Situation
Currently a coloured selection box is shown around the selected object.
Problem
The selection box can sometimes distract the user from the overall look of the page.
See the attached screen grab as an example. While the selection box is displayed it cuts through some other objects and makes it difficult to see how changes made to the selected object look in relation to the rest of the page.
The user has to de-select the object to see how the page looks, then re-select the object again to make changes. However, de-selecting the object (selecting nothing) "resets" the Properties Palette so you also need to re-select the PP tab you were last in.
So, you make some changes to, for example, the text size, then you need to de-select the object to get a better idea of how the text looks. Then, to make further changes, you need to re-select the object, then re-select the Text tab, then make the changes. Then do it all over again, if necessary, until it's right.
(Even if the PP didn't "reset" you would still have to de-select & re-select.)
This can make the user workflow much longer than it needs to be by adding lots of extra steps to tweak an object to get it looking right on the page.
Proposal
Add a new "stealth mode" to the selection process - toggled on/off via a button next to the Preview Mode button - which could work as follows:
* When an object is selected the selection box appears (as usual).
* However, when the pointer moves a certain distance from the selected object - or outside the bounds of the selected object - the selection box goes invisible (preferably fading out after a second or so).
* The object is still selected but the selection box is not shown.
* When the pointer moves back to the selected object the selection box can be shown again (preferably fading back in) to allow for moving/resizing etc.
This would allow the user to see the page as it would be printed - just move the pointer away - while alleviating the need for the extra de/re-selecting.
See attached animated GIF for a simple example.
I think this will make Scribus much better to use for complex pages. (And it will look pretty nice too!)
I know this probably isn't a major issue for everyone but with the kind of layouts I produce I can be de/re-selecting very frequently and, frankly, it's a pain in the bum.
What does everyone else think? Good? Bad? Pointless?