Tagging and selection inconsistency with CMD-T (bug?)

gpagnon · March 29, 2023, 2:24pm

Hi all,

I noticed a strange inconsistency with the tagging shortcut CMD-T (on a Mac running the standard 4.2.1 dt binary). If I select a group of images in lighttable for tagging, but the mouse cursor then happens to have floated away from one of the selected images and onto a non-selected image, when I use the shortcut CMD-T to tag the images, only the image currently under the cursor gets tagged and NOT the selected images. I believe this is an undesirable behavior, as the selected images should get the priority for being tagged in this case (not the image currently under the cursor).

Has anybody seen the same issue?

thanks for any comments
giuseppe

Terry · March 30, 2023, 1:37am

I can replicate this behaviour in DT V4.3 on a Windows computer. I don’t believe it is a bug as hovering the mouse over a new image selects that image. I guess you need to be conscious of this behaviour and make sure you are hover over one of the selected images when you enter the tag.

BTW, I was unaware of this option before your post. It is a nice shortcut for tagging.

gpagnon · March 30, 2023, 6:40am

Well, it may not be a bug but is not a desirable feature in my opinion. If I select some images for tagging, it is clearly those images that I intend to tag, not the one under the cursor.

A real case scenario: I am tagging some images in lighttable, for instance, tagging a specific person in a series of pictures. I tag some pictures, then I scroll the lighttable to see whether the person is in some other pictures. Now the cursor is not anymore on one of the selected pictures. I happily hit CMD-T to add the tag, thinking that all my selected images will get the tag, and then go on to some other task. I am completely unaware that the tag has been assigned not to the selection, but instead to some random image that should not have gotten the tag.

This actually happened to me several times before realizing the issue, and causing quite a waste of time. Notably, this behavior is not described in the manual, where it says:

There are a number of ways to attach an existing tag to a group of selected images:
…

Press Ctrl+T to open a small text box at the bottom of the central view of the lighttable. Type in the name of a tag and press Enter. The tag will be created if it doesn’t exist, and attached to all the selected images.

grubernd · March 30, 2023, 7:44am

Yes, it’s a rather well known deviation from standard UI behaviour of darktable since like forever.

You will learn to work around it but never get used to it…

gpagnon · March 30, 2023, 9:34am

Wouldn’t it better to change it then? Or is there some disadvantage in doing so?

g-man · March 30, 2023, 11:52am

It is the Act On feature. There is a long thread around it.

gpagnon · March 31, 2023, 7:42am

thanks, I looked for it but couldn’t find it…

Nilvus · April 1, 2023, 9:11am

Search “Images to act on” issue on darktable Github repository.

kofa · April 1, 2023, 2:57pm

github.com/darktable-org/darktable

Images to Act On - How Should It Work?

opened 06:46PM - 19 Aug 20 UTC

elstoc

priority: medium feature: redesign scope: UI no-issue-activity

Now that a lot of the decision making around image selection in the lighttable a…nd thumbtable is centralised into a single function (``dt_view_get_images_to_act_on``) I thought it might be time to talk about how it works and come to a consensus on how we can make it a little more user-friendly. Here's now it works right now: ``` mouse over| x | x | x | | | mouse inside table| x | x | | | | mouse inside selection| x | | | | | active images| ? | ? | x | | x | | | | | | | | S | O | O | S | A | S = selection ; O = mouseover ; A = active images the mouse can be outside thumbtable in case of filmstrip + mouse in center widget if only_visible is FALSE, then it will add also not visible images because of grouping ``` I find myself constantly consulting the above table and still have trouble keeping it in my head. And I don't think I'm the only one who sometimes finds it confusing. Given the number of bug reports and discussions where this comes up it may be better if it were a little more simple/intuitive or perhaps if some of its behaviour could be simplified via preference settings or flagged better in the UI. For example, probably the most commonly used mode in the lighttable is called 'file manager'. Most users would probably expect it to work (within reason) like a standard file manager and in this mode at least, being able to perform actions just by hovering over images and hitting key combinations is decidedly non-intuitive. And it gets even odder when you have multiple images selected but are inadvertently hovering over an unselected one. Anyway, I've just opened this for discussion to see whether there might be a better way.

gpagnon · April 4, 2023, 6:59am

Thanks for the link. So it seems that the current behavior has been confusing many users for quite some time and it should not be used as a default. Is there any plan in the pipeline to adopt one of the alternatives (e.g. an option in the preferences to turn off the current behavior, or to give selected images priority for actions, etc.)?