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Arrow Keys / Nudging within the Layers Panel


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There is a behaviour that I have been experiencing in Affinity Designer that I find a bit frustrating. I can’t figure out if it is intentional (and I should change my working habits) or if it is an error.

 

Here’s what’s happening…

 

  • If I select an object in the dartboard, hold down shift and press the up or down arrow key on the keyboard, the object will move 10 pixels in that direction. This is what I want.
 

  • However, I select the same object in the layers panel, hold down shift and then press the up or down key on the keyboard, the object stays in position but the layers above / below are selected.
 

This is not my intention. I would like the ability to locate an object in the layers panel and move it up or down using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

Is this an intentional behaviour or is there any likelihood of this being changed?

 

Perhaps there is a setting where I can disable this behaviour?

 

I’m not one to complain. Affinity Designer is an excellent product, I already use it as my main graphics software at home and I’m trying to use it at work to replace Photoshop. Keep up the good work Affinity Designer team! Thanks very much for your help.

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Hi JohnsonEsq,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

I'm having trouble replicating this. It should move the object on canvas no matter how you select it. Are you using Designer on Windows or Mac? the Retail on the Beta version?

Can you detail step by step what you are doing to get the result you describe in point two?

Thanks.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm experiencing this exact issue. I thought I was going mad…

 

I can replicate it at will (even in a new document after a restart). Basically, just create a couple shapes or whatever in a new doc. Select one of the shapes in the layers panel. ⇧↑ or ⇧↓ and you'll select the layer or whatever above/below (and won't shift the shape at all). If instead you ⇧ ← or → you'll get an alert sound.

 

Hope you can figure this out! Lemme know if I can help further.

 

My system:

Designer 1.5.4 (MAS)

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016), 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

 

˓ scott ˒

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What I get is a bit different: if I click on a layer in the Layers panel & then type ⇧↑ or ⇧↓ that adds to what is selected, basically like selecting one layer & Shift-clicking on the one below or above it. But this only happens if I select the layer in the Layers panel -- if I select it in the workspace (& do not also click on its thumbnail in the Layers panel) then I get the expected nudge behavior. Also, if I have selected it in the Layers panel & then (redundantly?) click on it in the workspace, nudging works as expected.

 

So apparently this is because the UI focus is different depending on where the layer is selected ... I think.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.0 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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if I click on a layer in the Layers panel & then type ⇧↑ or ⇧↓ that adds to what is selected, basically like selecting one layer & Shift-clicking on the one below or above it. But this only happens if I select the layer in the Layers panel

Yeah, my experience is the same (I was unclear about that in my post).

 

I've also noticed that you can select something, say a single shape, below a group and typing ⇧↑ will select the bottommost item inside that group (not the entire group) and add it to the selection. Keep typing ⇧↑ and you'll add more and more objects inside that group to your selection.

 

Also my experience is the same: click on it in the workspace/artboard and nudging works as expected.

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  • 2 years later...

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