Inkscape Users,
I've climbed up and down the interface, help files, and the web, and I can't find out how to do these two simple tasks:
1. Unhide objects. When one selects "Object->Properties", one can select a check box to "hide" the object. But, once hidden, the object is no longer selectable, and nowhere is there a general "unhide all" option, or any other option to get access to hidden objects. It's almost like I've deleted them, except I can't even get them visible again with "undo". How do I unhide objects?
2. Put text along a Path. Sure, I know I can go to "Text-> Put On Path", but nothing happens when I do. I select the text first, then the path. I select the path first, then the text. I put the text below the path, above the path, I group them, I ungroup them... how does one actually get the text onto the path?
Thanks for any help or advice.
-- Dave M G Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Kernel 2.6.17.7 Pentium D Dual Core Processor PHP 5, MySQL 5, Apache 2
On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 17:41 +0900, Dave M G wrote:
Inkscape Users,
I've climbed up and down the interface, help files, and the web, and I can't find out how to do these two simple tasks:
- Unhide objects. When one selects "Object->Properties", one can select
a check box to "hide" the object. But, once hidden, the object is no longer selectable, and nowhere is there a general "unhide all" option, or any other option to get access to hidden objects. It's almost like I've deleted them, except I can't even get them visible again with "undo". How do I unhide objects?
Look in second tip box:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Select.html#Select-Find
- Put text along a Path. Sure, I know I can go to "Text-> Put On Path",
but nothing happens when I do. I select the text first, then the path. I select the path first, then the text. I put the text below the path, above the path, I group them, I ungroup them... how does one actually get the text onto the path?
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Text-Path.html
Tav
On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 10:21 +0100, Tavmjong Bah wrote:
On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 17:41 +0900, Dave M G wrote:
Inkscape Users,
I've climbed up and down the interface, help files, and the web, and I can't find out how to do these two simple tasks:
- Unhide objects. When one selects "Object->Properties", one can select
a check box to "hide" the object. But, once hidden, the object is no longer selectable, and nowhere is there a general "unhide all" option, or any other option to get access to hidden objects. It's almost like I've deleted them, except I can't even get them visible again with "undo". How do I unhide objects?
Look in second tip box:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Select.html#Select-Find
Thanks for that tip Tav!
Still, if someone thinks up a good solution to the, in my opinion profound, usability issue of hidden objects; I would be happy to implement this.
Kind regards, Johan
Johan Engelen wrote:
Still, if someone thinks up a good solution to the, in my opinion profound, usability issue of hidden objects; I would be happy to implement this.
I've thought of a couple things that might help. The first few probably aren't great solutions. All of these things apply equally to locked objects too. - Remove the hide button from the object properties :-) - implement a "unhide all" verb - submenu for hidden objects which lists them and allows selection (could be a little dialog too) - I think the coolest thing to do would be to implement a little object browser dialog that allows filtering by xpath or some other type of useful expression. Users wouldn't have to see the xpath for it to be useful we could have a few saved searches, like "hidden objects". But it would be nice if power users could program their own filters, maybe like "redish objects" etc.
Aaron Spike
On Wed, Feb 07, 2007 at 08:27:42AM -0600, Aaron Spike wrote:
Johan Engelen wrote:
Still, if someone thinks up a good solution to the, in my opinion profound, usability issue of hidden objects; I would be happy to implement this.
I've thought of a couple things that might help. The first few probably aren't great solutions. All of these things apply equally to locked objects too.
- Remove the hide button from the object properties :-)
- implement a "unhide all" verb
An "unlock all" verb might be worth doing too, if there isn't one already. Yesterday we had someone accidentally lock something, not realizing what it did. I walked him through fixing it via the XML editor, but an ordinary user probably wouldn't know to do this. I wasn't sure if there was already a functionality to remove locks, but I didn't spot something obvious in poking around.
- submenu for hidden objects which lists them and allows selection
(could be a little dialog too)
- I think the coolest thing to do would be to implement a little object
browser dialog that allows filtering by xpath or some other type of useful expression. Users wouldn't have to see the xpath for it to be useful we could have a few saved searches, like "hidden objects". But it would be nice if power users could program their own filters, maybe like "redish objects" etc.
