HYR

I'd love it if I could easily convert from Artistic Text to Frame Text with a click of a button or shortcut. I dislike having to create a new frame text and then copy the text out of the the artistic text box and past into the frame text box.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available
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Hi,
We are pleased to announce that a new Customer Beta of Affinity Publisher (1.8.0.502) is now available as a download from the link above.
As this is a 'Stability and General Testing' beta it is considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity where you may be adversely affected by the application failing, including the total loss of any documents. 
We hope you enjoy the beta, and as always, if you've got any problems installing or running up, please don't hesitate to post in this thread. 
Any problems actually using this version please make a new topic in this forum and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Please feel free to leave general suggestions and comments in the Discussion Forum. 
Many thanks for your continued feedback.
---
StudioLink
This build of Affinity Publisher, 1.8.0 Beta, requires 1.8.0 Beta builds of Photo and Designer for StudioLink to function. We hope to make these available soon.
---
New Features and Major Improvements
IDML Import
This build includes an importer for the IDML ((Adobe) InDesign Markup Language) file format. Many entities, attributes and properties are not currently imported. In general if a feature currently has no native support it is unlikely to be imported entirely successfully. In addition to this, please find below a list highlighting features we know are not currently supported fully.
Document
- Document User details
Spread / Page Items
- Promoted master page items
- Overprint properties
- Arrowheads
- Text on path
Transparency / FX
- Directional Feather
- Gradient Feather
Text Frames
- Content transparency / FX for text vs text + frame
- First baseline offset
Story Items
- Text layout can differ due to differences in composition and metric vs optical kerning
- TOC
- Index 
- Page number fields
- Hyperlinks
XLSX Import
This build includes an importer for the XLSX (Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet) file format. Excel files are placed as tables. The following are not currently supported.
- Formulae are imported as their calculated result value, which Excel stores in the file alongside the formula
- Local formatting is imported, but global Table Styles currently are not
- Overflowing cell content is handled differently in that Excel allows content of an overflowing cell to draw on top of adjacent cell if the cells are empty
Column Rules
The facility to add (vertical) rules / lines between columns in a multi-column text frame. The rules can be configured via the Text Frame Panel
Fixes and Smaller Updates
General
(Mac) Unified Toolbar tweaks
'Edit Document' for Linked Documents now works correctly rather than editing the embedded copy
Layers Panel should now maintain the expand / collapsed status of objects when switching spreads
Fixed issue for specific document where placed Designer file prevented Save
Fixed issue where export was causing application hang for specific document
(Win) Fixed crash dragging fill layer to bottom of layers stack
(Win) Fixed freeze editing colour from Swatches Panel
Master Pages
Changing size of Master Spread now offers option to update size of spreads it is applied to
Fixed issue whereby duplicating a Master Page Instance could unlink it
Blendmode / Opacity not working correctly with Master Page Instances
Adjustments were not working correctly when used with Master Page Instances
Picture Frames
Empty Picture Frames weren't showing in Assets Panel thumbnail previews
Replacing Master Pages containing Picture Frames with promoted context could distort content
(Mac) Original Size button wasn't functioning for Picture Frame content
Text
Paragraph Panel layout fixes
Fixed crash transposing characters (e.g. <Ctrl>+T on Mac)
Fixed Drop Cap anomalies
Leading Override can now be set to Auto in Text Style Editor
Fixed crash changing capitalization on multiple Text Frames simultaneously
(Win) Kerning in Base text style is now set to "Auto" 
(Mac) Custom text style shortcuts were not showing in Text Styles Panel
(Mac) Spell check not learning words originating from Master Pages
(Win) Fixed crash adding tab stop in Text Style Editor
(Mac) Paragraph leading, wrong separator being used with non-uk locale settings
DocX
Importing docx with no Text Frame selected fails to import style
Importing docx fails to apply 'Normal' style 
---
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

I don't have a problem with the feature at all, in fact I like it a lot. I just couldn't find it to disable it when I needed it to stop, which was frustrating.  I'd prefer the option to be available via the export persona and so I can use it on whatever file type I want.

