Distill7

Hold Alt+LMB+RMB and drag. This should work fine.
The exact way way is to hald alt+rmb then hold lmb and you can release the rmb after. For ease of mind I keep pressing all of them. I don't know how well this will work with drawing tablets. 

It's not available yet. The best you can do is to create different sections and put a variable based on the section names.

They should add running head variables that are based on paragraph/character styles.

TYPE FOUR
How could I forgot? Another kind of Distortion that some might find useful is to adapt text into some specific shape.
The idea is as follows: the ability to fit text into a shape, like this one (again, with editing capabilities):


So, yeah, with this one added, I know it's A LOT to cover, but please, take it into consideration for your internal Roadmap.
Best regards!

Hi there!
DISCLAIMER: First of all, this is not another "bring the Mesh Warp / Distort Tool right now!" Topic. I'm not asking the Team to give us an estimated time of arival... None of that. It's something different, hinted in the Title.
INTRODUCTION & INTENTIONS
The purpose of this Topic is to share my thoughts and considerations, specially with @MattP, the talent behind this and some other great Features, to keep in mind when developing this. Why? The reasons are simple:
Some of us are more than impatient to have this Feature available. It's been on the Roadmap for so long... Many need this and they are all in into Designer and lefting [Design Application] behind. There are high hopes and so much anticipation. And it's in the Dev Team plans. That's all good, but... is the gap between the Dev Team idea and the users need really been closed, even narrowed? When realeased, will it be what a lot of people are expecting? That's the key point that might turn things ugly here in the Forums.
So, I want to open a relaxed discussion to talk about needs, capabilities and workflow. I will do so by diving the kins of distortions I know in 3:
TYPE ONE
Miscellanous Specific Forms Distortions:
Topic 1: Arc Warp. @TonyB confirmed it will be doable as some other transformations. Said feature works like this for texts (but also for shapes), in Illustrator 2019 and on other Apps like PSE 10:

The other transformations available are this ones. Available on both Apps but they don't work exactly in the same way:

 
Now, the thing about these transformations (and the other Types) are these ones: Control and configuration. They are done through a set of parameters, not through a Mesh like the one in Affinity Photo. so, it's not just that it's doable, but that it's repeatable and done with a degree of presicion. And of course, it has to be editable and resetable, or as it's called nowadays: live. For example, trying to do it through a Mesh is not that great (the red one is done by hand after a lot of struggle, and it's no good):

That's the Arc Warp but imagine this for all kind of options known to man.
TYPE TWO
The next thing is about Perspective, whis is another popular requested feature.
Topic 2. This is really clear as what it has to do. Not just of one object, but for an entire Group, to do a pseudo 3D thing. On this one, DrawPlus does a good job and offers interesting options, like the slider on the Top part, and it gives the sens of working with a 3D object.

The one in Illustrator does its part, but once you transform an object, you can't have the original back, so it's a destructive effect (making this a live feature would be awesome).

If the angles of "rotation" can be in the form of parameters and mouse control, would make it cover all scenarios.
TYPE THREE
The last kind of Distortion people ask for in the forums is the Free Transform.
Topic 3. This is the one that sounds more like the one currently present for bitmaps in Photo or the Envelop Tool in DrawPlus. Personally, this is the least I am interested in, but it has its uses and would make this feature as robust as it can be.

I see there are two variations to this feature:
One with the handles, as seen on the previous pictures. One with "sharp" cornes, without the handles (it's almost like a Perspective Distortion, but I present it like a different one because with a perspective you should be able to maintain the aspect ratio, with this one you can go beyond that). In Illustrator, the Free Distort Effect does this in the "sharp corner" fashion, turning it to semi-curves in some extreme distortions:

As with the previous ones, the ability to reset and edit the effect on already distorted objects, would be gold.
SUMMARY
As I said, when talking about Distortions / Warping, most people have one or more of the three I showed. So, I leave some key points:
Having all of the three types listed above in Designer is the best thing that can happen in this regard to Serif and us the Users. Also, having the ability to reset, edit and have parameters in some of the cases, would provide absolute control (and enjoyment). If the Dev Team implements this one after the other and not all in the initial release, even if it's not desirable, is still a good path. Limiting to one or two of the Three Types "by design" would hurt the product. Very important: I'm not saying "copy this and copy that", I'm just showing examples of the possible use cases for a Tool like this; however it's implemented, as long as it's logical and feels natural, offering all of the capabilities presented, would be perfect. So, citing Matt himself:
I want our products to be good in their own right: It’s not good enough to be better than ‘x’ or ‘y’, you should just be really good and that be the end of the sentence
I expect from you what you have set as your own goal: the best possible Affinity Designer.
Finally, I invite anyone who wants to contribute by bringing examples or something they want for this Feature that I missed.
Best regards!

Whenever I'm using Outline mode, it's always to trace an image. I prefer to use Outline mode because the "visible stroke" is as fine as it can be, and there are no styles applied (i.e. no fills, strokes, gradients etc). In my opinion (and my usecase of course), having the "Outline" view mode seems incomplete without being able to set an image layer as a background.
I don't think every image layer should be visible, but there should be a way to change an image layer's view setting to "Traceable" (or something similar) so it is visible even when in Outline mode. It makes sense for this "traceable" layer to be slightly opaque just so the outline can be clearly seen on top. The opacity could be set on the layer, or it could be set as a global setting (whatever's easier).
 

They should add running head variables that are based on paragraph/character styles.

They should add running head variables that are based on paragraph/character styles.

