Solo Mode equivalent

[Anuradha]

Hello there,

We have moved almost all our photo editing into Affinity Photo (on beta 1.7.0.350 at the moment).  Before that, we used other software such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Darktable and the Gimp.  We were also lucky to grab a copy of the Workbook before it went temporarily out of print a month or two ago.

While on Lightroom, a feature that we got so used to was the "Solo Mode".   This feature automatically collapses all panels except the working panel, reducing a lot of unnecessary clutter, and making navigation easier.  We can't seem to do something similar on Affinity Photo's develop mode, even manually collapse a panel without disabling it.  After getting used to the clutter-free editing with the Solo Mode, living without it gets so annoying, and I'm sure we are not alone.

It would be a much more pleasant editing experience if something similar can be implemented as an option.  Thanks a lot, and please keep up the good work!

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Anuradha said:

We can't seem to do something similar on Affinity Photo's develop mode, even manually collapse a panel without disabling it.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums!

If you double-click on a tab in the title bar of a panel you will collapse that row of panels.

[Anuradha]

23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums!

If you double-click on a tab in the title bar of a panel you will collapse that row of panels.

Thanks a lot for the quick reply!

I do know about the ability to double-click on a title bar to collapse that row of panels.  What I'm looking for is a bit more fine grained, the ability to collapse individual panels like "Exposure", "Enhance", "Shadows & Highlights" without disabling them.  Currently they are expanded if enabled, and collapsed if disabled.  I am looking for a way to collapse them without disabling.

Interestingly, this "feature" is available in certain panels in the Photo persona.  For example, under the "Effects" title, panels "Gaussian Blur", "Outer Shadow", "Inner Shadow" etc can be collapsed without disabling them.  In the attached screenshot "Gaussian Blur" is enabled and expanded, "Outer Shadow" is enabled but collapsed, and "Inner shadow" is NOT enabled but expanded.  The ability to expand/collapse independent of their enabled/disabled status is really convenient to me.  And it would be super sweet if there is a way to automatically collapse other panels when one is expanded.  And yes, I do understand that different people have different editing preferences, so if this is an option like the "Solo mode" in Lightroom, then I'm sure that everybody will be happy! :-)

Edited May 28, 2019 by Anuradha
Fix wording.