On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:42:12 +0200, gg@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: [...] > 1/ In general I find it needs too many mouse/keyboard actions to achieve a > simple operation. > > 1a/ specific: undo : edit | undo . This must be one of the most common > actions I want a one click solution, in the same window as I am editting > in. > > There's always cntl-Z cntl-Y but that means dropping the mouse and > diverting my attention away fron the screen. Very slow. Well, the undo shortcut is probably not assigned to Ctrl-Z by accident. Did you notice that there is no Z in "undo"? Something like Ctrl-U could have been used instead (and was used in the past). But many applications use Ctrl-Z. If you are a right-handed english-speaking user (or at least someone with a qwerty keyboard), you can see that Ctrl and Z are close to each other and can be pressed easily with the left hand while the right hand is on the mouse. You might complain about discrimination against lefties or foreigners, but at least for a large percentage of the users, the Ctrl-Z shortcut can be found easily without diverting attention from the screen or mouse. > 1b/ I pull up a dlg. the first text entry is highlighted so I can type to > replace , fine. But if I want to edit it eg 100 to 400, I go to select the > "1" with the mouse and the editted text gets dragged. Huh? So I have to > click to deselect the reselect the bit I want. Solving this problem would probably require disabling drag & drop from the input fields. I am not sure that anyone uses that feature anyway, at least for the short entry fields that we have in most dialogs (except for the text tool). I agree that it is more likely that someone who clicks and drags in one of these short input fields wants to select some digits instead of dragging the whole number elsewhere. This should probably be submitted in Bugzilla. > 2/ I am continually repeating the same placement/configuration operations > where once should be enough. > > 2a/ It seems none of the filters retain thier position and size, although > they retains _some_ of their settings. Right. We do not even have an API allowing the plug-ins to retain their size and position easily. Although the current API based on gimp_get_data() and gimp_set_data() could be used for that, every plug-in writer would have to write hacks around gimp_dialog_new() or gimp_dialog_run() in order to resize the window correctly. In addition, the filters that have a more complex layout with resizeable panes inside the window would also have to remember the size of each of them (e.g. Filters->Map->Bump Map) and those that have multiple tabs should remember which tab is active. > specific: Filters | Motion Blur ... I resize to get a more visible > preview size and move it out of the way of other things on the screen. > Next time I use it I dont want to start again. > > While this is probably down to the plugin writer, at least the "common" > filters should be vetted/modded to retain size/pos before being > integrated. And it should be recommended for all plug-ins. I agree. Please submit this improvement proposal in Bugzilla. It may even be useful to remember the window positions (for the plug-ins) accross gimp sessions. In this case, this information should probably go into the pluginrc or something similar. > 2b/ If I use a dlg on one image and set, say units to pixels , if I open > another image or even duplicate I have to reset the same options. > > specific: Image | Scale Image , set to percent . Duplicate image , Scale > Image : back to default pixels. Although it would make sense for Duplicate, I am not sure that it would be good to always remember the last values used when you create a new image. The defaults can be set in Preferences->Default Image and I would like these values to be used. > 2c/ I have select for tools to store settings but this seems limitted. > > specific: again the Scale Image dlg. units combo. This is held for the > time I edit an image but not affected by the config option :tools store > settings. I do not understand what you expect in this case. Things like the resolution, units, grid spacing and so on are a property of the image. The Scale Image dialog should just use what is specified for that image. But maybe I misunderstood what you meant. > 2d/ I set a value , eg rotation degrees or scale percent. Next time I pull > up the dlg it's back to NOP settings : zero degrees or 100% scaling. Now I > dont necessarily want the same value but one thing it's sure I dont need > is a NOP. Last entered value would be a better starting point. Hmmm... I am not too sure about that. One the one hand it would not be too hard to remember the last values and the user could easily click on the nice Reset button if these values are not appropriate for the next image. On the other hand, I would probably be surprised to see my image (preview) instantly rotated, shrunk or distorted as soon as I activate one of the transform tools. > All these are minor things on their own but the overall effect is _several > times_ more mouse actions than are really needed to get a job done. Right. This kind of usability feedback is useful and should be discussed here or in Bugzilla. Thanks for your comments. -Raphaël _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list Gimp-developer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
