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Hewco3 years ago

Great tools, really powerful and useful. My only criticism is I would dearly like to see a good set of keyboard shortcuts in this and SpritePad to make it more productive to use.

Keys where you can keep one hand on the mouse and one for the keyboard.  For example Ctrl+left / right is awkward.

Why not

  • WASD keys to move the selected char/sprite up, left, down right
  • 1,2,3,4,5 for the colours (easier to reach)
  • F1, F2, F3, F4 for the zoom level
  • IJKL keys to shift up, left, down and right
  • - and = (+) keys to flip/mirror
  • [ and ] reflect 
  • F - flood fill
  • B - brush
  • N - select
Reply
Subchrist Software3 years ago (9 edits)

Hi, thanks for the feedback, one reason that single keys are not used as shortcuts is that the map editor has a text-entry tool that accepts most single alpha-numeric keys as input, so single key shortcuts such as WASD (or cursor keys) would not be possible there. Another is that no dev environment I've ever used has allowed single keys other than F1-F12, Ins, Del etc to be specified as shortcuts (in design mode at least), I'm not saying it isn't possible but wouldn't be practical for the first reason.  

nb. All windows that have a 'zoom' op already have a shortcut for zoom in/out, try CTRL + mouse-wheel.

F1-F5 are currently used for colour selection.

Thanks though, I will think about your requests further.

Reply
Hewco3 years ago

Well, every graphics editor has single key commands to make it easy to draw and change tools with a hand on keys and on mouse. I think it is worth considering, charpad and spritepad are graphical editors, not code editors afterall. Text entry is only initiated by selecting the text tool in the map editor window, so that still works. In text mode you can stay there until you press ESC for example, or click on another tool with the mouse as you do now.  It would certainly double my productivity with the tools having everything to hand, so to speak :)

Reply
Subchrist Software3 years ago (2 edits)

I hear ya.

 I've been using GIMP today and that has lots of single key shortcuts which obviously must get blocked during any actual text entry.

I will look into it for a future version.

ps. If it helps you can already use the space bar to temporarily switch to 'Pan' mode on the map editor, and use CTRL+wheel for zoom as described earlier.

Reply
Hewco3 years ago

yea, I love the space around as I'm used to photoshop. Thanks for the tip on the scrollwheel. 

Reply
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