Matthias

Great, thanks Matt!
One small suggestion: I think the Transform Origin crosshair should be visible by default, regardless whether you transform a bunch of nodes, an object or a group of objects. Wouldn’t distract from anything with the benefit of one less click.
When you chose one of the nine origin points in the Transform Panel it could even jump to the chosen point as a visual aid right in place. Thus you could even save the Transform Origin icon in the context bar as it would be visible all the time.
With several objects selected (which sometimes are hard to recognize as they don’t display their individual bounding boxes but just a faint blue line) an always-on-crosshair, indicating by default the centre of the selection, would have the added benefit of being an additional help to recognize which objects are actually selected.
Cheers
Matthias

Great, Sean. Just checked, you’re right :-)
Thanks a lot!

Hi Matthias,

This has now been fixed in the latest 1.7.0.312 build available below:
 

Hope this bug isn’t covered already:
Publisher 1.7.0.305. When I try to paste text on an empty page without first creating a text frame (of either flavor) Publisher quits immediately.

Great, thanks Matt!
One small suggestion: I think the Transform Origin crosshair should be visible by default, regardless whether you transform a bunch of nodes, an object or a group of objects. Wouldn’t distract from anything with the benefit of one less click.
When you chose one of the nine origin points in the Transform Panel it could even jump to the chosen point as a visual aid right in place. Thus you could even save the Transform Origin icon in the context bar as it would be visible all the time.
With several objects selected (which sometimes are hard to recognize as they don’t display their individual bounding boxes but just a faint blue line) an always-on-crosshair, indicating by default the centre of the selection, would have the added benefit of being an additional help to recognize which objects are actually selected.
Cheers
Matthias

Great, thanks Matt!
One small suggestion: I think the Transform Origin crosshair should be visible by default, regardless whether you transform a bunch of nodes, an object or a group of objects. Wouldn’t distract from anything with the benefit of one less click.
When you chose one of the nine origin points in the Transform Panel it could even jump to the chosen point as a visual aid right in place. Thus you could even save the Transform Origin icon in the context bar as it would be visible all the time.
With several objects selected (which sometimes are hard to recognize as they don’t display their individual bounding boxes but just a faint blue line) an always-on-crosshair, indicating by default the centre of the selection, would have the added benefit of being an additional help to recognize which objects are actually selected.
Cheers
Matthias

Hope this bug isn’t covered already:
Publisher 1.7.0.305. When I try to paste text on an empty page without first creating a text frame (of either flavor) Publisher quits immediately.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the beta of Affinity Designer 1.7 for macOS.
Designer 1.7 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version. Files edited in this version will not be backwards-compatible with the shipping 1.6 version. As such, we would not recommend using this 1.7 version for critical or production work at this stage. It is inevitable that there were will be a number of issues with 1.7 but we hope these will be minor and aim to resolve any issues very quickly, so please use it and explore the new features, but also do keep in mind that you may find snags and we would appreciate your help with finding and reporting these to us.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7. To be notified when there is a new beta please press follow on this announcment thread
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this initial release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks,
Matt
 
Please refer to previous beta 1.7.0.4 post where there's a list of major changes since 1.6. This latest update builds on the 1.7.0.10 changes and also includes the following changes:
Fix for issues saving after applying a 'none' arrowhead! Miscellaneous PDF import improvements. Artboard positions are now show relative to the whole spread, rather than showing as 0,0 at all times. Pen Tool now has an extra option to allow for the selection to be retained while adding new curves/extending existing ones. This is useful for allowing you to make use of snapping to other object geometry while creating/editing curves. It is on by default. 'Rotation centre' is now 'Transform origin' to better reflect what it does. Added a user-definable transform origin to the Node Tool's transform mode. Inserting a fill colour stop now correctly interpolates intensity (useful for 32bit documents).

The way it works now is not the way it is supposed to work. It is supposed to reduce the document size; it's a bug that it doesn't. We're not intending a "tracked" feature.
This hasn't been fixed already for internal reasons I can't explain here, but we've not forgotten about it.

