Make inkscape remember dialogs window status

Originator: NO

I really would like to see this feature too. I've worked around it by
assigning KP_1 through KP_5 to various dialogs I open every time I open
Inkscape via the default.xml file in keys. I don't do a lot of re-arranging
of the interface like michael_gr, since window sizes and position are kept
intact in the latest version of Inky, but it drove me crazy to do
ctrl-alt-F, ctrl-alt-O, etc., etc. every time I opened the application. I
was amazed to find that you couldn't set this preference via
preferences.xml. I'm guessing you might be able to do it via python
scripting, but I'm not familiar with Python, and while I'd like to know
more about Python, learning enough to write this script, just to save some
keystrokes seems like a lot of overhead.

I think this should be a higher priority if Inkscape is to be viewed as a serious tool, sadly I can't code it.

I can only presume that the devs aren't using it every day otherwise this sort of thing would be fixed, no? It's like going in your kitchen and finding that all your stuff has been moved, you rearrange but next time it's all put back again.

If Inkscape is using standard elements then surely things like ripping off toolbars and redocking, remembering toolbar positions, rescaling buttons, combining toolbars in the same space these things have been solved already? UI issues should largely be implemented elsewhere but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Another vote for this feature. Everytime I start Inkscape, I have to resize the program window, open the document preferences toolbar, open the layers toolbar, open the paint & stroke toolbar. It takes away too much workflow and motivation to work with this program.

Inkscape should remember the window size, open toolbars, as well as any other preferences for the next time.

One more vote for this feature.
I've been vertex mangling for 15 years, imagine having to reset the desktop the way I want it every day for another 15 years, that's a sod of a lot of unnecessary work.
So far I like the "feel" of inkscape a lot more than Illustrator, keep up the good work guys!! You've got a potential winner on your hands here.

Please don't forget to add this feature for Windows XP.

I would think this could be added in "File->Inkscape Preferences->Windows" under "Dialog behavior". Something like the window geometry setting. Maybe: "Remember and use last open dialogs"

One more vote for this feature.
I'm tired to opening Layer and Fill dialogs after starting inkscape.
I think It's unkindness for newbies.

I add my vote to the fray...
Mostly because I can't get the windows back to the docking area. I wanted to try both settings to see if it would work and the windows that were undocked the last time will now not go back into the dock regardless of the setting in the Inskcape preferences... I tried dragging it to the dock are without joy.. now I have the Fill and stroke, align and Layers undocked and the doc preferences and transform are docked which is definitely NOT how I want to have it.
Another annoyance is that the Inskcape preferences window becomes a tiny window with barely anything visible on the first run of the day. After resizing it and as long as I don't restart the comp, the Inskcape pref window opens to a tiny square and then thankfully it resizes itself just slow enough to let me see the tiny window make its appearance...

Other than that, I'm loving it!!! :D

Thanks a lot.

(running Ubuntu 9.10 fully updated, Inkscape 0.47pre4 r22446, built Oct 14 2009)

ogro, JonCruz is working on it. I don't have many details of what 0.48 will be like, but the nightlies do have it. For now, remember that undocked windows have two titlebars. One is provided by your OS. Inkscape draws the other just below that. If you drag the OS titlebar, it will never dock. Use the Inkscape titlebar instead.

Yeah, this is definitely high priority, I don't think I am going to use Inkscape on a regular basis without this feature. Which means back to illustrator, unfortunaltey. : (

Until version 0.48?

I also would like this feauture

In addition, is it relevant to add to this list of wishes that Inkscape can open its own app window in its previous state? Especially across multiple screens and/or virtual desktops?

Triaged or Confirmed, this won't be looked at until it's assigned to someone I suppose. Is there any developer willing to assign it to themself?

Patch to restore the common dialogs visibility status on startup.

1. Save the dialogs 'visible' status to preferences on dialog open and close ( new preference /dialogs/.../visible )
2. On startup (sp_main_gui) get the previous 'visible' status from preferences and call the dialog 'open' verb to restore

This does not affect the size/location of dialogs, simply the show/hide status.

The attachment "171579.patch" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

Tested on Windows XP, Inkscape trunk revision 10760.
Works as expected (except with non dockable windows such as the Text dialog). The status of docked and floating dialogs is correctly remembered.

Thanks for the patch!

