Undo button missing

@webflow @thesergie
I am not liking these changes… It doesn’t seem to be logical changes. I could understand if there was screen space/real estate issues. I don’t see those as motivations for these changes. If you look at usage stats, I bet the undo button was one of the most use buttons in the system! I also used it as an indicator to see if there were changes on the page. I would guess the up/down buttons on values where runners up. These are a set back… Change for the sake of change?

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I expected the undo buttons to be missing after reading the change log. I immediately wondered though how I would know if I undid every new change. Sometimes when experimenting I will reload the designer page, do my changes and if I’m not happy I’ll hit ctrl+z until the undo arrow turns grey signifying all changes have been undone.

I do miss that visual. I never did actually press the undo buttons physically, but it was a nice indicator. Maybe replace them with a classy unobtrusive icon that changes color if undo history has been cleared.

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I agree, I probably used ctrl-z and may not have been pressing the button…but why remove the ability. Just keep it as is…if you are occupying the space with a change indicator…why not just keep it as is. Also, the key sequence for redo isn’t obvious to me as I would use ctrl-y…so will miss that button for sure.

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In addition: If you make any change, the green circle with check-mark changes to a grey circle with dots. That indicates one or more changes were made. However, if you back out all of your changes (ctrl-z till hearts content), that grey circle will not change back to green with check-mark and if you try to navigate off the page the ui will remind you to save your changes (that don’t exist). This Ui is broken in this area of ‘change control’.

So, really there are two deficiencies -

  1. Broken change indicator in UI / not sync’d with save indicator
  2. No point and click of undo-redo (which is very popular in UI design) in editor
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Hey everyone, thanks for providing your feedback! After talking it over with the team we decided to bring the undo/redo buttons back to the top panel (should be live soon). We want to keep this workflow available since so many of you depend on it. From our internal user testing we knew the change would take some getting used to, but it was hard to know what the actual impact would be for everyone that uses Webflow. We’ll work on improving our testing methods so that we can gauge impact, especially for changes like this that remove previous functionality. Thanks again for your passion to make Webflow awesome! :heart:

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Undo/re-do buttons
Thanks @thesergie for the undo and redo buttons back. I DO use the CMD+Z and CMD+Shift+Z all the time instead of the buttons – BUT every time I do so I refer the the Re-do button that gives me visual feedback when:

• my first undo was successful
• I’ve reached the last undo or redo
• to see whether there is anything to undo or re-do at all

So, even for those who use these shortcuts these are so useful. How else would you get all these three types visual prompts covered?

Increments buttons
I will miss them. The way I work, I have my right hand on the mouse most of the time. Shortcuts I generally operate with my left hand. I’ve used the arrow buttons all the time without much trouble. Having them gone means I now have to let go of the mouse and take time to find the right buttons on the keybord. Not an improvement at all to me.

I work in Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign a lot. These have increment buttons, which I use, and this is the pattern that I as a designer am familar with.

What would help me with these buttons gone, I guess, would be the ability to click+hold and drag from a field, just like you can do in Adobe Animate. That would allow me to not have to let go of the mouse all the time.

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Also to say @thesergie : for changes like this you should give a notification and proper explanation when doing so. This would re-assure people and make them feel less at the merci of ‘random’ changes to the system.

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What about adding an Expert mode for all the skilled users that know a bit about shortcuts and stuff. So you can declutter the interface without annoying all the designer people that love to use their mouse to click on UI buttons :slight_smile:

Is there some kind of “Early Adopter Program” or A/B split testing before rolling out new features? It feels a little awkward lately that changes happen overnight without further notice and when I check the forum I see a lot of other people getting confused :frowning:

Change is fine, but please add a little more transparency so we can expect things to happen!

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I very much agree with all the above, especially with @Revolution.
I also second @rayjnorris that weekend surprises are not good… although the recent one’s were not all Webflow’s fault, we need to be able to rely on you guys, especially when paying for Business hosting.

