Hi.

Is it possible to lock current layer without using the mouse.

Or: Is it possible to somehow assign a hotkey that lock a spesific layer (or just current layer).

I ask because I repetedly turn on and off layer lock for my background layer. I mostly doesn't edit on background, so I lock it so I can work on the other layers. But from time to time, I find it neccesary to adjust background layer to match size of the other layers, and then I need to lock, edit and unlock the background layer.
The lockk/unlock procedure I find not effective, and as the icon is located in bottom on the screen, If I move the mouse pointer too fast, it just cause the windows program bar to pop up and cover the lower part of Inkscape window, including the lock layer button.

I often make myself a base file, a template that contains all the layers and settings I'll need.
So the dream solution for me would be this scenario:

• Make the layers I gona use
• Open XML editor for the document.
• Select the layer (in XML editor).
• Add a new Text node and write something in it that assign a hotkey to toggle lock on that layer
• Close XML editor.

Open XML editor for the document.
Select the layer (in XML editor).
Add a new Text node and write something in it that assign a hotkey to toggle lock on that layer
Close XML editor.

The way to do this (forgive me if you already know this) is to modify a copy of the default.xml in keys folder and put it in your personal settings for Inkscape folder (in windows in the application data folder in yourname folder in documents and settings folder). The catch is that there doesn't seem to be 'verbs' for either 'toggle current layer visibility' or 'lock and unlock current layer'.

Whether these verbs will ever be available - I don't know - someone with connections to the developer might be able to tell you. The layer toggles seem like they would be very useful to the majority of users , so maybe they are already in the works.

are you using the layers dialog or shortcut icons? although it takes some screen space; the layers dialog is very usable, and can be undocked to position and size it.

chriswww wrote:are you using the layers dialog or shortcut icons?

I use both. I'm prefer to use keyboard shortcuts when possible. Also I use to download the latest test versions from here.

chriswww wrote:although it takes some screen space; the layers dialog is very usable, and can be undocked to position and size it.

In the latest versions, a new bug has arrived, so that the icons in the layer dialog turns invisible when mouse pointer is hovered over it. So that make me use mostly the shortcut icons.
Anyway, concerning workflow speed, it's always a less good solution then a keyboard shortcut.

If I move the mouse pointer too fast, it just cause the windows program bar to pop up and cover the lower part of Inkscape window, including the lock layer button.

You probably know that you can make that "windows program bar" which is called the taskbar, be constantly visible. Then if you move the mouse below the window, nothing will be there to pop up and obscure that small strip of the window. But if you're like me, you probably set it up that way, so as to have more screen space, by having it mostly not visible. I know your pain here, believe me! It really is tricky to access any feature at the bottom of the Inkscape window, without having the taskbar pop up. And it's annoying to have to wait for the taskbar to go back down, because it interrupts the workflow. But really it goes back down as soon as you move the pointer/cursor away, in a fraction of a second. I think it just seems like a long time, because I have been interrupted.

To me, the problem can be summarized like this: either I keep the taskbar always visble, and lose that 3/4 inch screen space across the bottom, but never be interrupted in Inkscape work -- OR -- I keep the taskbar hidden until I ask for it by mousing off the bottom of the screen, and then risk being interrupted in my Inkscape work, when trying to access those features at the bottom of the window, below the canvas.

For me, now that I think about it, I could actually make the taskbar always visible. This is because I have a relatively new computer with more favorable screen resolution. I went from 800 x 600 screen res to 1366 x 768. But still, I like keeping my screen clutter-free, so I just live with the taskbar while using Inkscape.

I wish I had a better solution for you, but I'm thinking like chriswww -- undock the layers dialog, make as small as it can be, and put it somewhere along the edge of the screen. And actually, if I'm not mistake, dialogs can be made partially transparent. I've never used it, because I don't personally care for it, but I've seen tutorials where the creator's dialogs were partially transparent.