Force Click for Layer Selection | Hacker News Reader

Force Click for Layer Selection

maxwellforbes.com

21 pointsmbforbes8 comments

These ideas have been explored as far back (if not further) as 9 years ago - try searching around for CHI groups (e.g. UIST 2012) playing with the synaptics forcepad (which had depth sensitivity but lacked a piezo feedback):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chi+synaptics+f...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=uist+2012+force...

here's one specific to layer selection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK2AzhmifTk

Keynote.app does this already if you have multiple items stacked on top of each other or an item made of several smaller items (like charts). It’s a really hand way to “drill down” to edit stuff in your presentation.

Here is an example where I slowly push down on the trackpad to edit data in a chart: https://gfycat.com/vapidfinishedbarebirdbat-technology-60fps...

This is great! Would probably also work really well for selecting „into“ hierarchies of groups/frames in design apps

I'm sort of surprised that Force Touch is still in Macs considering it was removed from the iPhone and Apple Watch. Then again, I suppose space is at less of a premium in a laptop/standalone trackpad.

Like the author I tend to only use it for looking up words on Mac, but I really miss it on the iPhone. The text selection functionality it offered was leagues ahead of the "hold space bar" feature they replaced it with.

Illustrator has a “select object by path only” option that I love. The entire object is no longer a giant selection area, only the path defining it. Just do a quick swipe to define a selection rectangle over the path and it’s selected.

There is also an option next to it called “command click to select objects behind”, which ignores the top object. I’m not sure of the precise details of how it works with a deep stack of objects, I have it on but never use it.

Having an actual strategy for organizing your layers helps too, give them names, don’t just cram all your objects into the top level of the list like the example screenshot. Lock the ones you’re not using at the moment. I’d have 2-4 layers for the example, for instance: one for the type, one for the stroked hexagon, one for the filled hexagons, and one for the background fill. And they would each have actual names instead of “Layer 23”.

Also turning on thumbnails in the layer panel may be helpful here, this makes it much easier to never have to shift out of visual identification.

Inkscape has a handy mode where you can use the mouse wheel (with Ctrl, I think) to select objects that are stacked. It also makes everything else translucent during that gesture, which makes selecting the correct stacked object rather painless and intuitive.

> The only way I’ve ever used Force click intentionally is to look up a word. I remember to do this about, uhh, twice a year.

Surprising, I must use it twice an hour at least…

Yes yes please. I’d love to have it any design app!

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