Tests on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (i386) ok with
 0.48+devel r10764 Gtk+/X11 2.24.4
 0.48+devel r10764 Gtk+/Quartz 2.24.8 (menubar integration backed out)

- not registered as open: non-dockable dialogs
("older" dialogs like Text & Fonts, XML Editor, Tiled Clones, Object Properties, etc -> see bug #592323 and related reports mentioned in the comments there)

- not registered as open: minimized docked dialogs
(I make frequent use of this feature, with settings changed to only show the dialog icon, see screenshot attached to bug #648174)
Possibly GDL has hooks for saving dock-specific dialog states (open, minimized, detached)?

- I haven't yet fully figured out what happens when working with multiple document windows opened from within the same Inkscape instance: occasionally it seemed to me that the dialog states of the last closed window got added to the list of dialogs which had been open in the initial window (closed earlier), instead of replacing the states.
(Caveat: with current trunk, beware of the regression (crash) reported in bug #869067)

> not registered as open: minimized docked dialogs

Confirmed. Hidden dialogs are considered closed in the patch. Maybe a third visibility value (or a specific parameter) should be added to handle the hidden status.

> I haven't yet fully figured out what happens when working with multiple document windows opened from within the same Inkscape instance.

The status is updated when the dialog is opened or closed, and doesn't necessarily reflects the status of the last closed Inkscape window. Thus with the following sequence:
1. Open a dialog in a first Inkscape window.
2. Open a second Inkscape window.
3. Open the same dialog as in the first window and close it.
4. Close the second window.
5. Quit Inkscape.
the next Inkscape instance will have the dialog closed.

I'm not sure it's very often used, but when you group dialogs in the same floating dialog window (to create a floating group of dialogs), the grouped status is not saved, and the dialogs are restored as independent floating dialogs. But this one is probably a bit harder to implement...

> The status is updated when the dialog is opened or closed, and doesn't necessarily reflects the status of the last closed Inkscape window.

Yes this is the current behavior.

As a further enhancement the dialog visibility could also be saved when the Inkscape window is closed, preserving the 'last closed' status when using multiple windows, if this is preferred.

The patch seems to reveal other (or underlying) issues:

Please test:
1) launch Inkscape, open 'Layers' dialog (close all others)
2) quit Inkscape
3) launch Inkscape and open attached SVG file

Expected result:
All icons in the initially opened 'Layers' dialog are visible and indicate the layer status

Actual result:
The icons for 'locked' and 'hidden' are missing

Further tests:
4) open the same file a second time from 'File > Open Recent'
5) open 'Layers' dialog (the saved state is only used for the initial document window)

Result:
In the new window, all layer status icons are properly displayed.

Reproduced with Inkscape 0.48+devel r10764+patch, with Gtk+/X11 2.24.4 and Gtk+/Quartz 2.24.8 on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (i386)

> As a further enhancement the dialog visibility could also be saved when the Inkscape window is closed, preserving the 'last closed' status when using multiple windows, if this is preferred.

It seems more "natural" to me. ~suv, what's your take on it?
Maybe we could move the discussion to the dev list?

JazzyNico wrote:
> It seems more "natural" to me. ~suv, what's your take on it?

Probably depends in the user's workflow/habits: usually I make heavy use of opening multiple document windows from within the same Inkscape instance [1], and my initial expectation was that the state of the last closed window would be saved. I do not really keep track of which document window was opened first, nor what dialogs I had opened (or closed) in other windows except in the current one when e.g. quitting the application. Based on this workflow, one might expect that either
a) the dialog state gets saved per document (possibly in the document itself?), or
b) the state of the last closed document window is saved in the global preferences

> Maybe we could move the discussion to the dev list?

Agreed.

[1] until the regression in bug #869067 made me use this feature with extreme care ;)

@John - The discussion now takes place on the inkscape-dev list (http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=28550482). Feel free to register to the list and add your comments.
Thanks again for your patch!

Improved patch that addresses the raised issues ...

* Works with both dockable and non-dockable dialogs
* Docked dialogs in floating window are remembered as open.
* Iconified docked dialogs are remembered as open
* Layers icon issue fixed
* Saves the dialogs status of the last window

> Docked dialogs in floating window are remembered as open.

Tested on Windows XP and Ubuntu 11.04 (rev. 10804), and unfortunately leads to a crash.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Open two dialogs (tested with Fill and Stroke and Layers) give them a floating status.
2. Group the dialogs in the same floating window.
3. Quit Inkscape, the application crashes, and the next time you run it, Inkscape starts with no dialog.

Backtrace attached.

