Usability: allow editing properties of multiple selected nodes (multi select)

[LearnCocos2D]

Create and select two or more nodes. Notice the Inspector tab view is completely disabled and doesn't even allow to switch tabs, let alone edit any properties.

At least the common properties of the selection should be editable, while the rest are grayed out. Ideally the inspector views should expand automatically to show all class-specific properties of all selected node classes, and apply changes only to those nodes in the selection to which they can be applied.

Any edited value is set on all selected nodes. Checkboxes would need a semi-checked state indicating that some but not all selected nodes have this checkbox checked.

Some properties need to be removed or grayed out because they simply make no or little sense to edit concurrently, or may require special logic. For example changing the position: this could either not be allowed at all, do the unusual and set all nodes to the same position, or use the difference from the displayed value as an offset for all selected nodes. And it requires to decide whose node's position to display to begin with.

So this isn't easy but I regard this as an essential usability features. Mass-editing (mass defined as 5 or more) is potentially a large time-saver, and definitely something where it's very annoying having to make the same change even just 5 times in a row. And in my experience mass changes are done frequently.

[inolasco]

+1

I would suggest also the ability to copy & paste multiple nodes

[iprgrm]

+1 Is this on the 1.2 roadmap?

[andykorth]

I've seen some programs mark text fields with a dash to indicate that there are different values across the selected objects. It's analogous to the semi-checked state that exists for checkboxes. Bulk changes to the Code Connections area would be especially great for my productivity!

[cocojoe]

@stuartcarnie This would be a much appreciated patch :) In general anything that fixes group actions is most welcome.

[stuartcarnie]

@cocojoe I'll take a look and see :+1: