Inkscape

Default tools options and usability

Bug #486439 reported by Karlisson on 2009-11-21

This bug affects 1 person

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	Inkscape	Triaged	Wishlist	Unassigned

Bug Description

rev: 0.47pre4 r22446

As a heavy user, I suggest some changes that can make Inkscape more intuitive to newcomers:

1 - The eraser comes with the default option to "delete objects" instead of "cut out a path". This is not intuitive.
2 - The eraser width should be more than 1px. I think 20px is good.
3 - Tweak tool default mode should be the "Push parts of path", not the "Move objects", like in 0.46.
4 - Many users doesn't know that should previously select an object before using the Tweak Tool. I think making it capable of selecting objects that should be tweaked is a good solution to this problem.

Tags:

su_v (suv-lp) on 2009-11-22

Changed in inkscape:
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist

jazzynico (jazzynico) on 2009-12-01

Changed in inkscape:
milestone:	none → 0.48
status:	New → Confirmed

jazzynico (jazzynico) on 2010-08-19

Changed in inkscape:
assignee:	nobody → JazzyNico (jazzynico)
milestone:	0.48 → 0.49

Revision history for this message

Yury Krupin (krupiny) wrote on 2010-12-10:

eraser_tweak_usability.diff Edit (2.6 KiB, text/plain)

Here is a patch for the items 1-3.
4th point is ambiguous. Users can get accustomed to using Tweak Tool without object selection and in case of complex document it can lead to annoying misses. If problem is only in users that doesn't know that should previously select an object. Then some highlighting of message from status bar when user tries to use tool without target is probably better solution.

jazzynico (jazzynico) on 2011-03-29

Changed in inkscape:
status:	Confirmed → In Progress

Revision history for this message

jazzynico (jazzynico) wrote on 2011-03-30:

Default values for the Eraser tools modified as of revision 10132.
Mode now set to "Cut out" and width to 10 (20 was a bit too large IMHO).

Point 3 is probably a question of taste. I guess it has been discussed before (but haven't searched the dev list archives yet), and I'd rather keep the existing value.

As for point 4, there's already a warning message in the status bar saying: "<b>Nothing selected!</b> Select objects to tweak.". Do we really need more? I don't think so.

Revision history for this message

jazzynico (jazzynico) wrote on 2012-07-23:

Well, yes, it would be a bit more handy to be able to select an object if the selection is empty when the tool is active.
Also applies to the Spray tool.

Revision history for this message

jazzynico (jazzynico) wrote on 2012-09-18:

Points 1 and 2 will be available in 0.49.
Dropping milestone for the remaining issues.