All tools in the current toolbox honor the selection EXCEPT the Move Tool -- though in some cases the selection is not reasonably applicable (eyedropper, zoom, measure, and crop) and in cases of the "selection tools", there are modes which modify how selections are treated.

To a large extent, all operations in the Layers menu do not honor selections. The notable exceptions are:

Transparency->Color To Alpha Transparency->Semi-flatten
Transparency->Threshold Alpha
Transform->Arbitrary Rotate

I would submit that the exceptions listed would best be eradicated: that a general policy be maintained that the default behavior of all functions under the Layer Menu operate on drawables while disregarding any selection and that the default behavior of all tools in the Toolbox honor selections (unless directed otherwise).

In order to prosecute such a policy, I would propose the following changes to the current (development) interface:

1) Move the offending Transparency functions to the new Colors menu. 2) Have the Arbitrary Rotate MENU function ignore the selection, operate on the drawable, and not generate a floated layer. 3) Modify the Move Tool so that it operates precisely like the "transform" tools, honoring the selection and operating on its contents. (This means that a dialog would be presented, numeric offsets possibly enterred, and OK pressed to generate a floated layer). 4) Add a modified mode to ALL of the transform tools (plus/including the new Move Tool) which makes them ignore the selection, operate on the drawable, and not generate a floated layer. Ideally, if the tool is activated in this mode (perhaps CTRL+ALT being held down while the mouse is initially clicked), there should be no dialog presented and the operation take place when the mouse button is released (if the mode is activated after the tool is executed then pressing OK would be required). 5) Restore the option to use the space bar to move the current layer without any dialog being presented. This could readily be implemented by executing the Move Tool in the "ignore selection" mode.

-------- "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." -- Harry S. Truman

> The space bar feature is still present (as an option) and it has always

been implemented by switching to the Move tool temporarily.

Sven

Indeed, you are correct. I must have switched the "affect:" option of the Move tool during my experimentation and failed to restore it.

These are plug-ins (color2alpha, semiflatten, threshold_alpha) or tools (Rotate tool). Plug-ins automatically honor the selection,

And being able to make such a blanket statement should simplify things for the user. Unfortunately, without a way of differentiating between a plug-in or a core function in the menu system that knowledge is of no benefit to the user.

Nonetheless, of more importance than the Layer menu, it would be of great benefit to the user interface to be able to make such a general statement about tools (i.e., tools automatically honor the selection). Since there is only one tool that violates this at the current time, it would seem most reasonable to make that tool conform; especially since Move operations bear such a connection and similarity to Transform operations.

The current "Affect:" options of the Move Tool and all of the transform tools have the same tool hints: "Transform Layer", "Transform Selection", and "Transform Path". There is nothing in the user interface to suggest that the Move Tool does not honor selections while the other tools do. It seems to me that adding a "Transform Selection Contents" mode to the Move tool and a "Transform Layer" mode to the transform tools would provide an extremely desirable commonality while correcting an obvious inconsistency.

-------- "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." -- Harry S. Truman