tool shortcuts not working

[*mark]

I'm moving around from the marque tool, to brush, to erase, move, erase etc, but in order to move from one tool to the other I'm having to either click the layer again, or the image, or on the tool itself in the toolbar...

Usually I click on the shortcut letter and it moves immediately (admittedly from time to time it decides to cycle through all brush or erase options, but generally when I press the letter on the keyboard it swaps tools.

Is there a reason I now have to re-click the on layer, image or tool bar to activate the tool to swap to another tool, from one to the other?? thanks

[Ron P.]

Do you have the setting to Use the Shift Key to cycle tool groups selected?

Note: Preferences is called Settings in the V2 of the apps.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Ron P. said:

Do you have the setting to Use the Shift Key to cycle tool groups selected?

Note: Preferences is called Settings in the V2 of the apps.

That's a good idea, but it would not be related to the issue with switching between unrelated Tools; only to switching between Tools in the same group of tools in the Tools panel.

20 hours ago, *mark said:

Is there a reason I now have to re-click the on layer, image or tool bar to activate the tool to swap to another tool, from one to the other??

If you happen to be working on a Text layer of some kind, that could interfere with being able to use some shortcut keys.

[Ricci]

I can't get CTRL+Shift+I to invert a selection.  I have to go to select and use the invert pixel selection. 
This is an issue with both Photo 2.5 and Photo 2.6 beta 
I am using Windows 11 24H2 

[*mark]

No, I don't have cycle tools selected - although it still cycles anyway, which is irritating as I'm alway on the wrong tool (if I can selectit with the shortcut)

Yes, I am using text layers - why would this make a difference to selecting alternative tools?

[PaulEC]

1 hour ago, *mark said:

I don't have cycle tools selected - although it still cycles anyway,

If selected that option means that you have to use the shift key, in addition to the letter key, to cycle tools. Unticked they still cycle, but without using the shift key. If you don't want to cycle tools at all, you can change, or remove, the keyboard shortcuts in Settings.

1 hour ago, *mark said:

I am using text layers - why would this make a difference to selecting alternative tools?

If you're on a text layer pressing a letter key will type that letter, rather than selecting a tool! 

[Ricci]

I am on a pixel layer and just tried checking the Use Shift key to cycle through groups.  This did not make a difference. 

I think I might be having some other issue, because I checked this in other apps Corel Painter and Rebelle 7 and for some reason Ctrl+Shift+I does not work in them either. 
The issue has to be with Windows setting or my Keyboard.  I have no idea how to fix this. 

 

[GarryP]

7 hours ago, Ricci said:

for some reason Ctrl+Shift+I does not work

Does setting the shortcut to just the “I” key work?
If so, does setting the shortcut to Shift+I work?
If so, does setting the shortcut to Ctrl+I work?
Does setting the shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+<anything else> work?

Trying these things might help you to pinpoint where the problem is.

[Ricci]

Thank you for your help

"I" Color picker is working
Shift+I  to add to a selection is working
Ctrl+I invert layer, mask or adjustment is working.
Ctrl+Shift will bring up the Polygonal tool and that's working

I tested this out on my laptop, and it is working, so it seems it's just my desktop.  Maybe the issue is with my Wacom tablet.
I was able to set an Export and Deselect to my tablet, but I can't put in the invert selection into the tablet.

I tried using a different keyboard but still that one shortcut isn't working.  I checked Keyboards on the Device Manager and I can see three listing.
Can this be an issue?
 

[GarryP]

Thanks for trying the various suggestions.

Unfortunately, hardware configuration issues are outside of my comfort zone these days, but someone else should be able to help further.

(Have you tried disconnecting the tablet.)

[anto]

On 1/26/2025 at 10:45 PM, Ricci said:

I can't get CTRL+Shift+I to invert a selection.  I have to go to select and use the invert pixel selection. 
This is an issue with both Photo 2.5 and Photo 2.6 beta 
I am using Windows 11 24H2

Perhaps the shortcut was intended for another function. This is a problem with Windows.

 

When using this shortcut CTRL+Shift+I, nothing happens, or is another function being performed?

Try changing the keyboard shortcut

[*mark]

I think my question got hi-jacked since I'm now getting notifications and answers to questions I never asked....

but getting back to the question, I don't even understand why Affinity/Serif would think that anyone using Photo would want to cycle through their tools? i.e. from erase, to background erase, to flood erase, to erase.... Really??

Cycling is really only helpful if you want to keep fit.. 😊  on the toolbar it can be something of a distraction.

[walt.farrell]

18 hours ago, Ricci said:

I tried using a different keyboard but still that one shortcut isn't working.  I checked Keyboards on the Device Manager and I can see three listing.
Can this be an issue?

More likely, I think, is that you have another application installed that is configured to use Ctrl+Shift+I as a trigger for some action. 

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, *mark said:

I think my question got hi-jacked since I'm now getting notifications and answers to questions I never asked....

Yes, as often happens, another user posted their problem in the topic you started.

2 hours ago, *mark said:

but getting back to the question, I don't even understand why Affinity/Serif would think that anyone using Photo would want to cycle through their tools? i.e. from erase, to background erase, to flood erase, to erase.... Really??

Well, they are all Erase tools, so in that sense someone might want to cycle between them.

If they are located in the same tool group, then the behavior of the tools will depend on whether a tool in that group is currently active, and on the Setting for using the Shift key to cycle between tools.

If you have a tool from that group selected (active), then:

• If you do not have the Setting to use the Shift key to cycle tools specified, then when you press the shortcut key it will switch to the next tool in the group.
• However, if the Setting is specified, then the switch to the next tool in the group will not happen unless you also press Shift when pressing the shortcut key. What will happen instead, is that you will switch to the previous tool that was active.
  
  This is due to another intended behavior, which allows you to switch from, say, tool #1 to tool #2 by pressing the shortcut for tool #2, then switch back to tool #1 by pressing the shortcut for tool #2 again without having to remember which tool was previously active (and what its shortcut key is).

If you do not have a tool from that group active, then pressing the shortcut key will activate the tool that is currently showing in the Tools panel (which will be the last tool from that group that you were using).