On 4/24/07, John Bintz <jcoswell@...1414...> wrote:
With a modal keyboard shortcut, you now have to have an additional indicator on screen that you are in a new "mode," something beyond a cursor or toolbar icon. This could over-complicate the interface for what is really a simple operation.
I agree.
I also notice that Alt+middle drag is currently free. So I think it would make sense to enable it to rotate the canvas as well, push-style, in addition to Alt+mousewheel that would rotate it by increments (especially since in at least some devices, the mousewheel is the same as middle button). Alt+double middle click could then reset it back to zero angle.
Having a keyboard shortcut to perform a rotation at a set increment (10-15 degrees) would be sufficient for most purposes, since perfect precision of the rotate angle isn't necessary for most illustration work.
Yes.
This would work the same as the +/- keys or [ctrl]-wheel. The next step would be having something to allow setting the rotation "free hand" as you've described, by holding some key down and dragging the mouse.
Yes, Alt+middle drag as described above
This is similar to the Zoom tool. Finally, having a widget/dialog to set the canvas rotation the same way that the zoom can be set would take care of the precision aspect.
Just one more spinbutton marked R: next to the Z: spinbutton in the statusbar would be perfect. However it must be hidden by default; only when you rotate the canvas to any angle, it should be shown, and when you reset angle it's again hidden.