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Navarro Parker
Inspiring
January 18, 2010
Answered

Annoying Undo behavior. Fixable?

  • January 18, 2010
  • 9 replies
  • 46467 views

Here's my biggest pet peeve about Photoshop:

I'm currently working on Layer A. I select Layer B in the layer palette, then select the move tool (v). I move the layer in XY (not layer order). I release the mouse.  I don't like where I put it, so I hit Undo. (Or step backward in the history)

Photoshop resets Layer B's position, but then it also reselects Layer A! No, stay with Layer B! I just want to move it again! This is especially annoying when I have 100+ layers and Layer A is at the top and Layer B is down at the bottom of the stack.  I have to scrollscrollscroll to get back down to Layer B.

Is there any way to "fix" this? Shouldn't the History Palette record what a layer selection as an step? To me, it seems Undo is really taking TWO steps back (reset layer XY position and reselect previously selected layer).

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Chris Cox

    Actually, we do that all the time (sitting for a while with professionals and watching them work).

    Also, most of our developers are serious Photoshop users (photographers, painters, illustrators, etc.).

    Photoshop isn't developed in a vacuum.

    And what you are describing is not a bug -- just something that some people understand and some people don't about how history and undos work.

    As far as I know, it has been there for as long as history and undo have existed in Photoshop.

    9 replies

    W
    wonderful_friend5EED
    Participant
    July 29, 2020

    Has this issue been fixed? I mean does photoshop offer undos using the nonlinear history and different ranges of undo as well? One for going to a previous major step in history and one for reversing the previous action.

    P
    PeteFalcon
    Inspiring
    November 23, 2019

    PFFFF. What an absolutely stupid response. This is a design flaw and needs to be corrected ASAP. Apparently you aren't a software professional. If you were you would understand that from a logical UX design standpoint this 'feature' is just wrong. Get it escalated and resolved ASAP if it hasn't already.

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 23, 2019

    I'm puzzled - you resurrect a 9 year old thread to talk about a design flaw which was fixed in CC2015?

     

    Dave

    P
    PeteFalcon
    Inspiring
    November 23, 2019

    The comment was a guy who apparently works for Adobe giving a totally unacceptable totally idiotic response to a totally valid question. And it had a green checkmark next to it saying "CORRECT ANSWER". Just couldn't help myself. Yes I saw that its a very old post. Note that I said it needs to be fixed if it hasn't already. Questions?

      D
      davetwo
      Inspiring
      January 12, 2011

      Am I missing something here? You mean command Z right? It doesn't revert to the previously selected layer on my system, and it's not something I remember causing problems in the past decade...

      F
      fruityth1ng-T0qBnM
      Participating Frequently
      January 14, 2011

      Nope, they mean "step backward" not undo/redo.

      And the bad thing is: our much appreciated engineers got it right in undo/redo, but somehow lost track in step forward / backward.

      Niles Ridgeman
      Niles Ridgeman
      Participating Frequently
      January 22, 2011

      .

      O
      olias32
      Participating Frequently
      January 11, 2011

      Seems a lot of people have this problem, and someone wrote a script to fix it.

      See here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1251347#post1251347

      Also, note you need to copy the script in the Photoshop/Presets/Scripts folder for it to show in the Scripts menu. Once it's there, you can assign any keyboard shortcut to it - CTRL+Z of course

      Photoschop CS3 and up i think.

      E
      ethanbm
      Participant
      August 20, 2010

      This behaviour changed in Photoshop 7, and it was incredibly irritating. Every time a new version comes out, I hope to God there's a new preference to set to remedy this.

      This seems like a pretty common workflow:

      1. Select a layer.

      2. Move it (for instance)

      3. Don't like the change, so you want it back exactly where it was, at which point the only thing to do is undo.

      4. Then go in to move it again, but now you're moving the wrong layer.

      at which point you have to

      6. undo that.