@JazzyNico, thanks for testing and finding this issue.

New patch attached that also fixes this crash.

FYI ... This crash is a separate bug, since it can be reproduced on stock standard trunk (v10804) with Ubuntu 11.10.
Should we file a separate report for this ?

Thanks for your patch. Inkscape no longer crashes, but the dialogs are remembered as individual floating dialogs, not as a floating window with a group of docked dialog embedded.

> FYI ... This crash is a separate bug, since it can be reproduced on stock standard trunk (v10804) with Ubuntu 11.10.

You're right. Not only with the trunk, but with 0.48.2 (and probably other versions) too.

> Should we file a separate report for this ?

Yes, because even if you've already fixed it as part of your patch, it could be interesting to port it back to the 0.48.X branch so that it's also fixed in 0.48.3.

Bug #910344 'Docked dialogs in a floating window crashes on shutdown' created.

Hopefully this is the final patch ...

+ Added ability to save and load iconified (minimized) dialogs.
+ Removed patch for bug #910344 so it can be applied independently.

- To save the full docking status (such as docked dialogs in floating window) will need more serious work (saving above/below/left/right dialog x, inside a floating window/dock, floating window size/location etc).
Perhaps we can target this in another patch.

This should cover most users requests - since until now advanced features such as docked dialogs in a floating window is a crasher.

In summary :
* Saves status of all dockable, non-dockable, floating and iconified dialogs.
* Multiple docked dialogs in floating window are remembered as floating.
* Layers icon issue fixed.
* Saves the dialogs status of the last window.

Tested on Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 7.
Please try it out and let us know of any issues .... and happy 2012 !!

Quick test with Inkscape 0.48+devel r10817 + version 4 of the patch:
System: OS X Lion 64bit, gtk2/x11 2.24.8, gtkmm 2.24.2, default (new) preferences.
Custom Gtk+ theme based on Ubuntu's 'Ambiance' with minimal scrollbars mimicking the scrollbar overlay (no steppers, no minimal or fixed length of the slider).

If I quit Inkscape with dialogs minimized in the dock, I get erratic behavior the next time I launch inkscape. Initially, the dock expands to more than half the window size, while displaying the icons at the far right edge (it doesn't seem to matter whether the minimized dialogs display the dialog title as well or only the icon). Later on, after e.g. de-minimizing and closing the dialogs, they no longer reopen (visibly) in the dock (not as dialog nor as icon), but - when quitting and relaunching Inkscape - suddenly (but not consistently) some dialogs reappear as minimized icons.
I also experienced random changes of docked/undocked states which seemed to change without actually having undocked any dialog.

I'll do more tests next week, and try to provide 'steps to reproduce' for dialogs refusing to re-appear.

For the attached screenshot, I had opened and minimized 'Fill&Stroke', 'Layers' and 'Align&Distribute', quit Inkscape and relaunched it (initial document window size is set by a custom default template to window-width="1000" and window-height="650").

Another regression with the patch:
Dialogs in the dock (minimized or not) which had been open on quit, do not load the custom icon they normally have when opened based on the remembered state the next time Inkscape is launched.

@~suv thanks for testing, please see fixes and comments below

> the dock expands to more than half the window size, while displaying the icons at the far right edge

I have not seen this on Windows 7 or Ubuntu, can you supply steps to reproduce this ?
I can revert out the minimized status fairly easily if you think its unreliable.

> after e.g. de-minimizing and closing the dialogs, they no longer reopen (visibly)

Yes this was a bug, fixed in the current patch

> experienced random changes of docked/undocked states

Can you provide some examples of this ?

> do not load the custom icon they normally have

Yes this is a bug, that should be fixed in the current patch. (Some icons not preloaded in the theme).

Patch v5 still ignores the docked/undocked state and undocks all dialogs next time inkscape is launched and a dialog is reopened.

Steps to reproduce:
1) delete ~/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml
2) launch inkscape
3) open 'Layers…' dialog (it is docked by default)
4) close 'Layers…' dialog
5) quit inkscape
6) launch inkscape
7 ) open 'Layers…' dialog

Expected result:
The 'Layers…' dialog opens in the dock.

Actual result (with patch):
The 'Layers…' dialog opens undocked (floating).

