Affinity Designer - Text tool escapes to Select tool

[influxx]

Feature request for Text tool functionality to adopt Adobe Illustrator standard.

When using the Text tool, pressing ESC button on keyboard should accept text changes, stop editing the current text box, and return to the Select (black arrow) tool. This is how it is done in Illustrator and I'm just so used to this happening that I'm forever creating new text boxes in Affinity because of the extra step needed to return to selection mode.

[loukash]

Esc key does remove text focus from a text frame.
If you hover over the frame bounding box while still in the Text tool, the cursor will change and you can move and resize the frame as you see fit.

You can even move other objects with the Text tool still active: on Mac press the Command key and klick on the other object's bounding box.

(As far as I am concerned, not automatically switching to the Move tool à la Ill-Frustrator is a Very Good Thing™ because it has annoyed me all those years. Obviously, you can't please everybody… )

[jeyversee]

I second this. Can't count how many times I've accidentally prompted the text tool because escape button does not automatically return it to the text tool. In a scenario where I am trying to put two text boxes on different locations, the process of making the mistake look like this: (T) > typing > (esc) > accidentally prompted text tool > (esc) > (V) > selecting the mistake > (del) > (T) on a different location > repeat

When it could just be: (T) > typing > (esc) > (T) on a different location > (esc)

It does not feel intuitive to me. Can I request to maybe adding the option to use use esc like illustrator, on preferences menu?

[fde101]

On 12/20/2024 at 7:53 AM, loukash said:

As far as I am concerned, not automatically switching to the Move tool à la Ill-Frustrator is a Very Good Thing

Agreed.  Suddenly changing tools just because a text editor lost focus doesn't make any logical sense to me.

 

On 12/19/2024 at 5:23 PM, influxx said:

should accept text changes, stop editing the current text box, and return to the Select (black arrow) tool.

As of version 2.6 of the Affinity products, Command+Return does this (Control+Enter if you are stuck using Windows) - though it is actually the Move tool in the Affinity products.

Prior to the 2.6 versions that shortcut was used for Convert to Curves, but they changed it in 2.6.

[Bound by Beans]

On 12/19/2024 at 11:23 PM, influxx said:

Feature request for Text tool functionality to adopt Adobe Illustrator standard.

When using the Text tool, pressing ESC button on keyboard should accept text changes, stop editing the current text box, and return to the Select (black arrow) tool. This is how it is done in Illustrator and I'm just so used to this happening that I'm forever creating new text boxes in Affinity because of the extra step needed to return to selection mode.

Oh yes! Thank you, excellent suggestion. I am currently editing in various places within a large document, and every time I press ESC, it is to completely exit the text box, and the move tool is the tool I want to use, meaning I want it activated. It is illogical that I have to press twice for this.

The current behavior is that the cursor is deactivated in the text, but the text tool remains active, which I do not understand the purpose of at all. One press does nothing. A secondary key press is always necessary right now, so it would be possible to reduce it to a single key press for all of us who need the move tool while keeping two key presses for those who need to select another tool.

My hundreds of jumps into the text across the document to make various changes to text and styling also remind me that I should suggest a story editor. 🙂

[Pšenda]

On 3/9/2025 at 1:51 PM, Bound by Beans said:

The current behavior is that the cursor is deactivated in the text, but the text tool remains active, which I do not understand the purpose of at all.

If you create a lot of text frames, in which you always write some value (for example, dimensions), then the current functionality is very desirable - thank you Serif for not forcing me to repeatedly change the completely unnecessary Move tool to the text tool. By the way, why would I need the Move tool after finishing the text? If I need to adjust the dimensions/position of the currently edited text frame, I will do it using the active tool. And if I want to transform another object, I will switch to the Move tool - just like with all other tools.

Edit: The current behavior - i.e. ending creation/editing after pressing ESC and preserving the current tool - is the same and very often used, for example, with the Pen tool when I need to break drawing a line/curve and start drawing another one, or with the Shape tool when I need to draw another shape that touches or overlaps the previous one. The proposed switching to the Move tool after pressing ESC (I assume that the said proposal is systematic for all tools) would be very undesirable, as it would force the user to constantly reselect the desired tool.

[Bound by Beans]

I need to go directly to the move tool with a single press of ESC because I often need to select an object other than the current frame. If I don’t need to select something else, I don’t need to press ESC at all. Pressing ESC twice is useless to me.

That’s my need - I’m speaking for myself.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Bound by Beans said:

I often need to select an object other than the current frame

Can’t you simply click on the target object, either on the canvas/artboard or in the Layers panel?

[Bound by Beans]

6 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Can’t you simply click on the target object, either on the canvas/artboard or in the Layers panel?

No, not always. Example: If I need to select a pinned object that flows with the text and is inside the text frame, with the text wrapping around it, I have to use the move tool to select it. Layers panel? No, that's a makeshift and panic solution to have to go all the way there with the pointer multiple times and expand something if it's grouped in a hierarchy.

There's a reason Adobe opted for a single press of ESC. Workflows. 🙂

[Obscured]

.

[Bound by Beans]

2 hours ago, Bound by Beans said:

No, not always. Example: If I need to select a pinned object that flows with the text and is inside the text frame, with the text wrapping around it, I have to use the move tool to select it. Layers panel? No, that's a makeshift and panic solution to have to go all the way there with the pointer multiple times and expand something if it's grouped in a hierarchy.

There's a reason Adobe opted for a single press of ESC. Workflows. 🙂

This is actually an important example. I have just adjusted text in a rather complex document with several illustrations that are pinned to the text, meaning they flow with it.

To adjust where the image is pinned when making edits, I MUST use the move tool. CONSTANTLY it requires switching the pointer to the move tool and back again. Or ESC + V.

A single ESC press is truly a better solution.