Can anyone tell me how to get my toolbox to appear when I launch GIMP?

Somehow, I clicked on something that apparently told GIMP not to display my toolbox when it starts up on my desktop machine. (That machine is running Windows XP SP3 and my GIMP version is 2.8.2). Presently, when I open GIMP, I only get the main edit screen with the File, Edit, Select, View, Image, Layer, Colors, Tools, Filters, Windows, Help options but no toolbox. I can click on Windows/New Toolbox but even then I only get a long slender toolbox with the various selection tools in it but if I click on the Fill tool, for example, I don't get the supporting menu which lets me choose the foreground and background colors.

How do I get back to where I'm getting the toolbox automatically upon opening GIMP and the supporting dialogs also appear when you click on the relevant tool?

Rhino

On 2014-03-03 10:01 PM, Chris Mohler wrote:

On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 6:05 PM, Reinhardt Christiansen wrote:

How do I get back to where I'm getting the toolbox automatically upon opening GIMP and the supporting dialogs also appear when you click on the relevant tool?

1 - the key will toggle visibility of your toolbox and the dockable dialogs.

2 - look under Windows->Dockable Dialogs. You will find the tool options, brushes etc. there. Depending on how long ago you closed them, you may find them under Windows->Recently Closed Docks.

3 - you might want to try Single Window Mode. This is also under the main 'Windows' menu. This makes all the tools and dockables into one solid window, instead of all the little floating windows.

I'm sorry but I'm not getting the behaviour you're describing. When I launched GIMP and tried the Tab key, nothing happened. I did find the tool options, brushes, etc. under Dockable Dialogs. Single Window Mode did NOT put the dockables together with the tools all in one window; I got the tools but not the dockable dialogs. (I was able to drag individual dockable dialogs over to the area under the tools but I still didn't see where I could choose between background, foreground and pattern for the Paint tool.

So I uninstalled GIMP 2.8.2 and installed 2.8.10 - and found that it looks exactly the same thing as it did before the uninstall/reinstall. What is the deal here? Has this become the way these things will appear going forward? Maybe I didn't click on something to cause this after all and the problem began when I installed GIMP 2.8.x. I've forgotten now as it was several months ago and I don't use GIMP that frequently.

If this is the way it is going to be and I can't go back to the old way, how on earth do I choose a pattern for the Paint dialog, rather than a foreground or background color? That's far from the only thing I want to be able to do but it's certainly one of the things that I don't know how to do in this new approach. And how do I remove one of the dockable dialogs from the area underneath the selection tools? I can add one easily enough but don't see any way to remove one that I don't really need. Oh, hold on, I think I got it. If I click on the tiny "Configure this tab" icon, I can detach the tab, then close it. But I can't delete the last tab and I can't re-add the dock with the other tabs; I have to put them in a new dialog....

This is NOT making my day, at least not in a good way. This is really unintuitive. I never had any problems with the old way of doing things; it was simple and straight-forward. Once again, developers go ahead and do something that THEY think is an improvement but don't let happy users keep the old way that suited them.... Argggghhhh!

Let me emphasize that my issue is not with Chris who tried to help but with whoever decided to change the old way of doing things and consequently made something tedious and mysterious out of something that had been straight-forward.

Rhino

Hello Gunold,

Thank you for the link but I'm afraid my German is not terribly good. I've lived in Canada all my life, not Germany; my mother describes my German with the word "Deutschverderber" ;-)

I think I got the essence of the video though so I'll try to figure out the rest by imitating what I saw there.

Nochmal, vielen Dank! (Again, many thanks.)

-- Reinhardt

On 2014-03-04 1:59 AM, Gunold Brunbauer wrote:

Hello Reinhardt,
because I think that you can understand german language I would like to recommend you this link:
http://www.xn--gimp-fr-kinder-lsb.de/test3/index.php/component/content/article/78-buch/111-so-macht-man-gimp-anfaenger-sicher

You will find a video to show you how you can make the GIMP GUI good for beginners.
HTH,
Gunold

Am 04.03.2014 04:01, schrieb Chris Mohler:

On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 6:05 PM, Reinhardt Christiansen wrote:

How do I get back to where I'm getting the toolbox automatically upon opening GIMP and the supporting dialogs also appear when you click on the
relevant tool?

1 - the key will toggle visibility of your toolbox and the dockable dialogs.

2 - look under Windows->Dockable Dialogs. You will find the tool options, brushes etc. there. Depending on how long ago you closed them, you may find them under Windows->Recently Closed Docks.

3 - you might want to try Single Window Mode. This is also under the main 'Windows' menu. This makes all the tools and dockables into one solid window, instead of all the little floating windows.

HTH, Chris
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Reinhardt