Not limited to the 'Layers…' dialog, AFAICT affects every dockable dialog which has been opened in a patched version of Inkscape

(attaching modified v5 patch used to test with r10865 on OS X Lion (there have been recent changes which make two hunks fail in 'src/ui/dialog/dialog.cpp))

On 02/01/2012 08:13, John Smith wrote:
>> the dock expands to more than half the window size, while
>> displaying the icons at the far right edge
>
> I have not seen this on Windows 7 or Ubuntu, can you supply steps to
> reproduce this ? I can revert out the minimized status fairly easily
> if you think its unreliable.

Still reproducible - e.g. if a custom template is used (see attached
minimal modification of the default template to always open with a
larger document window) - using the modified diff
'171579-remember-dialog-status-v5-r10865.patch' on
- Mac OS X Leopard (32bit), gtk2/x11 2.24.4, gtkmm 2.24.0
- OS X Lion (64bit), gtk2/x11 2.24.8, gtkmm 2.24.2

Oddly, I failed to reproduce it on
- Mac OS X Leopard (32bit), gtk2/quartz 2.24.8, gtkmm 2.24.2
  (ige-mac-menu.* stuff - depending on GDK_WINDOWING_QUARTZ - completely
   backed out in local branch, see bug #721448 comment #10)

Steps to reproduce:
1) save a copy of the attached template into
    ~/.config/inkscape/templates
2) delete ~/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml
3) launch inkscape
4) open 'Layers…' dialog, open 'Fill & Stroke…'
5) minimize 'Fill & Stroke…', minimize 'Layers…'
6) quit inkscape
7) reopen inkscape

Expected result:
The dock has minimal width to hold the vertically aligned buttons of the
minimized dialogs

Actual result:
The dock is expanded and covers more than half of the document window,
while the buttons of the docked dialogs are displayed vertically aligned
at the far right edge.

Bug in comment #32 confirmed on Windows XP, Inkscape 10867
Bug in comment #33 not reproduced. Gtk2 issue, maybe...

John, what about adding a preference value to activate dialog remembering or not? (See comment #6, except that the preference is now in Interface>Windows.) I'm not sure document values are available in the inskcape or sodipodi namespace (if we want to save the dialogs position for each document), but having an application preference would be great.

> comment #32 : still ignores the docked/undocked state and undocks all dialogs next time
My apologies suv, i misunderstood your original comment, this is now fixed in the attached v6 patch.

> comment #33 : the dock expands to more than half the window size
Using your custom template I have seen this on Ubuntu 11.10, but cannot reproduce this consistently. Even the exact same steps do not produce a consistent result. I can remove just the iconify functionality, so only docked/floating state is remembered as a workaround for this.

> comment #34 : what about adding a preference
I've added a preference for this in Interface>Windows.
Not sure of the exact wording to use ... please suggest wording changes for this.

Patch tested on Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.10.

> Not sure of the exact wording to use ... please suggest wording changes for this.

A small typo (dont->don't), and to be consistent, I'd rather use "Saving dialogs status" and then "Don't save dialogs status/Save and restore dialogs status". But that's something that can be easily changed later if needed.

Patch v6 works well on Windows XP. The only remaining issue is that it still doesn't remember dialogs grouped in a floating window (see screenshot).

Patch with small changes:

1) Changed the Preference wording as suggested by JazzyNico in comment #36
2) Improve restoring the dialog placement relative to other dialogs

> it still doesn't remember dialogs grouped in a floating window
Floating dock windows and a few other complicated dialog positioning cases are not handled due to the limits of the underlying libraries. It would need some pervasive changes to the libraries that should be discussed on the dev list before implementation.

I suggest we restrict the scope of this bug to the most common cases that benefit the most users, and open another for advanced scenarios to judge if there is enough interest in doing these cases.

Tested on Windows XP, Inkscape 10892. The only thing I'd really like to see fixed before committing the patch to the trunk is the docked status of floating windows (sorry I didn't find it before...):

1. Open a floating dialog.
2. Iconify the dialog (it should minimize in the dock of the main window).
3. Restart Inkscape.
4. Open the iconified dialog.

The dialog is expected to be reopened as a floating window, but instead it is restored in the dock.

Apart from it and the bug (possibly unrelated to your patch) mentioned comment #33, I agree we can forget the "grouped dialogs in a floating window" issue for now and commit ASAP to get more feedback from users (I'm quite sure the feature is not very often used anyway).

> dialog is expected to be reopened as a floating window, but instead it is restored in the dock

Sorry i missed that too, should be fixed in the attached patch.
Iconified dialogs should now restore to their previous docked/floating state after restart.

Tested on Ubuntu 11.10.

