Keyboard shortcuts for non-English keyboards

[Richard Liu]

This needs to be rethought before more shortcuts are implemented.

I live in Switzerland, work with Apple products, all of which are configured to interact with me in English.  However, because I have to write in other languages, I use one of the standard Swiss keyboards, the one for Swiss German.  The "[“ and “]“ are created by holding the alt key and pressing either "5" or "6".  Consequently, cmd + [ is perceived as cmd + alt + 5, and provokes a protest beep from Affinity Photo instead of a decrease in brush size.  I am not sure how many users interact with Affinity products in their native language instead of English, but I suspect that their command of English is more than sufficient to understand and appreciate James Ritson's excellent video tutorials and the Affinity Photo Workbook, both of which make liberal use of keyboard shortcuts.  So those are powerful arguments for standardizing on the keyboard shortcuts they use.

On the other hand, which aspect of a key on a keyboard should be standardized, its location on the keyboard or the character that it produces when pressed?  On an English or American keyboard, the [ and ] can be pressed quite comfortably with the index finder of either hand while holding down the cmd key with the thumb, so there is no need to take ones other hand off the mouse while doing so.  This is an argument for using the same keys on the Swiss German keyboard, or on any other, for that matter.  The argument against that is, of course, that the keys are marked with different characters than on the English and American keyboards, and hence are in that sense not the ones used in the videos and the workbook..

Leaving it to the first user of any keyboard who has the patience to define a new keyboard shortcut layout, invites chaos on both planes.  A layout available for German keyboard seems to have espoused neither approach.  Unless I missed them, there were no shortcuts for resizing the paint brush.

I really don't know the answer.  I am just assuming that the developers were not fully aware of the problem.  Perhaps the answer is a trackpad overlay that would turn it into a dedicated Affinity keypad.  Then, it would only be necessary to translate at most the overlay.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Richard Liu
More precise formulation

[dominik]

17 hours ago, Richard Liu said:

I live in Switzerland, work with Apple products, all of which are configured to interact with me in English.  However, because I have to write in other languages, I use one of the standard Swiss keyboards, the one for Swiss German.  The "[“ and “]“ are created by holding the alt key and pressing either "5" or "6".  Consequently, cmd + [ is perceived as cmd + alt + 5, and provokes a protest beep from Affinity Photo instead of a decrease in brush size.  I am not sure how many users interact with Affinity products in their native language instead of English, but I suspect that their command of English is more than sufficient to understand and appreciate James Ritson's excellent video tutorials and the Affinity Photo Workbook, both of which make liberal use of keyboard shortcuts.  So those are powerful arguments for standardizing on the keyboard shortcuts they use.

Hi @Richard Liu,

you can use ALT+Left Mouse Button plus Right Click to increase and decrease the size of the brush size (and hardness as well). In the beginning it took me a while to get used to it but I find it more convenient than to use the keyboard.

I know to each his own, but just in case you didn't know that 

d.

[Richard Liu]

Thanks, @dominik.  That doesn't seem to work with Apple's "no-button" mouse in the Mac version of Affinity Photo.

I see that you have a Windows setup.  For those who might be interested, for the last few iterations Apple's mice have had no buttons and no scroll wheel.  The whole top of the mouse is touch sensitive and can be depressed.  You simply use the mouse as if it had two buttons and a scroll wheel; however, It is not possible to "hold down" one side of the top while the other remains up and clickable.

That said, it probably would be simple to implement appropriate gestures on the mouse for changing characteristics of tools that one operates by clicking and dragging, but I don't see any way of doing this in Preferences.

[dominik]

1 hour ago, Richard Liu said:

Thanks, @dominik.  That doesn't seem to work with Apple's "no-button" mouse in the Mac version of Affinity Photo.

This, of course, is correct. I didn't think of that even I noticed you are on a Mac system. I wonder if it would work with a non Apple mouse, though?

d.