[MU4 Issue] X and Y offset values cannot be managed separately when multiple items are selected

[oktophonie]

Describe the bug
Bear with me on this one...

If I select two items and they have the same X and Y offset, then those values will be shown in the Appearance popup, as one might expect:

Let's say I change the X offset of one of these items:

Now, if I select the two items, the X and Y boxes both show "--", which normally indicates 'there are multiple values':

This is technically only true for the X offset, because the Y offset is the same for both. It would, therefore, be nice that even if only one of the values is consistent for all the selected items, then this value be displayed.

The real problem, though, is that it's impossible in this situation to apply the same X or Y offset to all the selected items at once (which is not a particularly unusual thing to want to do; and to have to do it for a whole load of items one by one is very tedious), without affecting the other offset. For example:

Let's say I wanted to set the Y offset of both the selected items to 3, but preserve the different X offsets that each one has. The first oddness is that when I select the value in the box it changes from '--' to '0':

And if I then change this value to 3, it will apply a Y offset of 3 to both items as expected, but also will reset the X offset of all the items to 0!

Expected behaviour
Ideally,

• when multiple items are selected, if all items have the same X offset, or the same Y offset, then this value should be shown in the box
• editing such a value should affect only that offset (X or Y), and have no influence on the other one, for any of the selected items.

Platform information

• 4.0 release, tested on Linux (Arch) and Win 11

[cbjeukendrup]

For what it's worth, the underlying problem is that X and Y offset are represented by a single property of type "Point". I think that's generally okay, but causes some difficulties since we want to allow the user to edit the X and Y value separately.

[Tantacrul]

For what it's worth, the underlying problem is that X and Y offset are represented by a single property of type "Point". I think that's generally okay, but causes some difficulties since we want to allow the user to edit the X and Y value separately.

Well, that there is the problem. Thanks @cbjeukendrup

[bkunda]

Hi all,

I'm not 100% clear on the extent to which this requires design, beyond outlining the expected behaviour as @oktophonie has done above.

On testing this though, I too come across this bug, which seems connected with this issue, and which was also raised in #13261. I thought its effect on dynamics was worth sharing:

offset-issue.mov

If it at all helps, I would simply reformulate the rules to govern the user's experience of changing x- and y-offsets as:

1. Where more than one element is selected, the ‘--‘ indicator should only apply to a property that contains multiple values; I.e. where a property contains the same values for all selected elements, that value should still be shown.
2. Where more than one element is selected, and at least one of the properties contains multiple values, the user should be able to change the value of any single property without affecting the other.

[oktophonie]

The minimum distance issue exists separately here: #13261