Yeah, this sounds very handy. Could be a bit of work to implement, but would really make inkscape handy for managing really large docs.
Bryce
Bryce Harrington wrote:
On Wed, Feb 07, 2007 at 08:27:42AM -0600, Aaron Spike wrote:
Johan Engelen wrote:
Still, if someone thinks up a good solution to the, in my opinion profound, usability issue of hidden objects; I would be happy to implement this.
I've thought of a couple things that might help. The first few probably aren't great solutions. All of these things apply equally to locked objects too.
- Remove the hide button from the object properties :-)
- implement a "unhide all" verb
An "unlock all" verb might be worth doing too, if there isn't one already.
What about two options that let you "see hidden objects" and "select locked objects"? That would let you see and select any hidden or locked objects as if they were normal objects. Once an object is selected you can simply uncheck the hide or lock flag as you wish. And when the two options are reset to normal your unchanged objects are again hidden and/or locked. Wouldn't that be easier to fit into a work-flow than the "unhide/unlock *all*" actions?
On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 19:54 +0100, Ulf Erikson wrote:
What about two options that let you "see hidden objects" and "select locked objects"? That would let you see and select any hidden or locked objects as if they were normal objects.
I like this idea -- it's less of a blunt instrument than "unlock all".
-mental
On Feb 7, 2007, at 11:15 AM, MenTaLguY wrote:
On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 19:54 +0100, Ulf Erikson wrote:
What about two options that let you "see hidden objects" and "select locked objects"? That would let you see and select any hidden or locked objects as if they were normal objects.
I like this idea -- it's less of a blunt instrument than "unlock all".
That was exactly what I was thinking of.
We just need to figure out the most helpful UI for exposing that. Workflow is probably important.
I also think it can probably go along with other solutions also.
On 2/7/07, Aaron Spike <aaron@...476...> wrote:
- I think the coolest thing to do would be to implement a little object
browser dialog that allows filtering by xpath or some other type of useful expression. Users wouldn't have to see the xpath for it to be useful we could have a few saved searches, like "hidden objects". But it would be nice if power users could program their own filters, maybe like "redish objects" etc.
The Find dialog already can find hidden/locked objects, although it cannot search for _only_ hidden/locked objects. It also does not support XPath and its style search is text-based. Other than that, it's quite useful :)
Everyone,
So let me ask this. What is the purpose of hidden objects? A use case of why someone wants to hide an object should indicate how they want to get it back. If it is so it doesn't print then maybe a non-print attribute is better.
In Freehand I would hide objects because they were in the way of something I was working on. Freehand had 'Unhide All' (or show all or something) which would then pop them back. If hiding is simply a temporary option, then unhide all should be sufficient.
If however there is some more complex use case, then some other options would be more appropriate. What do people use hide for?
-Andrew
Thanks for that tip Tav!
Still, if someone thinks up a good solution to the, in my opinion profound, usability issue of hidden objects; I would be happy to implement this.
Kind regards, Johan
On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 10:26 -0800, Andrew Mellinger wrote:
So let me ask this. What is the purpose of hidden objects? A use case of why someone wants to hide an object should indicate how they want to get it back. If it is so it doesn't print then maybe a non-print attribute is better.
It's actually a survival from before we had layers -- I think the most common use would be to temporarily hide a bitmapped image that you're using for reference when drawing. Nowadays folks just put that stuff on a separate layer and show/hide it that way.
What we really need is an "object tree" dialog similar to the layers dialog which shows you the tree of all objects and lets you hide/unhide/lock them right there. It'd probably be an evolution of the XML dialog, which does already provide an "object tree".
-mental
Tavmjong,
Thank you for responding.
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Select.html#Select-Find ... http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Text-Path.html
Those links, and the site in general, are a big help.
Thanks for directing me to it.
-- Dave M G Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Kernel 2.6.17.7 Pentium D Dual Core Processor PHP 5, MySQL 5, Apache 2
participants (10)
-
Aaron Spike -
Andrew Mellinger -
Bryce Harrington -
bulia byak -
Dave M G -
Johan Engelen -
Jon A. Cruz -
MenTaLguY -
Tavmjong Bah -
Ulf Erikson