Bond

There is no way it’s 3 people. I would bet my life Illustrator users download the demo, get frustrated by some inconsistencies in the UI and tool behaviour, and run away screaming without uttering a peep to anyone. It’s also been a year since I first posted this. So long in fact that when I tweeted Affinity, they actually reminded me I had made these requests before.

Well I certainly hope the backing of feature requests on a forum many people seldom visit isn’t their only benchmark for feature request validity. That written, I would have backed the heck out of your feature request.

Resurrecting this post as the tool cycling is once again driving me bonkers, as is not having the Move tool modifier, and Option click and dragging not copying in the Layers panel. These can all be preferences, and would make many Adobe switchers very happy. These 3 items have resulted in enough frustration for me to mostly abandon Designer save for a few freelance projects that would be too time-intensive to rebuild in Illustrator, otherwise I would. That genuinely saddens me.

I knew I had to be missing something obvious. Ugh, how did I not think of that. Thanks!

Hi there, Is there a way I can select an object that has been nested in groups without double clicking endlessly? One might think the direct selection tool would do so, as in Illustrator, but it does not. Really hope I’m just missing preference somewhere.

Thank you. Would duplicating objects in the Layers panel by option clicking be possible?

Hey there, I was able to capture it. Please see attached. Layer.mov

Oops, forgot to click the Attach This File button. This should do it.

It’s less about immediately moving or resizing something else, and more about either quickly selecting the next object I want to edit, or deselecting the currently selected object. It currently takes too long to get out of text editing, which is why I said I find myself constantly mashing the escape key to move on to something else. When I’m fine-tuning a bunch of text, having to triple click in order to start editing, then hit the escape key 3 times to get out quickly becomes a nuisance. Then I have to triple click the next text object, etc. In Illustrator, I can select text within a nested group easier, hold the command key to select another group, release the key, select text, edit, etc. It’s faster and requires far less clicking and keystrokes.

Hey folks, I have a glow in a design that sits over top of a few other items with transparency. Everything looks great on screen, but after export, I get some weird banding issues when viewing the PDF in either Preview or Acrobat. I’ve tried setting the blend mode of the glow to everything from Overlay, to Screen, to Normal, but I’m still getting the same result. Is there a fix for this? I’d really rather not remove the glow for print. Attachment for reference. EDIT: To add to the complexity, I was just reviewing some older versions of this same file, and the PDFs were rendering fine when they were not in artboards, but in separate files and in Designer 1.4.1.

This is precisely why Command should be a hot key for the Move tool. We’ve come full circle. Adobe solved this issue well. I can’t see any reason not to add this feature to make Designer easier to transition to, and quicker to use in general.

Another reason for this feature is being able to Option click and drag an object from one artboard to another in exactly the same place, relative to the artboard’s bounds.

Thanks for the reply. I’ll try to capture it on video. It’s happening much less in the latest beta, in fact, I think it’s only hit me once so far. If you’re familiar with the issue from 1.4.1 though (I think there has been posts and even video), it’s exactly the same.

Thought Affinity had this one licked, but I just double clicked a layer in Designer 1.4.2 Beta 4 to rename it, and it promptly deselected itself, making my text entry return error sounds. Really hope this is on the list of bugs to squash.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve option clicked an object in the Layers panel, thinking I’ve duplicated it, continue working, then realize the item I thought I’d duplicated is the one I’ve modified. Extra request: When I option click and drag an object on the artboard to duplicate and move it in one action, it’s super weird that undo does not remove the duplicate, it just puts it back in the exact same spot as the original item. This has resulted in me having objects duplicated within my document without realizing it until much later, and wondering where they came from. Thanks!

This right here? Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! What if the text object your clicking on is nested in a group? Does it still work the same way? I *really* want the Move Tool to be active on press of the Command key, the not active on release, just like Illustrator. It saves an enormous amount of clicks and keystrokes. Adobe got that one right. And it does/should not interfere with any of the other short cuts that use command like copy and paste, and I think even if you were to tap the B or I key, that could override and still bold and italicize, respectively.

This model of tool selection fall flat on its face the moment text is involved. Hitting the V key to switch back and forth works until you have some text selected. This is where I often have to hit the Escape key 3 times to deselect the text object and move onto the next. As I’ve requested before, making the command key a hot key for the move tool while text is selected would help immensely. That way I could select another object, or click elsewhere to deselect the currently selected text object. I’ve been doing a lot of flyer design work with Designer in the past couple of weeks and it’s becoming more and more frustrating compared to everyone’s favourite competitive application. Designer’s tool and object selection scheme is just plain slower for design and layout work.

Hey folks, got a couple questions about selecting objects in Designer. 1. Is there a way to select multiple objects within *different* groups without having to dig into the Layers panel? Perhaps a setting that allows direct selecting or double clicking a second object will drill down into group hierarchy to get to the single object? 2. Second, why can I not select text with the text tool, without having already selected the text object with the Move Tool? The text highlights show up, but then when I click, a new text object is created. Finally, more of a feature request, when text is selected, for the love of all that is good and pure, please make the Command key a hot key for the Move Tool. Thanks!

Thanks for the tip! I’ll give that a go.

Hey there, I’ve got a series of post cards created with artboards. When I try to Export the whole document as a PDF X-1a, I get an error occurred during export. The same file exports fine when I select “for print.” Is this a known issue and are there any work arounds? Thanks!

This is exactly what I don’t want to happen. I want the V key to switch me to the Move, and stay on the Move tool with subsequent presses. It doesn’t save me any time compared to pressing the A key to switch to the node tool.

I want the V key to select the move tool, and that’s it. I do not want it to rotate between tools, which leaves me frequently checking to see which tool I’m using, or doing something I didn’t intend. This and Command not acting as a hot key for the move tool (and instead having to mash the escape key furiously) are easily the two most frustrating aspects to my use of Affinity apps, which I otherwise love. Thanks!

Damn. So here’s the weird thing, if I select a Finder window, it works as expected, but and email doesn’t. Makes me think it’s OS level, vs. an Affinity bug.

PS. I’m experiencing this behaviour with the latest Designer Beta too.

Hi there, I was excited to install El Cap to enable split view with Affinity Designer, and an email with feedback from a client. Designer take up ⅔ of the screen fine, but when I select the Mail.app email, the email takes up my full display *behind* Designer, which totally obstructs the content of the email. I don’t think this is necessarily a bug with Designer, but just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this and if there are any work arounds. Thanks!