Feature Suggestion: Expanded funtionality for Layer Manager

[WalksIn2Trees]

The Layer manager should be expanded in functionality to allow easier editing of pages, layers, Objects, and should operate hierarchal tree-style

When you only have a few objects on one page it's not really needed, but once you have enough objects that you can't easily just click one on the page, it's time to have an object manager in a hierarchal list form.  A pro can't be meticulously placing objects to spec, only to have to move them around to change the color of something 4 levels back... so much time is wasted... but if you can click the object on the list, and change the it's properties without altering other objects, you don't lose much time at all.

Toggle buttons at the top of the manager window would select which level the artist is operating on.

The "Page" toggle would allow the artist to change the order of existing pages and to add "Intentional Blanks" as well as apply master pages

The "Layer" toggle would be as it is now, but also including a Master page layer, Marks layer, guides layer.

The "objects" toggle would list all objects, sorted by page,layer, and group.  Selecting an object name in the manager would be the same as selecting the object on the page allowing the artist to interact with it, no matter which layer, page, or group it's on or part of, and no matter what objects are above or below it.

This feature as I describe it is MOSTLY based on the Object Manager in Corel Draw 12... I have not used new versions of Draw so they may have advances I am unaware of.  My description varies from it's functionality though in that, Corel Draw 12 did not allow more than one master page set... crazy I know...  and their page re-ordering was a separate function found in the menu system

[Nermander]

Isn't this what the Outline windows does?

[a.l.e]

... and the outline window needs a new name... :-)

[WalksIn2Trees]

  haha, is THAT what that is? Thank You!

agreed----> RENAME "outline" to "Object Manager"
because there's no way I ever would have seen "outline" and thought it referred to to the object hierarchy.
even so, it's better to have all that stuff in one manager tool

something else: for object level ordering: need a "above..." & "below..."  in addition to raise, lower, top, bottom

[a.l.e]

for the renaming: please fill a feature request, if there is none yet...

concerning the level ordering: imo, we only need top, bottom and above and below... not raise and lower... and i would move the buttons to the align & distribute dialog (which may then have to be renamed)... but this is for the future :-)

[WalksIn2Trees]

I didn't see a new feature request form... where is it? 
I considered posting a feature request as a bug report, but then I rightly figured, what if the feature's there and I just don't know yet... better to use the forums and use the bug system later if I need to

I don't know about having level change buttons in align and distribute... because level changes affect the hierarchy, not objects physical relationship to one another which is what align and distribute does... I think it should be on the object manager or in the object properties.

move up or down is useful if you only need to go up or down one... above or below is a two click function and it doesn't hurt anything to have it available... one thing I'd be curious to try for level adjustment icons is a media player-like button set up, only oriented vertically rather than horizontal like this is:
[|<<] [<<] [<] [>] [>>] [>>|]

a weigh-in on vernacular:  I prefer front and back to top and bottom... maybe because I think of top and bottom in relation to the page (as in head=top=up, foot=bottom=down, face & bind = left and right) where-as with in front of and behind I think more of layering

[a.l.e]

hi walks,

bug report system: http://bugs.scribus.net

for the rest: basically, my position is that nobody really wants to move an item one step up or down. they want it on top, at bottom or below / above another object.

moving up and down by one level is just a try and error version of one of the four options above. a bad hack.

ciao
a.l.e

[Nermander]

But moving up/down is a lot easier to understand.

With the ability to just move above/below another object I am sure we will face a lot of questions about how to use it. So I think the up/down feature needs to be there for people not needing different levels very often.

[a.l.e]

hi nermander,

people who don't need up and down very often, mostly can use top and bottom... in the worst case they have to click on them a few times (on different items) until they get the result they're aiming at... but probably less clicks than they will need if they use up and down...

and more experienced users should be able to move the items in the outline window (and in the align&distribute dialog)...

but i also have to agree that many people will miss the up and down buttons...

we will see how bright the future will be... :-)

[EKWisner]

The function I miss from the Adobe analogs is:
Up Top
Down Bottom
+
Level: ___

I can choose a level by number, (often, as noted, based on something else's level when I want the object to appear above or below something nearby).

When I get really involved with SVG images, especially objects where one thing appear to be nested within another, I often have to split the object into front and back halves, then take the orphaned half (which appears on top as a new object) and click 'downward' dozens or hundreds of times.  It is a tedious process.

I can use workarounds (sequentially send all parts of the drawing to the top / bottom, group chunks of the drawing).  But groups often end up with bigger outlines, making it harder to select objects under them.

It's not a bug - just the only feature I noticed right away, that was missing from what I remembered using in other programs.

Yours,
EKW