loukash

What I actually meant is that even though I have like … um, all in all about 30 years of "some" (actually professional) "knowledge of this type of software" (PageMaker, XPress, InDesign, Freehand, Illustrator, you name it), I find some of the APu's functionality to be rather unintuitive, and the built-in help not being very helpful, in particular when it comes to the details that are different from the other "this type of software".

It's explained in the bottom infobar while this cursor mode is active: "[…] Drag to move selection. […]" In APu, you can do something much better with the command key that you can't do in ID: Selecting non-consecutive parts of text to modify them, i.e. providing the same functionality as the standard MacOS text framework. Frankly though, at first I was also trying to move the text frame by pressing the command key. You can't cheat on 15 years of ID muscle memory, haha… Come on. I'd expect that about 90 % of APu users have "already a some knowledge of this type of software", namely InDesign. So far, almost every time I had to consult the Help was when I attempted to accomplish something obvious in a way I would have done it in the corresponding Adobe application, and the Affinity app just did something else .

On Mac, this is actually a system function. Open/Save dialogs are provided by the OS. The OS also keeps track of last places and writes the location into the respective application's preferences file (*.plist). Depending on where you've got your app from, it's either in ~/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist (apps from Serif Store) or ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist (sandboxed apps from Apple App Store). The standard XML key to look for is "NSNavLastRootDirectory", that's the one provided by the MacOS. For some reason though, Affinity apps also store their own last directories keys, named "com.seriflabs.opensave.panel.startupdir", "com.seriflabs.export.panel.startupdir" and possibly more as needed. I don't which preference key has more priority, but I'd assume "com.seriflabs.opensave.panel.startupdir" overrides "NSNavLastRootDirectory".

On a Mac, get Default Folder. Any such problems solved, with any app that you are using whatsoever.

Frankly, I only found that button accidentally just a few days ago, after it's been driving me nuts for weeks…

Possibly the same issue as here?

Click the "Hide Selection While Dragging" button in the Contextual Toolbar:

Alright, there is some kind of a strange behavior in ADesigner. This is what happens when "adding" a complex closed form with crossing path: This is what Illustrator CS5 does with exactly the same two vector paths, using the "Vereinen" (= unite/merge/combine; no idea how it's called in the English version) Pathfinder function: In theory both results should be the same, but only Illustrator does the logical thing and simply creates an outline of both forms.

What I mean is that 1 + -2 = -1 That might be the case here.

This intersection of paths is what's causing it: It's likely neither a bug nor a feature; it's math.

Do they need to be this exact shape and position? If you move one path only 0.1 px, then they add up as expected.

Hm… wait. It worked after I have done "something" else to the paths, but it doesn't work on your fresh file. Needs more investigation…

Select one of the paths with the Node Tool, click the Reverse Curves button in the Context Toolbar, then select both paths, then Add. But yeah, it's definitely not very obvious what's going on here.

I have absolutely no idea how it functions (or not) on Windows. I haven't used a Windows PC in… at least a decade or two…

On Mac, for apps purchased directly from Serif it's in ~/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist or for sandboxed apps from Apple's App Store it's in ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name]/Data/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist Look for a key named com.seriflabs.Studio.Data2[persona_name]-tab The data strings of those keys are stored in hex format, not as text, so you need a hex editor to actually read or even edit them. Prefs Editor can do it. It should be possible to backup and restore these data chunks via the "defaults" terminal command, but that's way over my modest programming skills. However you can always restore the aforementioned keys from your Time Machine backup (you guys do back up, right? if not, I have no pity :P) by restoring a copy of the plist file to its original location (you can keep it there; as long as it has "copy" in its file name it won't do absolutely anything, it will just sit there), opening it with Prefs Edit (RTFM!), copying the old workspaces, and pasting them into the current plist. Or simply replace the whole current plist file altogether. Happy tinkering.