GIMP Version: 2.8.4
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: Windows 8
GIMP Experience: Basic Level
March 24th: UPDATED WITH SOLUTION BELOW
I feel like I'm finally completely settling into my work flow with GIMP, and that's super exciting.
I've been looking around for physical alternatives for controlling brush width and such, devices such as the Griffin PowerMate
http://store.griffintechnology.com/laptops/powermate and the Shuttle Xpress
http://www.altoedge.com/design/multimedia-video-controller.html - but for now I'm considering plugging a second mouse in and placing to the left of my keyboard.
That way I could map the mouse wheel to control brush width, which would be sufficient for now, and still loads more intuitive than fiddling with the tiny sliders. Even if they weren't tiny, I've always found in-app adjustments like that sorta annoying.
AAaaaannnyywwaaayyy. Here's my problem: You can't actually do anything with the mouse unless it's the active pointing device in GIMP. It's not enough to simply move it a little to activate it, you need to click the window. At least that's the case with how it's currently set up.
Is there a way to make the mouse commands work whether it's active or not? The keyboard commands do, although I'm aware that's not considered an input device for the pointer so I see why it's treated differently.
Any tips are welcome. And if you've solved the physical input thing, or experimented any with that, that'd be interesting to hear about, too. I'm thinking the PowerMate is my best bet, provided I can actually get a hold of one, since they were apparently discontinued a while ago.
SOLUTIONI removed all mouse wheel settings and deactivated it completely from within GIMP. Then I downloaded a utility called X-Mouse Button Control
http://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMou ... ontrol.htmFrom there I added a profile for GIMP, set mouse wheel up and down to keystrokes, then added those inside GIMP to control "value 2", which usually points to the size of the active tool. I've now connected my mouse that I was about to throw out because of a faulty left button, and I have it placed to the left of my tablet for easy access to a *sort of* analogue brush size setting. That is without ever letting go of my tablet pen or moving my mouse around.
Mission complete.