      7. find the layer you want again

      8. start over

      I have a hard time believing this doesn't happen to every photoshop user, but who knows, maybe it doesn't.

      Please at least consider making this a preference.

      As a back of the box feature for CS6, this would do more to make me consider upgrading than any amount of goofy 3D features or other nonsense.

        G
        Gyno-jiz
        Inspiring
        August 20, 2010

        Undo doesn't do what you're describing. Step backwards does. Switch the key commands for undo and step backwards. Problem solved.

          E
          ethanbm
          Participant
          August 20, 2010

          Excellent. Years of frustration put behind me.

          N
          Navarro ParkerAuthor
          Inspiring
          April 26, 2010

          Anyone know if CS5 "fixes" this behavior?

          L
          lambivello
          Participating Frequently
          May 13, 2010

          No! it did not!!!  ...im so tired.

            Niles Ridgeman
            Niles Ridgeman
            Participating Frequently
            February 6, 2010

            Absolutely agree.

            This is a super pain in the butt that has cost me all kinds of errors.

            Photoshop didn’t used to do that, but it was a “feature” on one of the upgrades (no idea when cs maybe?).

            You choose a layer (or layer mask), choose a brush, and choose a colour, realize you’ve got one of the three wrong, hit undo — bang you are back to where you started. It’s just too easy to not realize it’s gone back to the previous layer. Then you end up damaging that layer when you thought you were safely somewhere else.

            Drives me crazy!!!

            D
            DermotPower
            Participating Frequently
            February 8, 2010

            as they say 'don't get me started'. Did you ever wish that the tech-nerds who design the apps sat in a room with you for a few days and watched a professional work and complain?

            Dermot Power

            www.dermotpower.com

            http://dmoxia.blogspot.com/

            L
            Lojambo
            Participating Frequently
            March 5, 2010

            Actually, we do that all the time (sitting for a while with professionals and watching them work).

            Also, most of our developers are serious Photoshop users (photographers, painters, illustrators, etc.).

            Photoshop isn't developed in a vacuum.

            And what you are describing is not a bug -- just something that some people understand and some people don't about how history and undos work.

            As far as I know, it has been there for as long as history and undo have existed in Photoshop.


            And what you are describing is not a bug -- just something that some people understand and some people don't about how history and undos work.

            This is such a disappointing answer.

            Your loyal long-time users on this thread disagree with you. The fact you assume they are ignorant makes me doubt that Photoshop will ever again be the great product it once was.

            I know how it works and I hate it.

            I know there are two slightly different ways to get back to a time before my last action, with slightly different results, and I think it's user-hostile.

            I assume there is some internally-consistent justification for the decision behind this UX, but I don't care. I can't use a justification.

            The user experience is bad.

            All too often I see user conversations with Adobe which follow this form:

            User: The user experience is bad.

            Adobe: You're wrong, we did that on purpose, here's a complicated workaround.

            User: Make it easy, please.

            Adobe: Get used to it.

              D
              DermotPower
              Participating Frequently
              February 4, 2010

              I have the same problem with photoshop undoing a layer selection and it is incredibly irritating. I use undo not just to correct a mistake but as a way of drawing e.g I put down a stroke to see what it looks like then undo it and stroke again ...bit like a practice golf swing. Very often I will hit a layer, stroke, undo, stroke again and keep drawing only to discover that I have been drawing on the wrong layer because photoshop undo brought me back two steps.

                c.pfaffenbichler
                Community Expert
                c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                January 18, 2010

                There has quite recently been a (or maybe »another«) Feature Request regarding this, so You could post there to increase the request’s »importance«.

                M
                Michael_L_Hale
                Inspiring
                January 18, 2010

                There has been a lot to debate about this. 'Undo' and 'Step Back' are not the same thing. Undo will undo the move without changing the layer selection. Step Back may change the layer selection if the active layer is changed after the history state was created.

                Selecting a layer does not create a history state. You could change layers a dozen times and as long as you don't do anything other that select layers no additional history states will be created.

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