a more user-friendly layering system

[jerry533482]

I've noticed that when working with an image that involves many layers, it can be a pain to move the layers to the their proper positions; especially when you have to move them more than one space at a time. Is it possible to implement a new layering system in a future version that allows you to move the layers via drag-and-drop; and also allows you to select more than one layer at once?

[oma]

work around use select all on the layer you want to move. cut

add a layer where you need to position that part and paste.

then just go back and delete the extra blank layer.

[Sozo]

I believe Rick is aware of these requests, especially drag and drop. I know I've voiced my support for that feature in the past. They don't seem to be in the popular feature requests thread, so I can't fault you for bringing them up.

[BoltBait]

Being able to select more than one layer at a time isn't going to happen any time soon.

Think about this: If you had more than one layer selected, how would effects work? When drawing, where do the pixels go?

Way too much weird stuff going on here.

Now, Rick may develop this later. But, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it.

[theonlychad]

i wouldn't moan about it and welsh i had to laugh about you not copying and pasting

come on guys we get to use this awesome program for free find a work around sometimes it makes it more of a challenge but hey remember you get to use this program for free

[jerry533482]

Well guys, I meant selecting more than one layer at a time for drag-and-drop; not necessarily for actual painting, although that would be cool. It would allow you to move selections in a image where layering is a necessity; like for special effects.

[oma]

work with more than one PDN. ......

[jerry533482]

Well I don't mean to burden Rick, but let's say you're working with a layered image that has different blending modes and images for each layer, and you've got a selection that you want to move in all the layers. You also wish to preserve the layers and the blending modes for future editing, so flattening the image will ruin your work. It would be sort of a multi-layer selection tool(Doesn't photoshop already have this?). I thank Rick deeply for his hard work on Paint.NET, and the idea of layers as a feature in the first place, but hasn't it been a while since the layering system has been revamped? Perhaps this could be done for v4.0.

[BoltBait]

That would be cool. But, I think you are under estimating how much work this would be for Rick and how confusing it would be for new users that accidentally selected more than one layer.

[jerry533482]

What if there was a menu that that allowed users to enable or disable the feature; assuming that Rick was interested in pursuing this?

[Crimson]

Think about this: If you had more than one layer selected, how would effects work? When drawing, where do the pixels go?

Way too much weird stuff going on here.

In Photoshop, when multiple layers are selected at once, the only thing that you can do is move, scale, crop, flip and select ( sans ). 95% of the time, when a user selects more than one layer, they will probably want to do one of these things. That would solve the "weird stuff" that could potentially arise. I'm not saying that it would be any easier to implement, just stating that such a function would be greatly helpful for work efficiency.

[jerry533482]

See, Crimson? That's what I'm trying to say. A "little" improvement like this deserves to be put into the popular feature requests thread. It would go well with Rick's plan for adjustment layers for v4.0. But whether or not this feature becomes a reality, I'll still be grateful for Paint.NET.

[Goonfella]

While on the subject of layers, layer groups would also be handy. Sometimes you have many layers relating to only one section of an image. Being able to group them together would help a lot, especially with systems that start to struggle when the layer count starts to increase.

[Simon Brown]

That's in Popular Feature Requests.

[KeyLogic]

I'm glad these things were mentioned. Personally I would like the layers groups so that I can turn on and off multiple layers related to an image in just one single click.