Q Key Easter Egg?

[druban]

Found a neat feature in my recent build of Inkscape that's probably been there all along and I'm just the last to realize it - but here it is ---
you can hold down the Q key for a quick zoom in to what you have selected - and you can keep working and editing while it's down! When you let go you're back to where you were. Is that cool or what?

OK now someone can tell me it's been there since 0.32 or something ....

[~suv]

now someone can tell me it's been there since 0.32 or something ....

Not exactly since 0.32 - more like 0.47 [1]: NEW: Lots of stuff

Created what I'm calling "Quick Zoom." The idea here is to have a modal zoom for touching up something with fine detail and then returning to what you're doing. This is activated with the letter "Q" on the keyboard. When you release it, you return back to where you were. This will zoom in on selected objects, or if you're in the node tool selected nodes.

[1] 0.46 was released 2008-03-11, 0.47 2009-11-21, the mail is from 2008-09-25

[brynn]

Hey, I've been using this feature a lot since I read the original message the other day. There are more neat features with the Q key as well.

Here's what I've learned so far, and this is starting with zoom at 100%:

• with nothing selected, hitting the Q key zooms to 200%
• with a path selected, it zooms to 762%
• with a node selected, it zooms to 3547%
• if the cursor is not on the canvas when you engage the Q key, or if you move it off the canvase after engaging it, the zoom level holds there without having to hold down the key -- to unzoom, move the cursor back over the canvas and hit the Q key again (nice if you want to do a bit more work than just a quick look or edit)

If you set the zoom to some other level besides 100%, the above values change proportionately. There may well be more features that I just haven't stumbled upon yet. In general, I don't use keyboard shortcuts, not nearly as much as some. But little by little, I do find myself using them more.

I'm thrilled to discover all this, because in general, I find zooming to be cumbersome, as far as the UI. On the zoom toolbar, there are only 3 choices (100%, 50%, 200%). The previous zoom and next zoom buttons are unreliabe -- please read this topic I posted a while ago (to which there were no replies): viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3594. And while the control at the bottom right corner of the window is convenient for viewing the zoom level, it's too small to use intensively.

Ideally, I would like to have....well I probably won't be using the proper technical terminology....but I would like to have say 5 "programmable" buttons on the tool control bar, where I could set the zoom levels that I'm using on any particular image. Not an overall setting, like in Inkscape Prefs, but something that could be changed from one image to the next, like maybe in Doc Props. OR, if the Q key zoom values could be set to personal preferences, that would work too! Although fixing the previous and next zoom buttons would probably satisfy me

Anyway, just wanted to share what I've learned about it

[druban]

with nothing selected, hitting the Q key zooms to 200%

seeing this, cool.

[*]with a path selected, it zooms to 762%

Not seeing this! It seems to depend on the size of the path, logically enough...

with a node selected, it zooms to 3547%

Not seeing this either still zooms to path size, although the q zoom's interaction with last zoom and zoom in is a little unexpected

You do know about the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 shortcut keys, right?

[~suv]

Here's what I've learned so far, and this is starting with zoom at 100%:

* with nothing selected, hitting the Q key zooms to 200%
* with a path selected, it zooms to 762%
* with a node selected, it zooms to 3547%

In 0.48 [1]:

• with nothing selected, q doubles the zoom factor
  
• with object(s) selected:
  • if the selection is bigger than the current view, it doubles the zoom factor
  • if the selection is smaller than the current view, it zooms to the selection (like 3)
• in the node tool with a selection of node(s):
  • if the selection is a cusp node, it zooms to the object if all nodes are within the view, else it doubles the zoom factor
  • if the selection is a smooth node, it zooms to the node including the handles
  • if the selection of multiple nodes is bigger than the current view, it doubles the zoom factor
  • if the selection of multiple nodes is smaller than the current view, it zooms to the selection

[1] using q with the node tool of 0.47 has slightly different behavior: apparently it zooms so that the selected node(s) and its handles as well as both neighboring nodes of each are maximized within the current view.

[brynn]

You do know about the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 shortcut keys, right?

No, but I'm guessing they zoom?

[~suv]

Preset zooms

1 zoom 1:1
2 zoom 1:2
3 zoom to selection
4 zoom to drawing
5 zoom to page
6 zoom to page width

[vwanweb]

~ = Previous Zoom (shift+`)
` = Next Zoom

Wish this Q key options could make it into the User Manual...

I posted a layout of the Inkscape keyboard settings:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5840