Re: Dia: Why is it so hard to do simple things? dia-list Digest, Vol 89, Issue 7

[Andrey Repin <anrdaemon freemail ru>]

Greetings, Michael Ross!

> On zooming, I have no problem zooming (Win XP) so I think is is a matter of
> adapting to the controls that are available. A summary:

> If I tap the plus or minus key it zooms in and out,

You must be kidding.
Who on earth use keyboard for navigation these days?
Mouse wheel is all you really need.
Scroll is zoom, hold it down and you pan around.
The two problems with Dia in this regard are:
1. Dia moves zoom focus to the center of viewport on each zoom step, which has
the effect of zooming on the part of the diagram somewhere around the point
you started to zoom on, so that you either want to move your cursor to the
center of the screen after first zoom step, or pan viewport. THAT is a
terrible behavior I've mentioned earlier.
2. Zooming requires Ctrl key to be held. Which is exceptionally annoying
combined with issue #1.

> Maybe a few minutes investigating all the options can help.  I myself didn't
> know I could pan with the middle button alone until just now.

Unfortunatelly, I havent't found a way to reassign any keybinds under Windows.
Although manual referring to such ability.
In GIMP, it had to be explicitly enabled in configuration, after which I was
able to wrest it's behavior into my needs.

> Perhaps this complaint is due to a more modern habit of use?

Not really, just more efficient.

> Left hand key stroke shortcuts are a throw back to unix and DOS power user
> days -

I though that is more to the right-hand hotkeys, like copy/paste using Ins/Del.
Left-hand ones are more useful for when your right hand is busy with mouse.

> I always appreciate when they are included as a default.  They make
> moving around a workspace (and everything else that has a shortcut ) much
> more efficient than so much windows menu clicking with a mouse.

True.

> Anyone that has some repetitive stress to deal with in their mouse hand
> knows what I am talking about, too.

Not anyone. Some people, unfortunately, straight decline to learn.


--
WBR,
Andrey Repin (anrdaemon freemail ru) 12.09.2011, <03:33>

Sorry for my terrible english...