I need to press Alt-Backspace two times in a row to get it to fill foreground color after updating to CC 2018 this morning. Is there a setting change I need to make or is this a bug? Thanks for a quick reply. This is a big part of my job as a comic book colorist and driving me nuts today.
Pete.Green • Adobe Employee, Nov 14, 2017Nov 14, 2017
This should be resolved in the 19.0.1 update released last night. Please update Photoshop using the Creative Cloud desktop app, and let us know if it's fixed for you!
Wow, in the time I wrote that, a number of other posts came up. I'd like to reply to a couple of you, in the interest of being transparent, informative, and just to say "thank you." Let's see, so as not to be disjointed...
Ursula, thank you and you are correct. This bug seems to be tied to the timing of when you hit the ALT key compared to other key strokes. If it's NOT the first key and you have another modifier, it will NOT happen. Moreover, I do not get this all the time on my Win10 machine but it does happen on all versions of Windows. 8-(
Josh, you are correct. Not all users have the same workflow. Generally, I don't fill a whole layer, so it's not something would regularly test. Similarly, testing the whole app takes a remarkably long time. <please read this next sentence with a jovial, playful voice in mind>I'd love you to join the prerelease team and put your money where your mouth is!8-) Seriously, would you want to try this out for yourself? I know it sounds really easy, but I honestly believe you'd see that there are literally thousands of workflows out there and one persons critical path is another persons "what, you can DO that? Why would you even WANT to do that?" As for the Leading bug you mentioned, that's another one of the major issues we're working on. It's tied to the display of ONLY transformed type and the failure came out of left field (more like Pluto!) and was broken at the 11th hour before shipping -- the math isn't being done right due to a change to another widget.
Thank you, Mastey; I'll follow up with you via email.
And John, I so wish that this could be automated! We tried a few years back, but the problem is that actual keystrokes are the only solid way to test. 8-( You should've seen the drama when we added all the Eastern European keyboard layouts...! =8-O
David, feel free to message me with details. As long as you understand that I only run CC at work... philosophically, I am against the concept of subscription-only software and I choose to run with my permanent license of CS5 on my personal computers for my own projects and my own design work. But as far as my day job goes... if I can run beta/pre-release versions alongside stable mainstream releases, then sure, I can test when I can.
I absolutely believe that Adobe did not deliberately release this version knowing of the bug. And that is exactly the problem.
It sounds from your testing descriptions that Adobe is still doing manual testing of each release. Photoshop is a behemoth application, used in literally millions of different ways by millions of different people. As you correctly point out, there is no way possible for humans to test all of the functionality in every release.
Consequently, it's very hard to believe that Adobe has not implemented extensive test automation. Having been a software manager for over 30 years, to the VP level, it's obvious to me that that is what is needed here. As an example, it would be extremely easy to develop software to inject every possible keyboard input; single keys, double keys, holding each key down for a specific amount of time before the next key is pressed, in any combination, order, etc., etc. and verifying correct Photoshop behavior. Clearly this level of testing is not possible for a human, but is very easy for a program written to test Photoshop (and incidentally, every other Adobe app with keyboard input).
Test automation is difficult and expensive to implement the first time. But it has been proven over and over to save significant costs in the long run. There is an old software adage that in my experience rings quite true... It is at least 10 times more expensive to fix a bug found by customers after release as it is to fix it before release. Not to mention the loss of customer satisfaction and damage to user-base good will that this kind of issue creates. The key is knowing about the bug so you have the opportunity to fix it.
This problem does not lie with the individual developers or testers. I have no doubt that every one of them is doing the best they can in the time allotted. This is an Adobe management problem.
I think one of us colorists definitely needs to be on some sort of pre-release testing team. Even though a lot of our workflows differ, there's a huge overlap of essential tools and shortcuts we all rely upon hundreds of times a day, and, like Marissa, this particular issue is really causing me a lot of grief and lost time.
I need to press Alt-Backspace two times in a row to get it to fill foreground color after updating to CC 2018 this morning. Is there a setting change I need to make or is this a bug? Thanks for a quick reply. This is a big part of my job as a comic book colorist and driving me nuts today.
If you'd like to join our prerelease program, we'd love to have you. Motivated people with real world workflows have a much needed place on prerelease. Just please look at the builds...8-)
Ping me here or email me directly at david <dot> mohr <at> adobe [DOT] com and I'll happily hook you up!
Thanks for your feedback and your understanding. One of the reasons I do so much work on the forums is to specifically hear what our users are saying and bring that back to the team. I mean, Agile development is based on iterative feedback and evaluation, right?
