Thanks Scott, I'm fully aware of the Transform panel. This isn't a "please help me how do I…" type of discussion. My point is that the dedicated dialog boxes in Object>Transform are clunky. (Besides being unnecessarily modal, the "preview" isn't updated on keyboard entry, and the "preview" checkbox need to be manually toggled on and off to work.) So, observing that there's another way to do it, (while helpful to seasoned users) doesn't really address any of my points here, which concern a different aspect of the interface, one which novices and students make use of all the time. Adobe surely knows this, which is why it's still there after all these years.

In other words, if the Transform panel is the only way to visualize these changes elegantly, why not eliminate Object>Transform entirely from the UI? To be very clear, that's not what I'm suggesting. My point is that every dialog should work well, according to well-established principles.

With all respect, I completely disagree. Three points:

1) This is not an isolated problem. The "modal" problem I'm describing manifests itself in a many Illustrator dialogs. But at least the dialogs accessed from the Effect menu (some of which have good reason to be modal) update correctly when a slider is moved, without having to toggle the preview box unchecked and checked again. The Object>Transform dialogs don't even function that well!

2) I teach Illustrator, and this is a recurring stumbling block for students, and it's partly because of antiquated UI principles. Yes, we can agree that there are a range of difficulties in learning any new software. Sorry, what's your point here? That because it's hard we should make it harder?

3) We're speaking to different audiences. You agree that the Object>Transform dialogs are currently crap. Your advice: don't use them. Great: we're on the same page. Your advice is a useful best practice for the committed user. My suggestion is addressed to the development team, to improve functionality and flatten the learning curve.

I obviously can't respond to the other "more important" development priorities you allude to but haven't bothered to name. One issue, one thread, please.

@scott w I've already filed a request with the Dev Team, thanks. I also posted this publicly in case anyone has any constructive observations. You're certainly right that an unnecessary reliance on modes is a common UI mistake. But there are, for what it's worth, plenty of micro-applications that don't have any modes, except for maybe a print preview or something like that. A lot of thought has gone into modeless design in the past decade. There are books upon books of theory written on this. But it's not an all-or-nothing proposition. Sorry, that's a phony argument. Design is typically incremental.

And there doesn't need to be a "spec" written. There's simply a desired behavior which I've already described: I want to be able to pan and zoom within the document with a Transform or Effect dialog open. I'm actually pretty clear about it if you take the time to read the original post completely.