We are in the same boat, fde101.
Your three states are exactly what I have in mind, with the merely semantic difference that I’d lump the existing first two states together and switch from the default ”tracked“ state to ”embedded“ by user choise via a pop-up once a ”tracked” ressource is changed externally. But I’d be just as happy with three separate modes — as long as the third one is of the new „truely linked” flavour.

Actually, let's expand on this a bit...  it could be "all possible" resources or similar, but why not at the same time offer an option to actually export embedded resources for which the original files might be missing to a selected folder then link to the exported resources?
 
How about an "Update Status" button that gives us a popup with some options:
Update resources: (all, currently linked, currently embedded, selected in resource manager, selected in document) With source files: (available or missing, available, missing/unknown) [ ] Copy/Export resources (to where?) [ ] Only if source file not available [ ] Re-link to exported files Status: (remains unchanged, update to embedded, update to linked)

I, too, have similar considerations... However, it would also make sense to me to have a "Master Embed All Graphics" button selection as well as the option for  "Link All Graphics" for more flexibility.

However they name things, there needs to be a way to NOT have the graphics moved into the Publisher file. Think about a project that consists of several Publisher files. Why would I want a photo or logo that is identical throughout copied into each Publisher file? It's not necessary and the file size would be unnecessarily large.

Why not be able to press option anytime while dragging? It should be possible to modify the given action at any time, it‘s a modifier key after all. As a Mac user I am used to this behaviour from macOS Finder. So I still find myself accidentally expecting it in Affinity apps where nothing will happen as long as I haven’t pressed option before I start dragging. I think this is an oversight as it wouldn’t interfere with anything else.

Thanks, Matt. You’re the best!

Since ‘visible’ means ‘enabled’ here, why not change the label from ‘Show’ to ‘Enable’?

Läppä, I’d opt for your second suggestion: click + drag -> modify the action anytime in the midst of dragging by pressing the modifier key. Why not just do it like macOS Finder does?
 

At the moment, Alt+drag duplicates, but alt+click does not select: you need to have the object first selected, then alt+drag. This is quite tedious dealing with small objects, with which the transform handles tend to get in the way.
Please facilitate either immediate duplicating by alt+click -> drag without lifting mouse button, or by click+drag -> alt pressed while dragging. 
Keep up the good work!

Affinity Designer vector output to Apple Motion: I am all for it as well. Even if was an unofficial hack for the time being, an experimental export feature (and labeled as such) it would still be tremendously helpful.

They did comment in another thread that they were aware of a bug that was corrupting files by leaving behind master page layers for deleted master pages, but had not yet determined exactly what was causing that.  They are working that issue.
There was supposedly a bug fix in the most recent beta to prevent it from crashing when that happens, however.

I could be wrong, but from what I've read I believe that every topic posted in the "Report bugs in Publisher beta..." forums creates a trouble ticket to ensure that the Affinity team will be aware of it. If I'm right on that, they may not be aware of every post, but they certainly know (or will know) that you created the topic
(But yes, the community may forget, or not notice, as you mentioned.)

Sure they are, Walt. I do not expect the Affinity team to be aware of every petty post, they have work to do and they are doing it greatly. But there is also a huge community of talented fellow designers knowing lots of things I don’t. Hoping to tap into their knowledge is why I bumped on the weekend — just before this post will fade away into the mist of time.

Did you use a PDF version that understands transparency? Or is this rendered with something like PDF X/1a? It might be just a workaround but many print shops accept PDF X/4, which should handle transparencies better. 

Loving the new arrowheads, Matt! Two things, though:
1) When using a textured brush style some of the filled arrowhead types adapt to the textured style and some don’t. Maybe all should have the contour property that adapts to the chosen brush type.
2) Just a proposition: Can you place the arrowhead controls in the context bar for pen and brush tool? Maybe by duplicating the contour control of the move tool context bar.

Loving the new arrowheads, Matt! Two things, though:
1) When using a textured brush style some of the filled arrowhead types adapt to the textured style and some don’t. Maybe all should have the contour property that adapts to the chosen brush type.
2) Just a proposition: Can you place the arrowhead controls in the context bar for pen and brush tool? Maybe by duplicating the contour control of the move tool context bar.