While it is true that we do manual testing, there's actually a huge and elaborate suite of automated tests each of us have written as well. Such scripting is actually a requirement for every new feature. Heck, no build is even released to QE until it's passed a fairly thorough automated smoke-test. My international file I/O script is a bit of a behemoth, for instance... Unfortunately, certain bugs seem to be only triggerable via actual use -- scripting does not reveal the problem. Keyboard shortcuts is one of those. I totally agree with you that automation is awesome and we try to use scripting to validate everything we can. But there are, unfortunately, limits to what it can uncover despite multiple, high-level inquiries into this specific topic. 8-(
I've found that in use with other modifier keys, Alt must be pressed last before pressing whatever letter key is required. Ex: For multiple Undos I must press Ctrl before Alt, then press Z. If I do that, it always works.
(I usually press Ctrl-Alt more or less simultaneously, and I'm finding out that I hit Alt first at least 75 percent of the time. Moomph.)
There was a mention of the Windows Fall Creators Update. I have not yet installed that update.
is it this "very near future" already? i keep coming across new bugs, and any workaround like running APassistant is not an option on my workstation, thanks to company policy.
Unfortunately, you cannot set the order of the keys in the wacom shortcuts, neither there is a workaround when alt in the only key involved in the shortcut (i.e. alt + Backspace).
guys - for me it's not only the clt backspace. I experience a lot of shortcut problems. [ ] for resizing brushes doesn't work (well - actually it starts working after a few attempts). What i found is that when i work with a Brush, change to Eraser and try to resize using [ ] - the tool reverts back to my previous tool (Brush). It is the same. when changing from eraser to Brush. So it seems that the modifier shortcuts are stuck on a previously selected tool. When i press the tool shortcut twice (eg. BB), and then try to resize, the [] shortcuts work.
Maciej, do you by any chance have Pixel Squid extension installed? I had the same issue with tools switching back and forth and it was their script to blame
Ah, so I'm not the only one with this issue then. Actually you don't have to remove the whole extension, turning off events in File -> Scripts -> Script Events Manager... window is enough. I already wrote to Pixel Squid guys about this, hope they'll fix this soon.
I've gone back to using Photoshop CC 2017 and will continue to do so until the problems are fixed. Would be nice to have brush smoothing but alas we can't have everything (yet). I understand that there are a number of things to test each time you roll out a new version, but surely a command as fundamental as Alt+Backspace should be at the top of the list?!
David, it is being looked into as we speak. but if you look at all of the keyboard combinations available in PS you' realize it to be a daunting task. In the meantime there is a work around which is to hit backspace twice. alt+backspace+backspace
This really should be fixed by now. I understand 2018 was a fairly substantial update, but I also don't buy the response above from David about workflows. Sure if it's an obscure command that is occasionally used but the alt key is used considerably by the default keyboard shortcuts and the majority are now broken. Workarounds are not ideal because you are retraining muscle memory that when fixed will have to revert back. Many simply don't have time to revert to previous versions reinstall settings layouts etc (since the sync feature was taken away as well, can take a while depending on how much customization has been made).
Hotfixes for vital issues like this should be sooner, (if games can be launched then patched on day 1 or 2 why can't the CC suite?) I pay over £600 per year for the suite, CC is not cheap and your community of customers are losing time and revenue by working with broken software. May seem pedantic but seconds over a day become minutes and hours over weeks/months.
There was a time when Adobe didn't have much competition for this field but that has changed. I can already see myself working away from the program to competitors such as Affinity/Sketchbook/Pro Create etc. This debacle is only going to push other customers in the same direction.
Whilst I had no issues with CC as a premise, Adobe still seems to have the same monopolistic attitude that end users will have to put up with these problems. Sorry but they won't.
If it's not fixed within the week I'll be sending an official complaint, and requesting compensation (as many other decent companies offer when these things arise).
Why wait? Call Adobe today and demand money back on your CC subscription. You're paying for broken software. Thats simply not right. I'm calling them today myself.
John, I appreciate you trying to be helpful by providing workarounds, but trying to pacify people's agitation can be equally as frustrating as the bugs themselves. This is one of many major bugs in the update. If people do not voice their displeasure and continue to do so until the bugs are fixed, it sends out the message that it's ok to release broken software and take as long as they want to correct the issues. This is not a video game, this is a professional tool that many of us rely on to make a living and support our families. The "daunting" task is not being tackled by a single programmer working out of his basement, this is a mega corporation we're talking about that charges (perhaps rightfully so) a premium price to have the best software the industry has to offer. I encourage you and others to not settle for mediocre service or a business model that seems to bypass real world testing of core components in order to push out new (and arguably marginally useful) features.
O' believe me. If I find a bug, I find out everything I can and post it to the techs right way and also tell the person to keep complaining until it's fixed. My one complaint to adobe is to make the option to keep prior versions of PS and LR the default rather than an option. That way users can still accomplish their work while we debug the latest version even though they can reinstall it.
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