How do you zoom in and out in free transfrom mode without deselecting and placing transform?

[Guest]

I am another dissatisfied customer with Adobe's complete disregard for its long term user base. Stop me if you heard this before, for over two decades I have used photoshop daily for my work and when Adobe decided to go to ransomware with their business model (Adobe Cloud) not only did they show how horribly greedy they are they also removed several features that an entire generation of users were use to using they also needlessly changed the behavior of certain tools and functions.

One of these functions is the ability to zoom in and out while in the free transform mode. I use to be able to just go down the lower left hand corner and manually type the amount of magnification without it deselecting and placing the image. Now thanks to Adobe's brilliant new "designers" clicking anything deselects the transform and places it. Thanks. What a jerk move. And now that I am using this poorly designed new version I have a long list of instances where this company has just needly removed features and functions because "progress."

I really hope this company goes belly up. I use to think of Adobe as a friend now I feel the pain of someone who has been betrayed by a friend and stabbed in the back.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

One of these functions is the ability to zoom in and out while in the free transform mode. I use to be able to just go down the lower left hand corner and manually type the amount of magnification without it deselecting and placing the image.

I can zoom in and out in that manner while transforming (of course entering a specific number to zoom seems inefficient to say the least). 

That the behaviour is different on Windows seems possible, though not exactly likely; hopefully some other Windows-user can chime in. 

Aside from that:

Your manners seem problematic and mentioning just how long you have been using Photoshop seems unlikely to impress anyone here in a positive sense. 

[Guest]

Hey thanks for being smug and criticizing my post while simultaneously offering no solution.

The disdain I have for this current product and service is not a personal attack and comes from a very real place of frustration and disatisfaction that many others share. Your incendiary remark at how I mentioned I have been using products by this company for many years was not only unnecessary it was oblivious to the obvious intention. Clearly I stated that as a precusor to establish that I do have an extensive history using previous versions of this program and that the recent changes are horrible and prevent me from doing things with it that I have done for years. I am not a child who is looking to "impress" folks. I am voicing a complaint about a broken product and looking for answers.

And the fact that a community "expert" takes this advisarial approach while offering no solution further shows the lack of appreciation or concern Adobe has for customers. I would be more than happy to pay a subsciption and patron a service that offers continual improvements. I am not finding that here.

What I am finding are sycophant know it alls that know nothing, but are looking to "impress" people with their bloated status from up votes and useless community interations.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I stated that I cannot reproduce the issue so I can naturally not solve it. 

But I wonder why you would even utilize this manner of zooming instead of straight up keyboard shortcuts; please elaborate what the advantage is in your workflow. 

What I am finding are sycophant know it alls that know nothing, but are looking to "impress" people with their bloated status from up votes and useless community interations.

You don’t seem to be familiar with these Fora so maybe cut back on the attitude. 

Also you seemed to literally accuse Adobe of criminal conduct (»ransomware«) in your original post so again: Please cut back on the attitude.

[Guest]

Let it go, "community expert." Folks having a negative criticism of a service or product is normal. Not every criticism is going to be postive, just as, not every negative criticism is an attack. It's not personal. These people are frustrated with a product not working right for them and most of the time just want that pain to be acknowledged. One of the worst things you can do is be an unapoligetic indignant zealot who makes it personal. Rather than diffuse the situation, you exacerbated things and keep making demands and talking down to me. You sir are the one that really needs to re-evaluate your manners and approach to people. If you aren't capable of apologizing please have the good grace to just keep quiet.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Let it go, "community expert." Folks having a negative criticism of a service or product is normal.

Insolence is not equal to criticism.  

Your choice of words seems quite far removed from propriety so I prefer not to take instructions on manners from you. 

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

What's wrong with ctrl + and ctrl - ?

Or, if you need an exact zoom ratio, the Navigator panel? This is what the Navigator panel is for.

Neither will commit any transforms.

[Guest]

Thank you, D Fosse. This works wonderfully.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I didn’t even bother writing those shortcuts up when I referred to »straight up keyboard shortcuts« because, quite frankly, I would not have expected a Photoshop-user of 20 years to be unfamiliar with them. 

