GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 140439
Merge Visible Layers should be in the Layers menu
Last modified: 2004-04-30 01:15:38 UTC
Merge Visible Layers should be in the Layers menu because it operates on the visible layers. It should be beside Merge Down similarly Flatten Image should be beside Merge Visible and Merge Down, although it is labelled Flatten Image it could just as easily be given the longer name Flattten All Layers (note, I'm not suggest a name just trying to make clear why it should be in the Layers menu). These three items all do very similar actions and should be all be beside each other. This is a regression from the Gimp 1.2.x in which both Flatten Image and Merge Visible were in the Layers menu. I did a search of bugzilla comments for the word 'Flatten' and did not find any relevant reports. I also searched google using a variety of keywords but I did not find anything that seemed relevant. The sooner this gets changed back the less confusion it will cause for all users, I'm just sorry I didn't notice it before 2.0 was released.
I read some of the changelogs and tried rummaging through CVS using ViewCVS http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/gimp/app/gui/layers-menu.c I eventually found a bug report by searching bugzilla, this time using Merge instead of flatten. I found this bug report http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=120959 That report could be reopened instead of this one but that report was closed once the features were put back and I did find the feature but it is odd to have a feature labelled 'Layers' in the Gimp 'Image' menu. I very specifically would like to see the three items "Merge Down, Merge Visible and Flatten" all grouped together beside each other, which I think is different enough to use this fresh report rather than reopen the old already resolved issue.
Merge Visible Layers and Flatten Image are already in the Layers menu. They're located at the bottom of the menu since they are different than the other items in that menu which only operates on the selected layer. Closing as NOTABUG.
did this get changed during the prerelease stages of the Gimp 2.0? i must have missed it, i only had time to check against Gimp 2.0 pre4
sorry for the bugspam I hit the button too soon I meant to also apologise for the oversigh in my previous comment
This was fixed in 1.3.20: 2003-08-31 Sven Neumann <sven@gimp.org> * app/gui/layers-commands.[ch] * app/gui/layers-menu.c: added "Merge Visible Layers..." and "Flatten Image" menu entries as suggested in bug #120959.
I was testing using Gimp 2.0 pre 4 for windows. Flatten Image and Merge Visble layers were in the Image menu, not the layers menu. Also this screenshot of Gimp 2.0 http://openosx.com/gimp/image_menu.html shows these items in the Image menu not in the Layers menu. The two items Merge Visble Layers and Flatten Image are together at the bottom of the Image menu, so it seems as if the item was moved from the Layers menu sometime between 1.3.20 and 2.0 Unfortunately I am unable to test a copy of the latest version of the Gimp at the moment but I will check and see if these items are back in the Layers menu (beside Merge Down) and reopen the bug report then if necessary
The above mentioned items belong in the <Image>/Image/ menu since they operate on more than the active layer - and this is where they are placed. For convenience these two items have been added to the context menu presented when right-clicking a layer in the Layers Dialog as described in bug #120959.
I'm surprised, because in Gimp 1.2 they were in the Layers menu. Although Flatten Image does work on the whole image, I tried to explain my reasoning above on why it should be in the Layers menu. However the way I see it Merge Down does work on the current layer. But if you are absolutely sure that it doesn't make sense to have it in the Layers menu, even though it is was in the Layers menu in Gimp 1.2 (and similarly in Adobe Photoshop, unfortunately I dont have anything else I can compare against) and even though it is logically grouped with all the other layers functionality in the Layers context menu you still dont think it belongs in the Layers menu and dont want to leave this report open and get other opinions then fair enough. Thanks anyway.
Well, in GIMP-1.2 they were in the wrong menu, that's why they were moved. We asked several times for volunteers to review the menus during the development cycle of gimp-2.0. You had your chance to speak up but you didn't. Now it's too late to do any changes to the menus.
I'm confused; why is it too late to fix simple usability bugs? You certainly aren't implying that since 2.0.0 is "stable" that we shouldn't fix simple bugs of other sorts, are you?
This is not a bug, it's just something that perhaps needs more discussion and that should perhaps be changed. It's too late to do such changes in the 2.0 tree. It would break the string freeze and worse, it would break documentation. But of course we can discuss this change for GIMP 2.2.