Alt-drag or Ctrl-drag to clone?

[Mediamaskinen]

Hello,

I've been using InDesign since almost the begin of the millenium and I love the way Affinity Publisher behaves and works compare to that. Thou it maybe misses some of the features it feels much more smart and fresh and I'm sure it will fill up the missing pieces. Now that I've been using it for sometime I have a question about dragging and cloning objects.

To clone an object in InDesign you hold down ALT key and drag the object. This is what I did in the beginning of using Publisher and it felt natural and worked nice but since then I've learned to use the CTRL key instead which the program states at the bottom bar when hovering an object. It also sais to hold down ALT key to ignore snapping, and this works but not if you start by holding down the ALT key before moving the object, then it clones the object instead as I was used to in InDesign.

I think this behaviour feels wrong now that I've learned to use CTRL to clone. Now if I only want to move an object and ignore snapping but don't want to clone it I have to start moving the object then hold down the ALT key. I think I should be able to just hold down the ALT key and move the object from the beginning to ignore snapping as it states in the bottom bar.

Is it done this way just to make InDesign users feel at home? It sure did for me in the beginning but now it just bothers me when I just want to move an object and ignore snapping.

Maybe I'm just being picky …

[Arceom]

+1
I have a similar issue when trying zooming using the shortcut spacebar+ctrl (+alt for zoom out/box zoom), it really brings me out of my "flow" when working. I think I haven't identified a situation where the order of pressing the modifiers would cause conflicting behavior, so I think you should be able the press them in any order.

[Mediamaskinen]

Thanks for moving this into a more fitting forum but it should be moved to "Feedback for Affinity Publisher on Desktop" as this is the product I was talking about and not "Feedback for Affinity Designer on Desktop". Maybe it works the same way in Designer …

[Mediamaskinen]

On 8/7/2019 at 3:36 PM, Arceom said:

+1
I have a similar issue when trying zooming using the shortcut spacebar+ctrl (+alt for zoom out/box zoom), it really brings me out of my "flow" when working. I think I haven't identified a situation where the order of pressing the modifiers would cause conflicting behavior, so I think you should be able the press them in any order.

I don't use these shortcut keys but instead use the z-key while holding it down and click-drag right or left for zooming in or out. What I wish for is when I'm releasing the z-key it would go back to the previous tool, for example the move tool, and not stay on the zoom tool. This is maybe also a bit picky but it disrupts my flow just a little bit when having to push the v-key to get back to the move tool.

I think it works this way in some of the Adobe products for fast temporary tool switching, not just zooming. For example I can hold down the b-key to temporary use the brush tool in Photoshop, paint something and then release the key to get back to my previous tool.

[Affitoom]

+1
I have the issue Mediamaskinen

A mi me agradaría mucho que lo arreglaran.

[PaulEC]

To be honest I don't think there's anything that needs to be "fixed"! Some users like the way Affinity works, others want it to be more like Adobe. Personally, as a long time user of the Affinity apps, the last thing I need now is to have keyboard shortcuts changed, just so that they are the same as in other apps. I appreciate that a lot of people have fixed ways of working, but sometimes, when you start using a new piece of software, you do have to learn how to use it, rather than expecting it to work in exactly the same way as your previous software. 😉

[mizwizzy]

Shortcuts can be customized if you prefer other choices.

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, mizwizzy said:

Shortcuts can be customized if you prefer other choices.

I don't think you can change that one.

[Intuos5]

That's why other apps have preferences where users can set what each modifier key does (when paired with mouse input). For instance, in Blender each keyboard shortcut could optionally be configured as a mouse + button combination. Alternatively, though less customisable, there are options to switch ctrl to add to selections, while shift toggles selection and vice versa, or to use alt to subtract.

Krita has a particularly pretty way of configuring this. The developers decide on what should be configurable (based on user suggestions) and users can input the keyboard and mouse buttons they desire. Notice that Blender, in addition allows for differentiating between key release, pressed down, a regular keystroke or double tap as well.