Pages Toolbar and Actual Page Display

[richardtomkins]

Wouldn't is be great if a single click on a Page in the Pages Toolbar actually caused the Displayed Page to update to that page instead of the need to double click today. A double click to mak ethis happen today is counter intuitive to actual Windows and Macintosh and Linux windowing behaviour.

[fde101]

This has come up before.

The Pages panel works more like a finder/explorer window.  When you are using a file manager, you click on an icon once to select it, and double-click to open it.

Same thing here - once selects it and you can apply options like duplicate/delete selected pages to it (yes, you can select more than one).  Double-click to open it in the document window.

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, fde101 said:

yes, you can select more than one

... and furthermore you can move the selected pages (to change their order) and assign master page(s).

Most actions in the Pages Panel wouldn't work so smoothly, or not at all, if a single-click selection in page area would demand its syncronous appearence in the main window.

[mainly bread]

I don't see the problem. The behaviour would be analogous to file managers with a preview pane: the display pane is set to the first object clicked (or the first object of the selection if no there were no clicks). That is how the Windows Explorer does it, and would be intuitive to many users.

Even if there is some other reason for reserving single-click for selecting and double-click for showing the spread, it would be good to have a "browsing mode" option. It needn't be more than a checkbox that toggles between the two behaviours.

It would also be nice to be able to use the arrow keys to browse and select spreads in the Pages pane. The arrow keys currently do nothing on Windows (public beta 1.7.0.376).

[dominik]

1 hour ago, mainly bread said:

It would also be nice to be able to use the arrow keys to browse and select spreads in the Pages pane. The arrow keys currently do nothing on Windows (public beta 1.7.0.376).

Hi @mainly bread,

welcome to the forum.

Try CTRL+arrow key. This lets you page through the pages (spreads).

d.

[garrettm30]

While we're on the subject, does anyone know how to move through pages on Mac with key command. Next page is marked as ⌘↓, but when I type command-down_arrow, nothing happens. When I activate it from the menu, it works as expected.

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

While we're on the subject, does anyone know how to move through pages on Mac with key command. Next page is marked as ⌘↓, but when I type command-down_arrow, nothing happens. When I activate it from the menu, it works as expected.

You might try setting that shortcut yourself, via Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts. Look in Publisher Persona, Document.

[garrettm30]

Good call. It turns out the arrow referred to Page Down. However, ⌘-page_down also doesn't work. I just changed it to page down without a modifier, and that works fine. That seems to be what the name of the key implies anyway.

Edit: I must have tested something wrong. The default ⌘-page_down does work, but I wonder why the need to use a modifier. Does page down do something else without the modifier?

[mainly bread]

1 hour ago, dominik said:

Hi @mainly bread,

welcome to the forum.

Try CTRL+arrow key. This lets you page through the pages (spreads).

d.

Thanks, that's a bit more practical, at least in the editor pane with CTRL+PgDn. I just checked the other Affinity programs and I see that in most other panels where there is a list of objects there is no support for the arrow keys to browse through them. That would be a nice little usability detail to fix.

[dominik]

7 hours ago, mainly bread said:

I just checked the other Affinity programs and I see that in most other panels where there is a list of objects there is no support for the arrow keys to browse through them.

Oh, I didn't check these. Usually I work with the mouse in these areas after I have to click into them first, anyway. But, yes, keyboard navigation can be of some importance for some. But it needs to be thought out very well.

d.

[BradKoerner]

I concur with the option or default setting of using a single click on the page previews to view a page.  Double clicking is un-intuitive and rather cumbersome for quickly switching back and forth b/t different pages.

For some work I often duplicate pages, and the double click process is very irksome - many times I carelessly thought I was on a new page, while in reality I was editing the original.

Otherwise, I'm enjoying Publisher greatly!  Nice work!

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, BradKoerner said:

using a single click on the page previews to view a page.  Double clicking is un-intuitive and rather cumbersome

It appears you haven't noticed that both clicks have different use: the single click allows to select pages within the pages panel and re-arrange such selection. Therefore a single click does not cause a jump in main window to a selected page. (btw: where would it jump to if you select more than one page in pages panel?)

I am rather disturbed by the auto-zoom to fit in main window on a double click in pages panel. I'd much appreciate an option in the UI to avoid this auto-zoom.

[Jeremy Bohn]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

It appears you haven't noticed that both clicks have different use: the single click allows to select pages within the pages panel and re-arrange such selection. Therefore a single click does not cause a jump in main window to a selected page. (btw: where would it jump to if you select more than one page in pages panel?)

I am rather disturbed by the auto-zoom to fit in main window on a double click in pages panel. I'd much appreciate an option in the UI to avoid this auto-zoom.

Agreed on both counts, especially the auto zoom. It happens in the other apps in other tasks as well and drives me nuts.

The pages panel would drive me crazy too if I single click caused a jump to that page. There are many tasks you'd want to do that require a single click, and auto-jump would be terrible. Single click = select and Double-click = open is the intuitive way.

[Jeremy Bohn]

On 6/6/2019 at 2:08 PM, garrettm30 said:

Good call. It turns out the arrow referred to Page Down. However, ⌘-page_down also doesn't work. I just changed it to page down without a modifier, and that works fine. That seems to be what the name of the key implies anyway.

Edit: I must have tested something wrong. The default ⌘-page_down does work, but I wonder why the need to use a modifier. Does page down do something else without the modifier?

I posted about this over a year ago, but I haven't looked lately to see if it's been fixed. It turned out that the symbols in the menu are the wrong arrows. They should be page up/down arrows but instead it shows regular ones.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Bohn said:

They should be page up/down arrows but instead it shows regular ones.

Possibly shortcut symbols don't perfectly relate to extended (separate) keyboards but to laptop keyboards as minimal common ground. (MacBooks keyboards don't have page up/down keys)

Nevertheless, the behavior of cmd-arrow keys in the Pages Panel on my macbook appears just weird:
In a 4 page facing document (single 1 and 4, spread 2-3) I am unable to reach pg 4 at all, and I do jump from pg 1 > 3 with cmd-up/down (both arrows work in both directions) and from pg 1 > 2 and 2 > 3 with cmd-right (and vice versa with cmd-left).