I’m reading the manual and trying out the various functions on a case-by-case basis.
There are various panels that do not apply any variation to the photos, as if they were disabled, for example:
When I change the parameters, the photo does not change, and the program’s internal history does not record the change.
Where am I wrong?
I use Panasonic RAW files, but I’ve also tried JPEG
Maybe you didn’t activate the tools: there’s an on/off button at the left of eachbtool’s name, by default most are off, just click on the button to turn them on.
Also , notice tahtsome tools have their effect visible in the preview only when the zoom is 100% and more (those tools have a “1:1” label close to their name).
I didn’t see any on/off switches near the panel’s name.
I tried to zoom 1:1 when I saw it, but without results.
Tomorrow I’ll control better
Thanks
@slambarcin make sure you’re using the latest version of RawTherapee, which at the time of writing is 5.4, and then enable the relevant tools in order for them to take effect.
http://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Getting_Started
If you have further issues, post an uncropped screenshot.
Perhaps there should be a visual cue (graying-out?) indicating that a tool has been disabled, to make it more visible than just the on/off button?
The visual cue is the power button’s icon not only changing shape but also being small and gray when off, or larger and white when on.
A grayed-out tool label means the tool is not available, such as when is the case with all of the tools in the Raw tab when working on a non-raw image.
I wonder if changing the shape of the power but button was a good move. Now when it’s off, it doesn’t look like a power button, it’s just a circle and I’m afraid it doesn’t trigger the “hey it looks like a power button, let me click on it to power on” thought in new users mind. Being smaller when off, why not, but being just a small circle, I don’t know…
Perhaps it would be better to entirely hide unavailable tools and gray-out inactive tools.
@sguyader it’s a pretty standard concept:
Red and green on off switch button Royalty Free Vector Image
it can always be improved, but we had our regular person who didn’t know that a tool needed to be turned on before just as now, so changing the shape to a grayed-out version of its “on” state as was in 5.4 won’t help.
In fact, according to IEC 60417-5009, our “on” icon (both now and before) is actually a “standby” symbol, hmm.
I disagree. When UI elements are not visible the user has no idea that they could be there or why they’re not there, whereas when they’re grayed-out it’s clear that they exist but are currently unavailable.
Why should a user care at all about, say, demosaicing, if they’re working on jpegs?
In any case, there need to be stronger visual cues, because I see people confused about this issue fairly regularly on reddit. Maybe append “(disabled)” to the tool’s title when they’re off, maybe two stages of graying out, something.
I see that in Darktable, the tools have the same “standby” button icon, and that in “off” state it’s just grayed out. Are new users as confused by this for DT as they are for RT?
HOw about something like these icons (example from coulourbox.com):
The colour of the “on” state could be the same colour as the colour bar showing the the current tab used, theme-based.
Maybe a tad too big. 
But it makes it more obvious! 
How about this (quickly made in Inkscape):
Off: 
On: 
@sguyader GTK+ already has a switch, but a switch only has two states, while RT needs three states: on, off, and “inconsistent” for batch mode.
If I were to presume I have a vote, I’d cast it for the slider. For some reason, the 0|- iconography has never settled into my synapses.
Neither the “on” nor the “off” state has an icon which you know immediately and without a doubt to mean “on” or “off” without any further context. If you see this 
you don’t know what it means, and if you see this 
you don’t know what that means or does either, nor do you know what 
means (is it on or off or standby?), until you get context. One gets context by seeing the icon painted on a switch or button, and by seeing the icon change shape or color when it’s used. For this reason I see fiddling with the RT power icon as bike-shedding and a waste of time - one gets the required context by trying it and by reading this page which every user without exception should read else they’re gonna have a bad time: Getting Started - RawPedia
The one unambiguous solution, if someone wanted to spend their time doing it, is to replace the power icons with the words “On”, “Off”, and “Inconsistent”, but the last word is way too long for its purpose, and the translations of “on” and “off” can also be unusably long in some languages - “włączone, wyłączone, niespójne” in Polish, “encendido, apagado, inconsistente” in Spanish, etc.
It would not be a waste of our time if we find a way to give a better cue to new users, it will be less time wasted here pointing to the “getting started” page and reminding/showing how to toggle the tools.
I don’t mind wasting my time today, and here’s another proposal: I quickly designed a 3-way switch with “intermediate” state in which the toggle is in middle position, with mid gray bar going left to middle position.
