Wider Data Fields Such That All Digits and Units Are Visible
I would like data fields to be sufficiently wide that all digits and units are visible. For example, the Transform Window's X, Y, W and H fields, along with all the others. In addition to being able to see all data at a glance, this would make pasting values into the field much easier because prior to pasting you click once or more to select the current data. Being able to see the entire field allows visual confirmation of what you are about to replace. It is not usual to get tripped up by inadvertently including or excluding the units, which are frequently hidden.
David Brown
shared this idea
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David Brown
commented
Thank you for the methods of selected fields. Attached is a screenshot of my workspace. I use two displays. In the screenshot, the white line is the boundary between the two.
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Ah, I see, you work with thousands, and the fields are just too narrow for these large values.
Therefore you can’t surely tell a double-click (selects a full 'word' between spaces, a value or a unit, depending on the click location) from a triple-click (selects all)... although a triple-click would put the cursor at the end, thus 'scrolling' the contents... at least it’s how it behaves on Windows :)
Also, Ai puts the units within the fields, to allow conversions (type a unit you need and get it recalculated to the document’s chosen ones).If you surely need to select a fields fully — click the caption (W / H...) instead, once — this selects the corresponding field. Sure, 'W' is smaller than a field, and it’s harder to aim it (and still, after decades of muscle memory, I click both the fields and the captions), but the method exists.
Hmm... I don’t think stretching the inputs to fit the values would work in all cases... this could make them blow up rather ugly in some dialogs. Transform, like many other panels, have the same width, to allow them to bet switched without UI jumping, and making this one panel larger would break this — when these aren’t docked with a larger panel, like you have it. It’s the only 'legal' way to resize Transform, so it might seem it has plenty of space to make the fields wider...
Recently the Align was fixed to have this width finally, and boy it was painful to have it larger than Transform and Pathfinder, which are often grouped.
Perhaps allow stretching these only in the forced width cases, like yours? Needs further thinking.There’s a similar request about the Properties panel being rigid in the same manner: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/32011942
Just to complete the picture — can you show a full screenshot of your workspace.
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David Brown
commented
My apologies for the delay getting back to you. I have attached a screenshot of Illustrator 30.8.1 on macOS 27. The issue with not seeing the units is primarily when I click or multi-click in the text field and am not sure if the units are selected. This can lead to an error depending on what I paste into the field. I normally use a UI setting one tick mark above small; however the problem exists with higher settings as well.
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Hmm... David, how do these look for you? Can you share some screenshots, please?
For me Transform looks like this, with all the digits and the units visible (and the 'mm' gets just slightly trimmed with larger values).
I’m at Windows 10, 100% UI scale for both Ai and the OS. What are your settings?
