On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 9:34 AM, Robert Bruyns wrote:

There are, of course, changes I'd like to see such as moving the magnification facility from the bottom of the image to the top.

The first thing I do upon firing up GIMP for the first time:

Open Edit->Keyboard Shortcuts.

Expand the 'View' list.

Scroll down to 'Zoom In' (view-zoom-in), click it.

Press the "=" key (this is next to the minus key on my keyboard, along the top row of numbers).

Press 'Close' button on the dialog.

After that I can use the -/= keys at the top of the keyboard to zoom in/out, and also the -/+ keys on the number pad to the right. Without the steps above the number pad works, but using the keys at the top, you must use SHIFT-= to zoom in and - to zoom out.

HTH, Chris

On 03/19/2012 12:20 PM, Chris Mohler wrote:

After that I can use the -/= keys at the top of the keyboard to zoom in/out, and also the -/+ keys on the number pad to the right. Without the steps above the number pad works, but using the keys at the top, you must use SHIFT-= to zoom in and - to zoom out.

Hey Chris,

By default, you can also use Control+mouse wheel to zoom in and out. That's my favorite...

:o)

Steve

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Steve Kinney wrote:

By default, you can also use Control+mouse wheel to zoom in and out.  That's my favorite...

Alas, no wheel on my wacom pen/tablet ;)

Chris

* Chris Mohler [03-19-12 12:51]:

Alas, no wheel on my wacom pen/tablet ;)

:^) I have a wheel-mouse, tackball w/wheel, and my bamboo tablet all configured.

btw, I would be interested in your wacom tablet button settings. tks,

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:24 PM, Patrick Shanahan wrote:

:^)   I have a wheel-mouse, tackball w/wheel, and my bamboo tablet all configured.

I used to have a mouse for my left hand, but this smaller desk doesn't really have the room. There is a wacom mouse you can set on the tablet, but it's pretty awful. I keep on the desk though, because certain programs (Filezilla, I'm looking at you) and some websites (looking at you Dreamhost) don't play well with the tablet.

btw, I would be interested in your wacom tablet button settings. tks,

Pretty much the defaults. It's an Intuos 3 - I use the two pen tips for tools. One side of the pen's rocker switch is pan, the other side is right-click. Once upon a time, I bound the buttons on the pad to do things, but haven't bothered on my current system since I hardly ever used them. I generally have the pressure sensitivity mapped to opacity for most things - but I toggle that on and off. I'm mainly retouching photos for use in print designs these days - not much painting or creation from scratch.

Chris

[posting back to the list - use reply-all intead of reply]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:46 AM, Robert Bruyns wrote:

OK Chris, thank you very much for your helpful advice given in your email below.

I do wonder though if you noticed that your method transfers image seizing from the cursor/pointer to the keyboard? And that means using both hands when needing to change image sizes.

Yeah - I work with both hands most of the time ;)

I'd like to continue using the cursor/pointer  as an image seizing interface though [without opening the "View" > "Zoom" pane sequence 'cos I'm lazy and given that my el cheapo laptop has only a touchpad facility [which I didn't mention before] most of the bottom series of keys, including "F" and "H" are normally within the range of my fingertips when my hands are lying on the laptop. I've therefore activated two of the closest unused keys, "comma" and "period" as the functions suggested by yourself. It just seems to me that all the other facilities are at the top of the screen and it would simply make sense to have the image size selection there too...

But what the hey - as I said its no biggie and the amazing versatility of the software [ would that MS, Apple, IBM and the various Linux applications were so flexible ] is what I find to be sooooo awesome. GIMP allows one to innovate to suit the specific requirements of whatever the task is.

I don't think I've duplicated any of my previous procedures. Each task has unique needs - it's a constant evolution to which I have yet to find limitations. Always a new method to achieve the same goal. With MS Paint I was pretty much pushing the boundaries as I evolved compensatory techniques to  accomplish my objectives but with GIMP I've yet to discover any serious inadequacies. Yes, I have often bumped my head on the "Eeek" section of the "Help" file but there is always another interesting way to do the job. P'haps the top two or three percent of users have grumbles but I'm also very sure they have the expertise to re-write any software with which they have issues.

But here I'm preaching to the converted! Too much unnecessary information...

Thanks again for your response.