Layers Panel - Highlight vs Select
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I am a tad confused about the visual feedback in the layers panel. Win10 - beta 209.
There is a 'random' path highlighted (visually strong) where the active layer and selected path have a visually less impacting background colour. The selected object has the radio button checked. What is the intent here please? I would have thought that the strong highlight indicates the 'active object' (making the radio button superfluous)
Upon selecting an object that exists lower in the layer, no visual feedback is available at all. The selected object can only be seen after scrolling in the panel. I would have thought the selected object to remain in view.
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@syllie yes, this is a feature of VS, that needs a bit of explanation:
selection in the layers panel and selection on the canvas are two independent selections by default (but can be changed).
The strong highlight is the selection made in the layers panel, the object is not selected on the canvas (see the empty circle at the end of the row).
The dim highlight is the selection in the canvas, in this case the circle is filled.The two selections can be kept in sync, to get the more traditional workflow, using the "Select Highlighted" and "Highlight Selected" options in the "Panel Options" view (accessed from the bottom of the layers panel menu).
Some examples of using this dual selection feature:
- applying changes from the layers panel menu to selection made in the layers panel, without losing selection in the canvas.
- control + and then drag the object over the selected object on the canvas to copy style.
- setting clipping shape (or just shape) of the object selected in the layers panel, from the object selected in the canvas.
- working with multiple opened layers panels, to arrange or copy objects between different canvases, or documents. This one can get complicated
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I see. It felt intentional hence my question. I need to think a little bit about how useful I find this for my workflow as I am more accustomed to 'the more traditional workflow'.
I just reread the chapters on 'Layers and Objects' and 'Layers Panel' in the documentation and this functionality is not explained at all (addition of possible use cases can put some gears in action for more traditional workflow users). I think this feature is very different to 'other vector editors' out there and may confuse new users.
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@syllie I just found it is actually documented - just not where I expected it: Selecting from the Layers panel. Maybe a link to that section is warranted in the description of the layers panel.
