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Deselect tools


Silver Surfer

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Sorry for what is likely a dumb question, but when I select and use a tool such as the paintbrush, how the heck do I unselect that tool without selecting another?

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My reason for wanting such a feature as tool deselect is that I tend to forget that I have a certain tool selected, and I inevitably click on something on the picture with no intention of using the tool that is selected. I've screwed up countless times because the tool stays active after I'm finished with it.

What would be great is to have a toggle featrue on each tool button. Click on. Click off. Now that would be something at least in my humble opinion. Obviously the power users must not see a need.

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Usually, when I'm not trying to draw something, I'll hit the key to switch to a selection tool, since using any of those tools accidentally will not alter the canvas. I have the default tool set to the Rectangle Select tool for this very reason.

I'm also not sure if this feature would be plausible within Paint.NET's current keyboard shortcut model - for instance, how you can strike the key multiple times to iterate through the four different selection tools. With a toggle-on, toggle-off model, one would expect the second press of the shortcut to "deactivate" the tool, and that would mean finding new shortcuts.

Further, clicking on the canvas without a tool selected doesn't really have a purpose. It would just be a wasted click - since "no tool" does nothing, the program state would be identical after the click as it was before. Since Paint.NET doesn't have window focus issues such as The GIMP, there's no need to click to activate the canvas either.

So, I'd suggest just switching to the Rectangle Select tool when you're not actively drawing. An accidental click won't draw unwanted pixels, and, unless you have an active selection at the time, there won't be any need to [Ctrl]+[Z] back to the previous state.

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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