1) Bug from comment #38 reproduced on OS X as well (both with Gtk+/X11 and Gtk+/Quartz).
2) I won't recommend the new feature for general usage on OS X (X11): proposing to disable it by default [1]
   (yes, I am aware that this issue apparently only affects one of the supported platforms, with probably the smallest user based of all)

[1] See attached screenshot, when an undocked dialog (Document Properties) was reopened on launch: I'd rather not be greeted by Inkscape with such a new window (also applies for every new window opened from within the same instance). Also, to work around the issue, I'd rather not agree to trading the initial window size set by a custom default template with the feature to remember the dialog status (nor force Inkscape to use maximized windows all the time) - I did (and still do) recommend using a custom template to many users who complain about the small initial window size (based on the current default template).

Screenshot done on OS X Lion 62bit, X11/XQuartz 2.6.3 (xorg-server 1.10.3), Inkscape 0.48+devel r10892+171579.v7.patch,
with default theme used in the official Inkscape package for Mac OS X, default preferences file
(same behavior on Mac OS X Leopard (32bit), X11/XQuartz 2.5.1 (xorg-server 1.8.2))

~suv - I underestimated how the bug affects you. Will try to reproduce it again.

The attached patch should fix the dock size issues on OS X (comment #40).
I think this solves the last outstanding issue, please test and let me know if anything is not working.

With '171579.v9.patch' I fail to reproduce the issue with the incorrect dock size on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (32bit, gtk2 2.24.4), but it reoccurs on OS X 10.7.2 (64bit, gtk2 2.24.9) - at least today (it didn't occur when testing an earlier version of patch v9, received off-tracker).

External factors (e.g. current CPU load, size or content of recently-used.xbel) seem to play a role in what effects the timing (or sequence) of events happening in Inkscape while restoring the remembered dialog states and adjusting the default minimal window size to the window size of the custom template.

No regression found on Windows XP, Inkscape 10923.
Just one thing that existed in the previous versions, but wasn't testable before v8 due to the floating iconified dialog bug: when reopening a saved floating iconified dialog, the dialog position is not correct (apparently, it is not saved at all).

@JazzyNico, the floating dialog position issue in comment #44 seems to be a separate issue.
It can be reproduced on the trunk (r10923) by opening a floating dialog, closing it and then reopening it.
Under Ubuntu 11.10 the position of the floating window is different each time it is opened.

I wonder if it is related to the changes to the dock library (libgdl) recently merged from upstream (see bug #923241).

This patch (v10) should solve the final remaining issue on 0SX 10.7.2.
Please test and revert with any concerns.

Tested on Ubuntu 11.10, Windows 7, OS X 10.5.8 Leopard, and OS X 10.7.2 Lion

Committed to trunk as revision 10992.

I have installed the latest inkscape-trunk build from the stable PPA and this option does not appear to be included, yet. Can someone please tell me what version I have to install to benefit from this fix? I am running Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS.

Sorry, if this question is silly.

Nevermind that, I found it. For future reference: You have to install the latest build from the Inkscape Trunk PPA (https://launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/+archive/trunk). Be careful though, as these are bleeding edge releases.

I hope this fix will arrive in the stable builds soon.

How can Inkscape remember workspace dialogs that previously used

Issue on my Inkscape. One thing I notice is that it did'nt remembers the last workspace that I set or used.

For example I save a project then close it. When I need to reopen the Inkscape again I need to reopen dialog that I need such as 'Fill and stroke' Dialog. ' Align and Distribute' dialog and other important dialogs that I commonly use. Reopening these dialogs is a bit time consuming and also frustrating as an everday user of Inkscape.

I just installed the latest trunk to try this feature:

$ inkscape -V
Inkscape 0.48+devel r12503 custom (Sep 8 2013)

but still iconified dialogs do not stay after restart. Non iconified docked or floating dialogs do remain.

I have exactly the same issue on MS Windows.
Kindly please fix this bug ASAP, it's extremely annoying!

This was working fine in v0.92.3-1 (Xubuntu 18.04), but:
Could it be that this issue reappears in v1.0.1?

Since I've installed v1.0.1+r75~ubuntu18.04.1 from the PPA (https://launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/+archive/ubuntu/stable), my dialog windows positions are reset every time I open Inkscape :(

I've downgrade back to v0.92.3-1 to verify: Window positions properly restored.
I have a dual-screen setup.

I'm grateful for anything to fix this again :)
Thank you very much in advance!