I upgraded from 1.3 to 1.4, and find that only "Page" and "Drawing" are selectable as targets to align to. I've been using the options "Selection", "Largest object", and "Smallest object" pretty heavily, so I need them back. Is this hidden behind a setting, or is Inkscape just getting more and more defective every version?
I can confirm that this is broken in 1.4. I always use Relative to: Last Selected but after installing 1.4 there is ONLY Page and Drawing listed in the dropdown box. Where did the other options go?
Is there a way to fix this manually or does this need to be fixed internally?
Two individual objects or a group of two objects selected? If a group of two objects (or infinity objects), you will only get page/drawing.
If you are indeed selecting two individual objects and it still doesn't work, I suggest resetting your preferences. If that still doesn't work - bug report.
If only one object is selected THEN Inkscape will provide only Page/Drawing options Multiple objects need to be selected to get the full list of options.
WHY?!
The whole list is only 7 items long. Hidng menu items makes UX worse, not better. What about selecting multiple sets of objects and aligning them to one of the hidden items?
This is honestly a waste of processing power for no benefit.
It depends... there is a school of thought that feels there will be less downstream intervention if choice is restricted to only useful items. The reverse could result in users saying the tool is broken if they try the non-useful selections with (expectedly) no results, or an error message.
Inkscape already has a bar of text on the bottom left of the window to non-disruptively show minor errors like “You cannot edit items in a locked layer”, “Not all selected objects are Paths or convertible into them”. That’s the perfect way to show an error message here if you really feel the need to show it, like “You cannot align (to first/last selected, largest/smallest, selection area) if you have (no objects / one object) selected.”
That’s way better for workflow than hiding menu items. Some of us would like to see all the options so we can select where to align before we select the objects; hiding those options makes learning the program harder, too.
PLEEEEASE revert this. Because the "Selection" option disappears every time I select the first object, the option resets to "Page" and I have to select "Selection" every single time I want to align multiple items. This is a huge workflow and user experience regression.
Beginners' Questions Where's "Align > Relative to > Selection"?
Inkscape.org
I upgraded from 1.3 to 1.4, and find that only "Page" and "Drawing" are selectable as targets to align to. I've been using the options "Selection", "Largest object", and "Smallest object" pretty heavily, so I need them back. Is this hidden behind a setting, or is Inkscape just getting more and more defective every version?
Not sure where you´re looking up:
I can confirm that this is broken in 1.4. I always use Relative to: Last Selected but after installing 1.4 there is ONLY Page and Drawing listed in the dropdown box. Where did the other options go?
Is there a way to fix this manually or does this need to be fixed internally?
Screenshot - Alignment > Relative to
Shawn
Not gone here (macOS):
That is interesting. So maybe this is only a Windows issue. BTW I believe I used the 1.4 msi to install mine.
Is there a setting somewhere that we can turn these options on?
Thanks
I can't tell as I´m on macOS exclusively.
If only one object is selected THEN Inkscape will provide only Page/Drawing options
Multiple objects need to be selected to get the full list of options.
Yep. Two items selected, whether in a group or not, ONLY two options in the dropdown box.
Sorry but I am unable to replicate your experience on my Win11 Inkscape1.4.
Windows 11 here with v1.4
Two individual objects or a group of two objects selected? If a group of two objects (or infinity objects), you will only get page/drawing.
If you are indeed selecting two individual objects and it still doesn't work, I suggest resetting your preferences. If that still doesn't work - bug report.
Not sure how much it matters but I am on Windows 10
How do I go about resetting my preferences?
https://inkscape.org/forums/questions/getting-back-to-square-one-and-starting-over-its-easy/
WHY?!
The whole list is only 7 items long. Hidng menu items makes UX worse, not better. What about selecting multiple sets of objects and aligning them to one of the hidden items?
This is honestly a waste of processing power for no benefit.
It depends... there is a school of thought that feels there will be less downstream intervention if choice is restricted to only useful items.
The reverse could result in users saying the tool is broken if they try the non-useful selections with (expectedly) no results, or an error message.
The UI/UX devs I know express it thusly: "Don't show an error message if you can keep them from making the error in the first place".
YMMV
Inkscape already has a bar of text on the bottom left of the window to non-disruptively show minor errors like “You cannot edit items in a locked layer”, “Not all selected objects are Paths or convertible into them”. That’s the perfect way to show an error message here if you really feel the need to show it, like “You cannot align (to first/last selected, largest/smallest, selection area) if you have (no objects / one object) selected.”
That’s way better for workflow than hiding menu items. Some of us would like to see all the options so we can select where to align before we select the objects; hiding those options makes learning the program harder, too.
I'll be so happy when CadScape is released
There is also a school of thought that when a bug is reported in 2008 it gets fixed ASAP.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/210145
It continues in the new bug reporting via gitlab
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues/1044
Resetting my preferences appears to have brought back the full list of options.
Thanks!
For some reason I lost this function again today (4 days later). I kind of a pain 😕
Do you remember making any changes to your preferences just prior to loosing this function? Might help track down the cause.
Does resetting preferences return function as it did before?
I keep seeing these reports that something is corrupting the preference file in v1.4 but I can't find anything in gitlab concerning this.
I have gotten so paranoid that I have set the file to read only in Windows.
PLEEEEASE revert this. Because the "Selection" option disappears every time I select the first object, the option resets to "Page" and I have to select "Selection" every single time I want to align multiple items. This is a huge workflow and user experience regression.
I'm seeing the same behavior in 1.4 under Mint. This was not the case in 1.3.2.
https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Release_notes/1.4#Align_and_Distribute
I concur with @Haley_Halcyon, this menu should be persistent and only change at user's will, not automatically.
I still use 1.3.2 for other good reasons, and suggest that users stay on 1.3.2 (or revert) unless there are compelling reasons to use 1.4.
@Haley_Halcyon Please file a bug report. Others can chime in and request the menu be reverted. https://inkscape.org/forums/beyond/how-to-report-bugs-or-request-new-features/