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Faster, more efficient and consistent workflow to rename Swatches and Styles


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I like to work with a list of swatches and give all colors/swatches my own name. But with long lists it takes a long time to rename all swatches the way the interface is build now (look at video below).

What we have to do rightnow for all items in the swatches list, each time to rename:

  1. Rightclick a swatch
  2. Move the mouse to the right where a menu popped up on a different location, move to the 'Rename Global Color' (or normal color) menu-item and click
  3. Move the mouse to the input dialog which is on yet another completely different screenlocation so we have to move the mouse all over to the left
  4. We need to click the inputfield first and select the text in it to overwrite it
  5. Type the new name
  6. Click on OK or press enter-key to confirm

This is a pretty inefficient workflow when renaming a full list of swatches (or styles), it takes way too many steps and we have to move the mouse all the time and switch between keyboard and mouse.

 

What I would like to do instead:

  1. Two clicks on the swatch so the swatch-textlabel changes into an input field in which the current name show and is already selected to overwrite
  2. Enter the new name
  3. Press enter or tab to confirm

So no more mouse moves from right and than completely to the left, just two clicks on the same location and the rest typing in and confirming with the keyboard.

Not sure why Serif has chosen a completely different (and much more inefficient) UX approach for the swatches and styles panels compared to renaming the layers in the layers panel. I don't understand, because the layers-panel has such a nice and proven fast workflow to rename items which most people understand intuitively and already use in other software too.

So please make renaming swatches and styles the same as renaming in the layers panel! That would speed up the workflow so much and makes the repetitive task of renaming items so much more efficient. Thanks! :)

 

Compare this (renaming swatches and styles how it is now)...:

 

To this... (renaming layers, like how swatches and styles could have the same UX):

 

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Not just Swatches, but also Assets, Symbols, Text Styles, Styles.

I hope we get a 1.7.5 type release that concentrates on fixing these long standing UI shortfalls.

And also fixes the Boolean and Expand Stroke bugs!

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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I'd prefer that double clicking a swatch would open a dialog box similar to the Add Global Color dialog. There you'd be able to change the swatch name, color value, global and spot color properties, and preview how changing the color affects the artwork with clicking OK to confirm the change, or Cancel to discard it.

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  • 1 month later...

+ 1 Agree.
– Make swatch and style names faster editable.
– Make swatches and styles faster deletable.
– And let color swatch names become auto-updated, once their color values got edited.
 

On 6/13/2019 at 10:56 AM, LCamachoDesign said:

I'd prefer that double clicking a swatch would open a dialog box

Really, just to rename it?  Even if you consider that the – initially automatically applied – swatch name will not get updated if you alter the color values? And that a swatch name can mislead you even easier in swatch icon view where you use the tool tip to get its values? Or does it tell a name only... ?

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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18 hours ago, thomaso said:

+ 1 Agree.
– Make swatch and style names faster editable.
– Make swatches and styles faster deletable.
– And let color swatch names become auto-updated, once their color values got edited.
 

Really, just to rename it?  Even if you consider that the – initially automatically applied – swatch name will not get updated if you alter the color values? And that a swatch name can mislead you even easier in swatch icon view where you use the tool tip to get its values? Or does it tell a name only... ?

Yes, really. Right now if you want to edit a swatch name you have to right click it, choose Rename, and then you are shown a dialog box. If you have to be presented with a dialog box, you might as well be shown all options, so you have the opportunity to do further edits to the swatch. This is how Illustrator does it and I've never seen anyone complain about it.

About the swatches names, Affinity (and Illustrator) only show the name in the tooltip. Like you said, the name should auto update when you change the value, the best way to do this is by copying InDesign swatch dialog. Also showing the value in the tooltip if it differs from the name is an interesting idea!

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