I have disabled “Exposure”, “Denoise (profiled)” (2 instances from experiment), “Highlight reconstruction” and some color-related modules, then went to step #15 and tried to get rid of them from history stack.
I have history stack with still existing:
second instance of “Denoise (profiled)”. Which can be nice if i could click on step #14 and get this module expanded in right panel - otherwise leaving this step in history is useless.
exposure module (from defaults)
Have read all topics found after searching for “compress” but problem was not described.
The history stack is just that: a history of (in)activated modules with their settings. When a module has been selected/(de)activated several times, you will find several copies. Compression removes all copies except the highest (latest) one, even if that copy is inactive. Inactive copies are kept, as removing them would also remove the settings you used (including masking!).
You can’t activate/inactivate modules through the history stack, only in the right panel.
If you want to remove all copies of useless modules, the easiest way I found is:
reactivate the two modules you want to suppress (this will put activated copies at the top of the history stack)
compress history (removing the inactive copies lower in the stack)
click on the highest module you want to keep
compress history again (this removes all modules above the one you selected in the previous step)
Thanks for instructions, this is the method I used but forgot about it. Just because I though that it’s my fault. Something like (“my method is too complicated, it has to be some correct and straightfoward one”) - observing software’s behavior and manually supressing this behavior, in most cases gives expected effect but not in optimal way, and it’s better to ask guys who do it with the same effect but using optimal method.
Now I have to “clean” my styles this way.
I don’t expect to activate module through history. But let’s say in step #13 I have “Crop and rotate” module (no matter turned on or off, it’s history only). It would be convenient and intuitive to have the module expanded (not switched on/off) by double clicking on step 13. Single click - return to step’s effect, double click - expand module used in step.
Such behavior I know from other software that uses history (like CADs) - history shows effects of previous steps (the same is in DT). But also step in history works as a “shortcut” to re-open (not re-activate or switch on/off) a tool used in this step. I expexted that there is something similar in DT only I don’t know (didn’t discover yet) how.
Now when I have, let’s say “Watermark” module opened as step #17, I can click on step #13 to see “crop and rotate” effect" but still have to dig/search thru modules in right panel to find “Crop and rotate” module and change its settings.
Generally - I see that there are many small workflow tips that user can “discover” in DT but there is typycally better to ask how to do it straight, instead of using own discovered “shortcut from Paraguay to Uruguay thru China”. The same things are in other subjects/domains where I give advises to people (like motorcycle mechanics or home brewng).
That’s why I have the modules I commonly use collected in the ‘favourites’ tab in the right panel.
Also, the leftmost tab in that panel shows you all active modules in pipeline order (?).
Btw, pay attention to what you are doing when clicking on a module in the history stack, if you change or (de)activate a module, all modules above the one selected in the history stack are removed… Gave me a few unpleasant surprises…
Yep, and do not try Ctrl+Z in such situation (when you “compressed” out your last changes by acident). You get next, even worse lose. “Undo” reverts all history to defaults, instead of undoing “compress history” operation. So you lose not only steps above, that you lost a click ago…
