Questions about Perspective controls

General Discussion
1

I’ve just started a small project using Perspective, and I have a couple of concerns:

  1. is alignment (top, bottom, left, right) something you have to menu dive for, or are there hotkeys?

  2. is there a way to get rid of model popup confirmation windows when you delete items?

  3. is there an intelligent paste option? when I ctrl-V I want it to land at the same location I got it from so I can put things in exactly the same place on multiple pages. I get this plus sign widget when I ctrl-V.

2

  1. Alignment of what? Relative to what?

  2. Are you referring to modal popup windows?

  3. What I would tell you here is to use the Deep Select feature when you’re pasting. This refers to copying project resources in the project browser. Copying and pasting within a view should work “intelligently”, as you say.

We might need more information on this to help you out, hopefully we can sort these questions out for you

3
  1. alignment of two objects such as rectangles, or buttons. What if you have to do this a lot? With rows and columns of things and EVERYTHING has to line up. Hotkeys for alignment are used as often as copy-paste.
  2. yes. I’m finding that deleting requires requires confirmation each time, which isn’t good.
  3. it look like if I ctrl-c an object, then ctrl-v, there’s a widget that appears with a plus sign, and I don’t see a way to paste in the exact same location. So I can’t do something like ctrl-c, delete stuff around it, and then ctrl-v the object right back where it was for a partial work save. I’m assuming ctrl-v onto other windows might invoke this widget as well. To get things in the same position on multiple windows I don’t want to have to look up and enter x-y position
4

  1. I couldn’t find a hotkey, but there are buttons in the designer that help with alignment. As far as I know, these buttons only show when on a Coordinate view (aligning on a Flex view works a little bit differently…). See the snip below:
    image

  2. Ah, I see what you mean. This is not a custom feature you implemented, but the popup you get when you’re deleting a resource from the Project Browser. I could see how it could be annoying, but I know it saved me more than once when I accidentally hit the delete key. You could argue that there is an undo function, but that is something IA is in control of. AFAIK there isn’t a way to disable this, I may be wrong.

Also, if you’re deleting multiple things at once, hold CTRL key and select the resources you want to delete. You’ll only get the prompt once.

  1. If you’re copying items for partial save, why not just copy the entire view and have it as a backup? This seems easier than what you’re explaining, I have never had to do this and if I want a few versions of a project, I just copy/paste at the View level.
5

Ctrl + D will duplicate the item in the same place (subject to the limitations of the container you're using).

1 Like
6

Ok, but only in the same window. So use ctrl-d instead of ctrl-v. However, the “ARE YOU SURE???” needs to go. Hotkeys for alignment are a must.

7

Needs to go is subjective. Someone will be annoyed if it’s there, someone will be annoyed if it isn’t.
We could make it an option (it was an option in Vision) but then there’s yet another property to configure.
We’re considering adding a durable, cross-designer settings store in some future version; an option to change this behavior could live there.

Also, while I agree that hotkeys for alignment should happen, they’re a lot less critical if you embrace other container types. Flex containers do alignment automatically; no need to worry about individual items. You can embed containers directly into a parent coordinate container and your items will be automatically lined up for you, for instance.

2 Likes
8

I would make it an option turned off by default. If it were useful no one would ever say “some might find it annoying, but…” But they say this every time. As far as alignment hotkeys, no. Do you put ctrl-c and ctrl-v in menus? You know they are used a lot. With SCADA, everything has to line up, always, and you want things to go where you put them; it’s used over and over. It’s like #2 after ctrl-c, ctrl-v, application specific.

9

Just use spacebar to ack the confirm prompts. Easy. Confirmations are a must imnsho. I don’t know what version you’re in, but in 8.1.5 ctrl v pastes in the same place :man_shrugging: in Vision, ctrl i would paste in the same place. Maybe try that?

10

Confirmations are necessary only for critical actions like deleting a project, otherwise they are useless friction.

11

Well my colleague’s cat almost deleted a customer’s entire tag database, so I’m pretty happy about having confirmations :roll_eyes:
Also, all actions haven’t always had a good history of making it into the undo stack, so undo hasn’t always returned the changes deleted.

1 Like
12

Well ok yeah, maybe deleting a database should have confirmation. Deleting a drawn line? That’s like a word processor that asks if you’re sure every time you press the backspace key.

13

Totally disagree. Once you've designed long enough in the product you're muscle memory just knowns to slam that enter or space key immediately after hitting the delete key. Problem solved. :+1:

15

Great