Fuzzy finder

[eljoth]

Hey there,

I am coming from softwaredev and really would love to see a fuzzy finder in Affinity where I can find all the tools by using just one single shortcut which opens the search bar.
As a ref I just put in the fuzzy finder gif from GitKraken, also a very cool piece of software.

[Distill7]

In text editors, all functions all typed using text tags, so a fuzzy finder is very useful. But in graphic design, all interaction is with the objects in canvas, you need to pick a tool, which there are not many of them, then select a layer and modify it based on its type.

Also, there is no graphic design software that has such features to my knowledge.

If you want to increase productivity, use keyboard shortcuts and customize them to your liking, you can work very efficiently this way.

[eljoth]

18 hours ago, toutou123 said:

In text editors, all functions all typed using text tags, so a fuzzy finder is very useful. But in graphic design, all interaction is with the objects in canvas, you need to pick a tool, which there are not many of them, then select a layer and modify it based on its type.

A Fuzzy Finder is not only useful in software using text tags. The trend is going towards software with a quick search as introduced. There are a lot of programs not being textbased which have implemented such a feature:

• Gitkraken (Git management tool) as already named. I know, git is developed being used by the console with textinput. Although, a lot of people prefer a graphical userinterface.
• Discord (VoIP tool) has such a tool as well for quickly swapping between voice chats or servers by natural language.
• Cerebro is a program for windows to acces any installed program quickly, extensible with addons to acces google maps, calculate in a basic way and a lot of other stuff.
• Last but not least there is Spotlight on macOS, which almost does the same as Cerebro. I know a lot of people - not only developing software but also coming from artistic field - are using it because it is way faster than clicking on the screen.

18 hours ago, toutou123 said:

Also, there is no graphic design software that has such features to my knowledge.

I assume this is a pro, why not get inspired by an other field of software and introduce a new cool feature to an already established type of software? In my opinion, a Fuzzy Finder would lower the hurdle to get introduced to graphic design software when they can access tools by natural language instead of searching in the menus or interpreting icons. Serif is doing a good job on providing tutorials, no matter! A few use cases:

• I want a pencil and I do know, which size I want to draw with. Actually I either:
  • click on the pencil icon, open the slider and choose its size
  • click on the pencil icon, click on the textfield for the size and type in the size
  • same as the two above using a shortcut for the pencil
• I want to export as -whatever- gif (for example, because gifs are trendy in my hood). I either:
  • press ctrl+shift+alt+s (four keys, if I do not change the shortcut!), click gif in the dialog which I opened and can choose my settings for export.
  • click file, click export, click gif in the dialog (three clicks), and choose settings as above.

Now with a Fuzzy Finder:

• In both cases I open the Fuzzy Finder (for example ctrl+k), then I:
  • want to select the pencil with size 80, I type into the fuzzy finder: "pen" and I can choose, which pencil I want to have by selecting with arrow keys and pressing enter. In the suggestion list I can see, which options I can type in, separated by colons and what is the actual set short cut for all of the proposed tools. Now I select the pencil and I know, I can enter its size by typing a colon and entering the size. (We can go further on all those settings with colons).
     
  • want to export an image as gif. I type in "exp", get export proposed, select it and can choose the filetype by adding ":gif". I directly jump into the "export gif"-dialogue.

Those are two very basic examples. The first one in my opinion is the even more important because it shows how people now get the possibility to discover new features. They can search for filters and stuff the first had to google, where to find filters in the menu.

So I wouldn't say it should not be done because no other graphical design software has this feature yet.

19 hours ago, toutou123 said:

If you want to increase productivity, use keyboard shortcuts and customize them to your liking, you can work very efficiently this way. 

I am sure, there is a reason why people are using Spotlight, Cerebro and why Fuzzy Finders are on the advance. Because keyboard-input is so much faster and more intuitive (when taking the natural language thing in account) in most cases. It improves the speed of searchung features many times! And I believe, using a Fuzzy Finder is much more effective and the easier way of using software than remembering a set of shortcuts. Using a lot of shortcuts means, u remember the most important whereas a Fuzzy Finder opens the possibility to just remember one shortcut and get the whole bandwidth of features a software has to offer.

 

I hope this is a better point of departure for a good discussion than the initial post.

 

Sincerely, Lars

[Fixx]

On 6/20/2019 at 2:00 PM, eljoth said:

keyboard-input is so much faster and more intuitive

First time I hear that about command line

[eljoth]

You cut off the brackets When I am searching something by keyword it it faster to just type it in than opening every menu and hovering every icon until I found it