GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 316299
Add "Selection from Text" and "Path from Text" to menus
Last modified: 2008-01-15 14:04:30 UTC
No steps to reproduce the problem. It just requires an unnecessary extra step to create a selection from text you've created with the text tool. Right now you have to create a path from the text and then convert it to a selection. While that's easy to do, it's also repetitive when you regularly have to design text images. A "Create selection from text" button should alleviate the extra step - even if all it does is create a path and immediately convert it to a selection.
Alpha to Selection does it quite nicely in one step. The text tool options are already way to crowded. I would actually like to move all buttons out of the tool options. They just don't belong there. I suggest to close as WONTFIX.
Once again, Sven, you are right. GIMP is functional in this way. And I might add that that is quite a handy tool to use. It's downfall is that it's not necessarily an obvious one. The only users who would know about that function and/or use it would be pro level image designers or developers. I'm an above average user and I have read at least half if not more than half of the GIMP manual (which is more than most GIMP users are going to read) and I didn't catch that feature and it's use. Whether we add a "Create selection from text" button to the Text tool or otherwise make the Alpha to Selection button more obvious doesn't matter. What matters is that it needs to be adjusted somehow from a useability standpoint or else the average GIMP user isn't going to know that it exists or use it for that matter regardless of the documentation. I guess my concern is that GIMP users either won't find that function (as I wasn't able to) or it's going to take some extensive searching on their part (unless they're already familiar with the Alpha to Selection concept). More importantly, the fact that you can't easily find this tool isn't going to help attract additional users either. Not that this is a make or break feature, but combined with a lot of other small feature changes, it could work for or against you expanding GIMP's user base. Besides that, this kind of thing adds a big "WOW" factor to a product. The more of those you can add (especially if they're as simplistic as this one) the more likely a potential user is to think that GIMP is an awesome tool to use and keep using it.
The easiest solution would be to have a duplicate menu entry - "Selection from alpha" relabeled as "sElection from text" in the select menu... But I don't think this is the right solution.
We chould have a couple of Text related entries in the Layer menu iff the current layer is a text layer. At the moment there are two such entries, but we could turn that into a submenu and add "Text to Selection", "Text to Path" and perhaps also "Text along Path", Would that make sense? Would users look for these items in the Layer menu (that is both, the right-click menu in the Layers dialog and the Layer menu in the Image window)?
We're heading in the right direction. "Text to Selection" and "Path along Text" are perfect. They communicate what each feature will do without being obscure in any way. As far as where to place them, I don't think the Layer menu is the place. You're right though, given the vast number of additions to the Text tool's pane, while that would be the idea place to have such buttons, it may be too cluttered to merit putting those tools there. Since these tools are specific to a given tool, the odds are against people looking in the layer menu for them. Honestly, the only two places I'd think to look for such features is in the list of available features that accompany the tool itself in the main toolbox and in the Tools menu. You could make a new entry in the tools menu called "Text Tools" that opens into a list including the Text tool itself, the "Text from Selection" feature, the "Path along Text," and any other text related tools you'd see fit to add to such a menu. If this idea is way off, let me know. But from a logical standpoint, those are the only two locations that I could see providing an easy to find solution.
I fail to see how "Text to Selection" is related to the text tool. The text tool allows to create and modify text layers. But in order to convert a text to a selection, I just need a text layer. The text tool isn't at all involved here.
To a novice or average user, that's like asking, how text selection tools and path from text tools have anything to do with text tools. And while I am an above average user who has read most of the manual, my intent was to make said tools easy to find. From that standpoint there are only two logical places: 1) In the list of modifiers for the text tool in the main GIMP toolbox 2) In one of the menus. If you don't want it in the text tool's modifiers in the main toolbox and you don't want it in the tools menu, that's fine. I can see your point in both accounts. I still think the best place to put it is in the list of modifiers for the text tool in the main toolbox. You can't make it easier to find than that. If you're not willing to commit that, what about the Selection and Path sections of the tools menu? After all, "Selection from Text" is indeed a specific selection tool (though it definitely should not be one of the primary selection tools in the main toolbox) and "Path along Text" is definitely a path tool (that again doesn't need to be a separate button in the main dialog.) There are a variety of path and selection tools that you find in different dialogs because of special cases. Why not consolidate them in the selection tools and path tools menus?
I don't know if you are monitoring gimp user forums and/or mailing-lists. I do and one of the questions that frequently show up is "How do I convert a text to a path?". Users don't understand why "Text to Path" is only available if the text tool is selected. They are searching all over the menus and in all dialogs but unless they have the text tool selected at this time, they have no chance to locate this functionality. That contradicts your statement "the best place to put it is in the list of modifiers for the text tool in the main toolbox. You can't make it easier to find than that." Having the function in a context-specific dialog like the tool options is probably the worst we can do.
That depends ENTIRELY on who you are designing the product for. Obviously we have a differing opinion about what experience level GIMP should require. That's fine. And yes, I do monitor said forums. Anyways, my intent isn't to argue. I just believe in making GIMP more usable (for everybody, not just me, you, or other individuals) I still believe that it should EITHER accompany the path button in the text tool's dialog OR both tools should be removed from the text tool dialog. It sounds like you're in favor of the latter option. I'm game for that. In any event, I'm willing to change my UI feature request to "Add 'Selection from Text' and 'Path from Text' to menus." I have changed the summary accordingly and would be grateful if you would add these features to the menus. Specifically, I'd again recommend the Selection and Path sub-menus. Thanks.
This seems simple enough to implement prior to the 2.4 release and it seems to fit the bill of the work we're doing for 2.4. Bumping to 2.4 target.
Looks as if this was marked as FIXED accidentially. Reopening.
Fixed in CVS: 2006-05-13 Michael Natterer <mitch@gimp.org> Added some new text layer actions and menu items (bug #316299). * app/actions/layers-actions.c: added actions for "Text to Path", "Text along Path" and "Text to Selection" (use the alpha to selection callback for text to selection) * app/actions/layers-commands.[ch]: added layers_text_to_vectors_cmd_callback() and layers_text_along_vectors_cmd_callback(). * app/widgets/gimphelp-ids.h: help IDs for the new actions. * menus/image-menu.xml.in * menus/layers-menu.xml: added them to the layers menus in the image window and the layers dialog.