often as you may in other programs. The Text and Shape tools can select other objects, and can move, resize, rotate, or shear them.

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We are still talking about dropping tools on click out on the canvas, sure you can type into your text area after you have created it.

 

If you want you can do the other way around. Keep the current AD functionality of keeping the tool active as default, but also adding a functionality that clicking out on the canvas while pressing a modifier goes back to move tool.

 

Very quick to implement, do you agree more with this solution?

 

Thanks

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Not really. For me, a double-click is easier than holding down a modifier key while clicking. Also, double-click is more consistent with using double-click to switch to the Text tool in the first place. Finally, adding modifier keys is rarely simple because we have to consider conflicts with other keys, differences between different language keyboards, and differences between Windows and Mac keyboards.

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Sorry Dave, can I ask you what's your carrer background experience and your role for this software?

 

To me is clear from all your replies that, with no

offence, you never really worked as a professional designer.

 

Because is when you work 8h hours under pressure with huge clients that a sofware start showing its limits, and for the case of Affinity Designer, the great speed in performance is not followed by a user experience of the same level, which makes the software slow.

 

The problem I stated in this topic is one of the UX issues thats holds the software down, and double clicking on the canvas is not a solution since this action should be performed ideally with no clicks at all.

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You're right, I'm not designer. I am a computer programmer, and I wrote most of the text handling in the Affinity products. (I also wrote most of it in the Plus line of products - I've been with Serif for many decades.) We do listen to designers and text is something we strive to refine continuously. I already mentioned how getting out of the Art text tool has changed from 1.3 to 1.4 and now again in 1.5. Since 1.5 is so new, I am hoping to get a little more feedback on it, but I hope you can see that we are open to change.

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If you lock a rectangle that serves as a background for the whole illustration, it toggles nicely between text and move tool instead of text and rectangle tool (which it does if the rectangle is not locked).

+ the same works if you have several objects that compose your background, group them or put them into one layer and lock that layer/ group

 

Nice touch! 

 

 

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  • 2 years later...

I currently use Sketch for UI work since that's the leader these days, even with Adobe attempting to capture users with XD and Invision trying to get users with Studio. I like many would love to use Serif products for everything, but so far Designer has seemed more devoted to an Illustrator replacement that being tailored to UI like Sketch, XD or Studio is. Perhaps Serif needs a dedicated UI product or maybe it's more a matter of having a UI mode in Designer. But for people wireframing and building quick UI designs it's in the details.

One quick thing I noticed right away was how after creating an object it attempts to create a new one versus going back to the move tool like Sketch and the other UI apps. Read through this thread and completely agree with MasterEaster but then read through Dave Harris' replies where it seemed he was attempting to prove his point rather listening to what the issue is and why there is a potentially a better way. My immediate thought was the moderator is not a designer who uses the tool for UI for a living versus presumably MasterEaster, which ironically came up later in the thread where Mr. Harris mentions he's a developer. This issue affects a lot of companies where unfortuantely the great people making the apps don't have the same desires/needs as the actual customers the apps are built for. This post seems old so things may have changed but if not my suggestion would be to listen to very valid strongers like the one brought up here and then discuss them internally with the team on if it makes sense versus the more defensive explaining why they believe their way is 100% right.  I look forward to the future and think though that the Affinity team is doing a lot of amazing work and will only get better.

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