OTD search bar, preview text selection, copy/paste and praise!

[Bmeister]

First off, if you haven't already updated to FC13 or are still thinking about it, I would highly recommend doing so...or at the very least give the demo a run. It's really that good, and it's especially solid in its current version. Many thanks to the support team who have addressed my issues to date

On with my requests and suggestions:

The text preview window in the Open Type Designer is handy, no doubt. But I often find myself accidentally erasing its contents unknowingly, because a single click will select all of its contents. I might find myself accidentally touching the mouse wheel (mine is sensitive) and, if I'm in the vicinity of the text window, often erase the contents unwillingly. This is very annoying! A simple on/off switch to allow selecting all text with single mouse click would solve this problem.

select all one click option.gif (23.08 KiB) Viewed 1739 times

Some of my font work contains numerous lookups and finding them within the OTD tree can sometimes be challenging. Could we see some sort of search bar in the future?

search bar for OTD window.jpg (29.9 KiB) Viewed 1739 times

Finally, copy/paste of routines within the OTD tree would be especially helpful. It's not uncommon for me to necessitate relocating and repositioning a routine(s) from another location. Sure, we all do this in the Editor when needed. But as I prefer to work from the OTD tree, it would be great to do this sort of thing here.

And related to copy/paste...it would be really helpful to allow click and drag of any routine in the tree. Using the up/down arrow to rearrange its placement, while helpful, can become a very slow method.

Thanks for all the great work!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

1. The dialog presumably uses standard Windows controls, so I suspect they may be hard to change. To avoid losing preview text strings, add your own in Tools, Options, Preview. These strings are used in both the Preview Toolbar and the OpenType Designer. Copy them to the User Data folder if you want to edit them extensively, rearrange the order, etc.
2. Collapse the script tree to reveal the feature tree and lookup tree below them. The feature tree is in alphabetical order. The lookup tree is arranged in order of preference; those higher in the list will be performed before those beneath them. I agree that drag and drop might help, but cut and paste in the script editor is often better. That has find and replace, line numbering, error reporting, etc.

I rename all of my lookups to match the features that use them.

[Bmeister]

1. The dialog presumably uses standard Windows controls, so I suspect they may be hard to change. To avoid losing preview text strings, add your own in Tools, Options, Preview. These strings are used in both the Preview Toolbar and the OpenType Designer. Copy them to the User Data folder if you want to edit them extensively, rearrange the order, etc.
2. Collapse the script tree to reveal the feature tree and lookup tree below them. The feature tree is in alphabetical order. The lookup tree is arranged in order of preference; those higher in the list will be performed before those beneath them. I agree that drag and drop might help, but cut and paste in the script editor is often better. That has find and replace, line numbering, error reporting, etc.

I rename all of my lookups to match the features that use them.

Thank you for your reply, Bhikkhu.

1--- Indeed, I can certainly enter my own text strings, as you suggest. But I often need to examine different text combinations to make sure my routines function as they should; these strings vary all the time. Thus, saving text strings in these cases doesn't help me...it slows the process tremendously. Regarding standard Windows controls and text string selection, I'm aware of this behavior and I've just discovered that it differs between Windows 7 and 10...neither of which helps much in this regard.

2--- Yes, I often collapse the tree to facilitate finding lookups below. Still, it's nice to be able to search for something quickly in this area when you have many lookups. Anything to save time and be more productive.

[Erwin Denissen]

2--- Yes, I often collapse the tree to facilitate finding lookups below. Still, it's nice to be able to search for something quickly in this area when you have many lookups. Anything to save time and be more productive.

We have just released another update, coming with support for drag and drop for lookups in the OpenType Designer.

[Bmeister]

We have just released another update, coming with support for drag and drop for lookups in the OpenType Designer.

Erwin,

This is fabulous work. Thanks for listening and implementing our requests

I see you've also stabilized the tree from jumping up erratically when one moves a lookup with the arrow button; I was just going to write you about this.

Nice job, also, on the addition of "duplicate" lookup. It's very handy and I especially appreciate the fact that it adds the duplicate in place. This is a behavior you may want to carry forward when adding a new lookup. That is, if I have a current lookup selected in the OTD tree, chances are, I'd like to have the new lookup located there. Presently, a new lookup is always placed at the bottom of the feature tree. This can be annoying.

edit: Regarding the above, when adding a new lookup; not only does a new lookup go to the bottom of the feature tree, the entire OTD tree jumps down to the last lookup...so I've essentially lost my visual position entirely. i.e. I have to scroll up back to the feature in question, and then the new lookup.

[Erwin Denissen]

We have just released another update, coming with support for drag and drop for lookups in the OpenType Designer.

Nice job, also, on the addition of "duplicate" lookup. It's very handy and I especially appreciate the fact that it adds the duplicate in place. This is a behavior you may want to carry forward when adding a new lookup. That is, if I have a current lookup selected in the OTD tree, chances are, I'd like to have the new lookup located there. Presently, a new lookup is always placed at the bottom of the feature tree. This can be annoying.

This issue will be resolved with the next upcoming major release, so please be patient.

[Bmeister]

We have just released another update, coming with support for drag and drop for lookups in the OpenType Designer.

Nice job, also, on the addition of "duplicate" lookup. It's very handy and I especially appreciate the fact that it adds the duplicate in place. This is a behavior you may want to carry forward when adding a new lookup. That is, if I have a current lookup selected in the OTD tree, chances are, I'd like to have the new lookup located there. Presently, a new lookup is always placed at the bottom of the feature tree. This can be annoying.

This issue will be resolved with the next upcoming major release, so please be patient.

Thank you, Erwin.
I look forward to it!