PaintShopPro 2020 ~ Why not to Upgrade

[JoeB]

I actually hate using keyboard shortcuts as I have to look at the keyboard each time and that involves taking my eyes off the screen so it reduces my productivity..

I have been saying that for as long as I can remember when people post about issues with shortcut keys. Most of the tools within PSP need my hand on the mouse to do everything from using brushes, etc to making selections. Having to take my hand off the mouse and my eyes off the screen just to invoke some tool is a real interruption to my workflow when it's much faster to just move the mouse (which is already in my hand) to a button on a customized toolbar, boundscript button or customized menu item to achieve the same goal with barely losing focus on the image on which I am working. Having to use two tools (mouse and keyboard) to achieve what one tool can do quickly and efficiently (just the mouse) makes a lot more sense to me. But of course you first have to customize your workspace with the stuff you know you use regularly and want to have immediately to hand.

[Linda Lou]

@hartpaul, thank you for the details. I think I can do that now. I'm going to print your instructions for the next time when I need to create perspective.

[Nrde]

I actually hate using keyboard shortcuts as I have to look at the keyboard each time and that involves taking my eyes off the screen so it reduces my productivity..

You only need one hand on the mouse, most of the keyboard command can be operated with one hands fingers. Alt, ctrl etc. modifiers are quick to be made into your muscle memory. Learning to type without looking at the keyboard must be one of the most productivity enhancing skills you can have.

[JoeB]

I actually hate using keyboard shortcuts as I have to look at the keyboard each time and that involves taking my eyes off the screen so it reduces my productivity..

You only need one hand on the mouse, most of the keyboard command can be operated with one hands fingers. Alt, ctrl etc. modifiers are quick to be made into your muscle memory. Learning to type without looking at the keyboard must be one of the most productivity enhancing skills you can have.

I can type without looking at the keyboard. I learned how to touch type in high school more 50 years ago and am a very good touch typer if I do say so myself, having typed constantly through university doing papers, later writing articles and other stuff, and then pretty constant computer use since the eighties. However, when mousing on my image to do stuff I do not keep my other (right) hand on the keyboard. I use it for things like drinking my coffee, having a smoke, or just resting it on the desk rather than keeping it still and in initial starting position on the "J" key (I'm a left handed mouser).

So it's not so automatic for my right hand to immediately rest in starting position when placing it on the keyboard again. And I would find it extremely awkward to have to move that hand across my body to access the shortcut keys on the left side of the keyboard to access shortcut keys on the left. Even more awkward when my thumb and two fingers of the right hand would also have to immediately land (from across my body) on the shift or control keys plus 2 other keys for various combos that require 3 keys.

When I learned touch typing it took quite a long time to get proficient. No, muscle memory is not that fast for touch typing or else everyone would be touch typing instead of the many who still hunt-and-peck. And learning touch typing only requires one finger to press one key at a time. One must have exceptional muscle memory to be able to not only remember all of the different key combos as well as train those two or three fingers to automatically fall on the proper key combinations, particularly when your hand isn't starting on the keyboard to start with and when you often have to cross your body with the hand to access the keys. And to prevent body crossing, of course, requires releasing the mouse - the exact thing that interrupts the usual workflow. However, YMMV.

[Nrde]

No, muscle memory is not that fast for touch typing or else everyone would be touch typing instead of the many who still hunt-and-peck. And learning touch typing only requires one finger to press one key at a time. One must have exceptional muscle memory to be able to not only remember all of the different key combos as well as train those two or three fingers to automatically fall on the proper key combinations, particularly when your hand isn't starting on the keyboard to start with and when you often have to cross your body with the hand to access the keys. And to prevent body crossing, of course, requires releasing the mouse - the exact thing that interrupts the usual workflow. However, YMMV.

I thought it was the mouse cursor jumping around the screen hunting buttons and menus that interrupts my workflow. But yea my mileage varies, ctrl-c,-v, -a, -d, -z, alt and so forth are automatic for me, and I don't even use PSP that much.

[hartpaul]

I can keep my left hand near the Enter, Shift and Control keys near the right hand side of the keyboard and then use the mouse with the right hand .
if you have to jump the mouse around the screen hunting buttons I find it easier to make a customised floating tool bar with my most used items on it so there is not much hunting around.
The Enter key is important as so often pressing it conmfirms an action or adjustment and I can do that without having to look at the keyboard.
I went through tertiary education when typewriters and computers were not so accessible (1965) and so all assignments were done in longhand so never had the inclination to learn to touch type, my typing now is done with two / three fingers - index of left hand and middle of right hand (I have to give the index finger a bit of a rest on that side as that is the mouse button ) and left thumb or little finger for space bar.

[JoeB]

Yep, in 1965 computers weren't available for sure! But we had typewriting in class in the early 60's and I was one of only a very few males in a typing class of many females for two years. And I even had a bit of a chance to brush up on my typing when I joined the Air Force. I completed basic at age 18 and, while waiting deployment to a working radar station, my typing skills got me assigned to a typing pool typing draft training manuals instead of having to do other less attractive chores like grounds cleanup, barracks detail, etc. Made me grateful I had taken the typing classes! I bought my own first typewriter - an electric of all things - when I was in my mid twenties after my discharge. Probably cost at least the equivalent of computer today!

[jimkirk363]

Ive bought it because it give me an offer to uograde PSP 2020 Ultimate and Corel Videostudio 2019 all for £53.99.