I’ve been using Sketchup for many years and have a really bad habit of creating a group, clicking on the name field, typing the group name, hitting enter AND then … thinking I’m done renaming, hit a shortcut key, inadvertently renaming the group to “t” or “m” or whatever shortcut I used. I forget to do the last step of clicking back on the model to “de-highlight” the name field.
Is there a workaround or a better technique that I just never picked up on?
If you do it from the outliner, after you hit enter you don’t need to click on the work space and if you hit a shortcut it won´t change the name of the group. If you make components instead of groups you can name them on the Create Component window without having to go to the entity info tray, so you won’t make the mistake of hitting a shortcut that´ll change the name of the entity.
Yeah, wish I had a nickel for every time I did that. Now matter how long I’ve used the program and know better, I still do it every day. Utterly frustrating. Also, in other programs, editing a text object knows the difference between < return > and < enter >: return starts a new line, while enter completes the editing process and closes the text object.
The extensions Make Group, or, Make Group and Tag, might do the trick.
Developer Profile | SketchUp Extension Warehouse
If you are on Mac, and editing fields like the Component Description, you can create a new line < return > using Opt+Enter.
Oh thank you! I thought I was the only one! Misery loves company!!! 
Thanks, I’ll try naming them on the outline instead. Creating components at of every group would be too much as there are simple things like “block” or “filler” that I just want to name for clarity but don’t want to be coming up with unique names for …
FWIW, I learned from @DaveR , and @ateliernab some more advantages of using components instead of groups. If you are needing multiple copies of the item, components save time, because when you make changes all the copies are changed. Another advantage is that you can pull a copy from the component menu and place it where you need it. In the long run, this saves time.
I understand not wanting or needing to come up with unique names for each block or filler piece.
Where are you using the names of the objects? For labels in LayOut, maybe?
You could still use components. In addition to making them easier to place additional copies into your model you could utilize the component’s description for labels instead of its definition name. You could add that description for the first block or filler. If you need a block with different dimensions, bring in a copy from the Components panel and immediately use Make Unique (keyboard shortcut makes that dead easy) and then edit it to make it fit. The description will still be “Block” or “Filler”.
If you need to generate a cutlist that includes those things you’ll get a single line item for all the blocks or fillers with the same definition.
here are reasons why I’ll do a component and not a group
and probably some more like the economy, my ability to doubt about my workflow, stuff like that.
Well that sounds to me to be a bug. When you hit enter it should commit the text and exit the text box for single line entries like that. Ill be writing up a report around that.
I would recommend using your outliner to rename groups as a work around in the meantime.
There are multiple text input fields in several of the pallets that do not return focus to the modeling window after pressing return. These have been noted and a source of complaint for many years without change. It would be great to get this fixed.
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That’s an interesting twist. I never thought to make a group name have a second line, but that seems to work in both entity info and the outliner.
My comment was in danger of going off topic by making comparisons to the text tool in SketchUp and Layout, but let me clarify: Working on a MacBook Pro (my last desktop Mac was in 1995), there’s no extended keyboard with a numeric keypad and Enter key, but the fn key plus Return is supposed to be Enter instead of Return. They seem to make no difference in SU and LO, but they do in other programs. With the text tool in PowerCADD for example, Return produces a new line, but Enter commits the edit and closes the text object. In LO, either just gives a new line. In SU it gives a new line, but I just noticed if you type two returns in a row, it commits and closes the text field. Go figure.
I hadn’t spotted or even tried that with what are single line entries.
It’s a GOOD bug in the “ComponentDescription” and other multi-line fields, (PLEASE don’t remove that!), but I agree probably not what you want to happen in the “ComponentName”.
It seems to affect mostly Mac users.
As Riley showed, it has been complained about for more than 10 YEARS !
There needs to be some thought put into the use of SketchUp’s inspector panel forms.
Windows
Any entry in the Entity Info inspector text boxes requires a click in model space to save the text or numbers. I have yet to find a method where I can use the enter key to save the text.
What I meant was that shortcuts are fired whilst editing a form field. It doesn’t happen to me on Windows.
BTW, using TAB works to accept input and move to the next field. But what I do not like is that the next field becomes wholly selected and can be easily wiped out.
I agree ENTER does nothing, which is WEIRD.
We have an entire area of investigation around how to better focus handling and panel interaction. I’m going to log your note above. I think we can agree this has been overlooked for a long time, but we do want to improve it.
Just a few points on how component and group creation work natively (Windows) and how they could do it if updated.
Shortcut G for Create Component captures and doesn’t release focus until Enter, Create, or Cancel are pressed. Component creation is a do-and-done or, oops, don’t-do-and-cancel process. Definition has input focus, which is good, IMO. Naming is absent in Create Group. To streamline, Create Group ought to have a panel with name input having focus on launch, like Create Component does. Type a name or Enter in either case provides defaults (“Component” or “Group”) so naming doesn’t have to slow users down if they don’t want to name G’s and C’s. But that Create Component captures focus (and so would an analogous -but yet to be- Create Group) forces a little less utility with continuous component and group creation (and making unique). I think there’s room for Create Component and Create Group that don’t close on Enter/Quit but don’t hold focus. The key here is that the shortcut key/s grab/s the name of whatever is selected or resets to default when pressed again. The main missed opportunity for the Create Component panel is Tag creation/application upon component creation (next from name input with Tab key). Likewise, a panel with naming input focus and Tag creation are the missing features of group creation, IMO. I gave these features a whirl in the extensions linked above. These seem to solve some of the problems mentioned and provide a more streamlined way creating G’s and C’s. They do side-step some of the Tray issues… but where does focus go (in the model space) if you press Enter while interacting with G’s and C’s in the Outliner/Entity Info?
I missed it because the forum does not name the link well.