However, kudos to @thesergie for listening to your customers and restoring the undo button. It’s a small change but it’s always good to see you’re listening.

Finally, I’m a bit confused to see those UI updates happening and some of the priorities on the Wishlist still dragging behind… Looks like your agile dev system is not aligned with your customer’s priorities. Can I suggest that for some updates, you maybe send a quick poll out for prioritisation?
This community is very active, no doubt this extra step will not slow your process down.

Peace

@thesergie I’m with @spirelli on this. Right hand on the mouse and left hand on the left side of the keyboard. I’ll give the keyboard increment a go but I don’t think it will be as smooth of a workflow as clicking the buttons with the mouse while holding shift for 10px increments.

How about what @Marci said[quote=“Marci, post:33, topic:40007”]
What about adding an Expert mode for all the skilled users that know a bit about shortcuts and stuff. So you can declutter the interface without annoying all the designer people that love to use their mouse to click on UI buttons :slight_smile:
[/quote]

The reality is that you have lots of different users who use the designer differently - only slightly but certain changes make a real difference to some people’s efficiency and flow. Yes, I’m all for streamlining how we use it and forcing some changes upon us users but lots of us clearly like those buttons and use them all the time.

Maybe there could be a users interface options panel which opens up from the bottom left - where “hide elements edges” and those toggle buttons are. It could allow users toggle visual elements such as the undo buttons and the increment buttons on/off as well as any other visual elements in the future.

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@thesergie @webflow @cyberdave @PixelGeek

I will always support webflow as I think what you have is a great tool and the support staff are the friendliest team, but I have to ask 1 question.

Why dont you talk to your community (us)? if you would of made a thread about these changes before they was live you would of seen they would be a bad idea. I just cant get my head around why you never communicate with us? do you not like us? :frowning:

Instead you make these changes and upset your community and make others think twice about webflow.

Come on guys.

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I 100% agree, the removing of the increment buttons is a major mistake, I cannot believe how much harder it now is the make adjustments to size settings.

Using the arrows is/was something I did all day long, I now have to take my hand off my mouse, and move it to the keyboard, or move my left hand across the keyboard, both actions are an absolute pain!

I wouldn’t mind if the arrows actually took up a lot of room, or were really distracting, or of no use, but none of those statements are true.

Put them back!
Graham

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This is my main complaint of Webflow. The weekend surprises have become destructive to my workflow and relationship with Webflow. Continued weekend surprises that are not fully baked and are harmful to workflow will drive me to explore Webflow alternatives. This system has much potential, and should have at the $500 yr I am paying, but these avoidable ‘issues’ are becoming tiresome.

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Time for System Preferences panel??? I just want to get this out there. I think that it may be time to consider offering a System Preferences panel so that we can tailor the Designer to our preferred UI / Workflow. Allow this for paying customers only with ‘named template’ defaults such as ‘Expert’. Very similar to other systems I use for development. Just something to consider.

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I do prefer to use the keyboard to change values. It seems more precise than trying to make the adjustments with a mouse. But I would like to see VW and VH options in the drop down selectors.

I don’t mind the value arrows, but @webflow, I second @russellspencer that the VW and VH options need to be added.

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And what about number inputs arrows? Could you please roll them back too?

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I do miss the incremental up/down arrow on the inputs. The keyboard up/down is okay as a work around but requires me to click in the field then use the keyboard which is not as quick as just clicking directly on the arrows (I never, ever had problems with ‘accuracy’ as some have suggested!).

Incremental arrows are a very common feature for designers used to Adobe and other popular design tools – they’re a good option to use when trying out sizes by eye – and as webflow is visual design-orientated tool I think removing them is counter-productive.

If webflow’s goal is to tidy up the visual clutter of the UI, what about adopting what ‘Sketch’ does (a popular UI design tool for mac for those who don’t know):

Best of both worlds!

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Funny thing about this one is I had no idea the keyboard arrows could be used for incremental adjustments until the removed the UI arrows. I prefer the keyboard now :slight_smile:

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