I also need this effect done. Here what I do:
- I put put the first text frame on page 1 and autoflow the text. It's not part of the master page.
- I set the chapter title/heading to start on new/odd page with space after/before.
- I create a new master page with the appropriate image placement.
- I format the whole book first, usually at the last step before exporting, I apply the master page to the chapters so I don't have any problems if pages change order.
- To select them faster, I open the find/replace panel and the pages panel next to each other. In the find/replace panel I search for chapter paragraph style, I select the results one by one and each time the corresponding page is shown the bottom of the page panel, I Ctrl+left mouse click to select them all, the on one of them, right mouse click => apply master page...
 
If done correctly, this can take like 1 minute for 10 chapters. This is the fastest method I can think of that'll allow you to change the object or it's size.
I have made a request to automatically apply a certain master page when a certain paragraph style is present on a page.

I also need this effect done. Here what I do:
- I put put the first text frame on page 1 and autoflow the text. It's not part of the master page.
- I set the chapter title/heading to start on new/odd page with space after/before.
- I create a new master page with the appropriate image placement.
- I format the whole book first, usually at the last step before exporting, I apply the master page to the chapters so I don't have any problems if pages change order.
- To select them faster, I open the find/replace panel and the pages panel next to each other. In the find/replace panel I search for chapter paragraph style, I select the results one by one and each time the corresponding page is shown the bottom of the page panel, I Ctrl+left mouse click to select them all, the on one of them, right mouse click => apply master page...
 
If done correctly, this can take like 1 minute for 10 chapters. This is the fastest method I can think of that'll allow you to change the object or it's size.
I have made a request to automatically apply a certain master page when a certain paragraph style is present on a page.

It depends on the level of the user, a graphic designer who studies design and produces work in exchange for money will appreciate the software, and we all know how much of a bargain to have affinity software for $50 and even down to $35 and $40 discounts. Other users might see them just as a nice game to produce cool images or make a document here and there won't value them as much as we do.
While open source software fail to provide professional quality features (having used Inkscape/Gimp and tried Scribus), they still have a value of providing accessible source code for programmers to learn how such software is made and how it works, providing free easy install alternatives, and many libraries/utilities can be even used by commercial software, even Affinity software incorporate a lot of them. Just check 3rd party licenses under Help/About...

Affinity publisher is aimed for professionals who create documents for print, not hobbyists. If you can't make $40 back from your work, it might not be for you in the first place.

@ashf sorry, I don't know any. I don't speak Chinese or have work on it too. I speak Arabic and I need RTL language support.
I commented because language support is very weak in the Affinity suite and needs improvement for a lot of languages.

I have mentioned the biggest languages "For example" as I said, if you count other languages with smaller populations, the numbers will add up. And even 3.1 billion out of 7.7 (according to wikipedia) is not considerably small at all.

Serif should make more effort to support international typography, if it's not their top priority I don't know what should be.
For example:
Chinese script: +1340 million users Arabic script: +660 million users Devanagari: +820 million users Bengali: +300 million users If not making the product usable for more than half of earth's population, I don't think what should take more priority than that.
 
 

+1 for RTL and Complex Script Layout Support.

The office suites market is really saturated, Microsoft office, google docs, LibreOffice, Apple pages/keynotes... I don't see any real benefit from entering such market, especially that it's shifting more towards editing in the cloud right now.

Order. Order! [Slamming my gavel on the block]
Based upon these recent findings and the overwhelming evidence presented by eyewitnesses, it is the opinion of this court that a similar ID book feature must be added to Affinity Publisher and that evidence thereof must be shown no later than the first update after the official release date. Failure to do so will result in a penalty of expulsion from the Association for Cool Software Companies. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Affinity? Council, please ensure that your client complies with these orders lest we be seeing him back here facing a far harsher sentence in the near future.
(long way around to saying: "+1")

Serif is a software company, not the British Parliament!

That would be nice for people who don't know what they mean.
 

That's definitely helpful for anyone with a mouse, though not everyone uses one.

or if your mouse is "Magic" and doesn't have so many buttons :-))

You can use mouse middle button as a hand tool even when you're in a text frame, but it's actually better since you have to press only one key and not two. 
After you place an image, you can convert it to a frame picture (check toolbar or right mouse click menu). The frame picture has a lot of features to control both the image and the frame so easily once you figure it out.

I didn't think of that. I'd imagine that working on multiple files in with 3 different personas is complicated enough. Still a better workflow than opening 3 different programs and not being able to preview the changes you made in one software until you save and update in the other.

First I want to congratulate everyone in Serif for creating this awesome software and trio.
After being a user of the Publisher Beta and being active in this forum, I have collected a list of features that I need for my work (mostly book interior design) and some that others requested. I'm not saying that Serif should provide them in the near future, but I hope it helps them see what's needed and give an outline for other members of the community. And I hope affinity will release an official roadmap for Publisher soon.
Languages:
Support for CTL: Complex Text Layout, Indic and RTL languages like Arabic and Hebrew CJK: Vertical text and proper punctuation Text:
Footnotes/Endnotes Insert variables based on paragraph/Character styles/Index entries... Paragraph styles spanning through columns Compatibility:
Open IDML files Scripting Tables:
Tables Spanning through pages Repeat header when a table span to another page Calculations inside tables RegX:
Save RegX Find/Replace Execute Saved RegX Find/Replace from inside paragraph styles eBooks:
Export to ePub Option to set HTML tag +/- class for each paragraph style. Export to pure HTML file — I wanna know your idea about implementing HarfBuzz for Complex Text Layout —