[Conrad C · Accepted solution]

I can reproduce the problem, so it seems like a legitimate bug to report in the Bugs section of this community. Note that if a bug is acknowledged by Adobe, they track it there, and any that get fixed are publicly reported as such, with a link back to the report in the Bugs section, in each version’s release notes. So they’re willing to be publicly accountable.

Although I can reproduce the problem, so it really does seem to exist, it’s possible it isn’t discussed here much because many users probably haven’t noticed if they mostly use the other methods of zooming. This is not a criticism of how you work, it’s just that there are so many alternatives that are probably used a lot more. For example, all the View menu magnification commands still work in Free Transform, as do their keyboard shortcuts. So if someone habitually uses a keyboard shortcut such as for the 100%, Fit, Zoom In, or Zoom Out commands on the View menu, all of those commands and shortcuts still work in Free Transform. Clicking or dragging the Zoom tool still works in Free Transform. Or if they use the interactive Scrubby Zoom keyboard shortcut (my personal favorite), that still works in Free Transform.

It seems like the method of typing a zoom percentage into the status bar is the only zoom method that’s broken in Free Transform, since all the other zoom methods still work there. It should work, so you are right to be unhappy that it isn’t working. It’s worth submitting a bug report for that, because that has a much better chance of getting a resolution than unhappy posts.

[D Fosse]

Now thanks to Adobe's brilliant new "designers" clicking anything deselects the transform and places it.

By @Deleted User

Auto commit is a feature, not a bug. I can't recall when it was implemented, but I'm sure it was by popular request. Can't please them all, can you.

[Conrad C]

Yes, auto commit is a good addition, people can now deselect in Photoshop as easily as they do in vector-based applications such as Illustrator and InDesign where they are used to clicking away from objects to deselect them. But auto commit is supposed to happen mostly when clicking within the document area, not outside it. For example, clicking in a field in the options bar doesn’t escape Free Transform, and using View menu magnification commands and shortcuts don’t escape Free Transform, but clicking in the status bar field to change magnification does escape Free Transform. That does seem inconsistent, so that’s where it looks like there might be a bug.

[D Fosse]

Right. It should only work inside the image area, not outside it.

I'm so hard-wired to ctrl+ and ctrl- that I have difficulty seeing any other way to do it. It's true that limits you to the fixed cache ratios, but with the special exception of 100%, ctrl 1, I'm fine with "a little smaller" and "a little bigger". I don't need specific odd ratios. But maybe someone does.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I think even for specific other magnifications one could create Scripts and assign shortcuts to those and that might be more efficient than typing the zoom levels – provided there is a limited number of necessary zoom percentages. 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Seems unlikely, but does the visibility of the rulers make any difference? 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Now thanks to Adobe's brilliant new "designers" clicking anything deselects the transform and places it.

By @Deleted User

Auto commit is a feature, not a bug. I can't recall when it was implemented, but I'm sure it was by popular request. Can't please them all, can you.

By @D Fosse

The behaviour seems to be different on Mac; I can select the Zoom numbers and enter a new number without commiting the transformation. 

[Conrad C]

It’s on my Mac that I’m able to reproduce it. I click on the status bar magnification percentage and it exits Free Transform mode.

That Navigator panel workaround is a great idea, though. I don’t use Navigator much, so I kind of forgot you can type a magnification into there too.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

It’s on my Mac that I’m able to reproduce it. I click on the status bar magnification percentage and it exits Free Transform mode.

That’s strange, it works for me on Mac (see screen recording in the first post). 

[PECourtejoie · Accepted solution]

@c.pfaffenbichler  Could overscroll be a paramater?
@Deleted User I understand that it is not fun to encounter bugs, and one can be frustrated, and I think that now that you've been provided seveal solutions and venues (did you create a bug thread?) it is time to relax, please re-read the entire exchange and the terms used by everyone, is there really a need to be so upset? Of the dozen methods to zoom, only one, one of the most convoluted (small target, needs mouse and keyboard) is not working on one platform, but indeed, it is a bug, as @Conrad C stated.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

@c.pfaffenbichler  Could overscroll be a paramater?

Good one! That’s it (at least here)! 

With »Overscroll« unckecked the tarnsformation is committed when clicking the number, with »Overscroll« checked the text can be selected and edited. 

[PECourtejoie]

We need a A-team reaction gif. I love when a plan...