Yay! For Mac users who own both Photo & Designer, this means that even though there is as yet no Mac Photo beta with this fix, we can import .abr raster brushes into this Designer beta's Pixel Persona, & from there export the brushes as .afbrushes files. Then we can import the .afbrushes file into Photo 1.7.2.

I'd love it if I could easily convert from Artistic Text to Frame Text with a click of a button or shortcut. I dislike having to create a new frame text and then copy the text out of the the artistic text box and past into the frame text box.

I'd love it if I could easily convert from Artistic Text to Frame Text with a click of a button or shortcut. I dislike having to create a new frame text and then copy the text out of the the artistic text box and past into the frame text box.

Status: Release Candidate
Purpose: Improvements and Fixes
Requirements: Mac OS 10.9 or above
Download: No longer available
Auto-update: No longer available
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher build 384 (RC1) is now available as a download from the link above. To be notified of further updates please press follow on this announcement thread.
We are very happy with Affinity Publisher 1.7 and are moving towards the final stages for launch, but would still urge some caution with respect to using this version for critical work as it is still possible we may have missed something that may cause you issues.
That said, please note that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs and hope to fix as many as possible before launch. After launch we will start a new Customer Beta for those who wish to have early access to on-going updates and fixes.
We hope you enjoy the product, and as always, if you've got any problems installing or running up, please don't hesitate to post in this thread. 
Any problems actually using this version please make a new topic in this forum and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Please feel free to leave general suggestions and comments in the Discussion Forum. 
Many thanks for your continued feedback.
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Fixes / Improvements
Open / Import / Export
Publisher now offer to convert Artboards to spreads for Photo documents as well as Designer documents
Warn before Export / Print if there are linked resource issues
Fixed PDF Export issue with zero height lines
Fixed RTF Export issue / crash when copy pasting text from Publisher
PDF Export - Fix for Greyscale export of RGB documents / placed RGB images
(Win) Fixed "Export text as curves" for EPS export
(Win) Fix for documents with facing pages always showing Page 1 when opened
Tools / Panels
Better handling of Convert To Curves for text frames
Fix crash with localised swatch names
Fixes for TOC Panel layout on windows
Text
Selecting text with keyboard would switch between pages at the wrong point
Fix crash when deleting path of Path Text
Tweaked attributes for text inserted after line break
Fixes for updates to Global Colours used in the StyleSheet
Fixes for Baseline Grid and Vertical Justify when text Baseline Grid text attribute is not set
Fixes for Bullet / Numbered List text UI
Fix for duplication of Pinned Text nodes
(Win) Font traits aren't always correctly highlighted in dropdown
(Win) Fixed Detach Paragraph from Text Style
Tables
Fixed hang editing Tables due to rounding errors when fitting text
Decorations fixed for rotated text in Table Cells
Fixes for Cell selection issues
Resource Manager
Better management on selection in Resource Manager when working with resources
Images
Fixes for Posterize adjustment
---
Earlier Release Notes Beta 376

I'd love it if I could easily convert from Artistic Text to Frame Text with a click of a button or shortcut. I dislike having to create a new frame text and then copy the text out of the the artistic text box and past into the frame text box.

I'd love it if I could easily convert from Artistic Text to Frame Text with a click of a button or shortcut. I dislike having to create a new frame text and then copy the text out of the the artistic text box and past into the frame text box.

Correct. I copied white text into the frame text box and the color well shows it copied the white color with it.
As you can see in the screenshot the background isn't white but dark. The text is white. The other screenshot shows the text itself (in the layer studio) and the color (in the color studio).
Does that clear anything up?

Hi Andremacola,

Do you have anything in the App Store build that you want to keep at the same time? If not then you should be able to do the following:
For Mac App Store do the following:
Go to \Users\username\Library\Application Support\Affinity Designer Beta\ and copy all the files and folders inside there. Go to \Users\username\Library\Containers\com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner\Library\Application Support\ and paste the contents into there overwriting whatever was in there. (Note to other readers) For Affinity Store do the following:
Go to "\Users\username\Library\Application Support\Affinity Designer Beta\" and copy all the files and folders inside there. Go to "\Users\username\Library\Application Support\Affinity Designer\" and paste the contents into there overwriting whatever was in there When you next run up the application it should have all the same settings your beta had. However please note that if you had already made any changes to 1.7 (or had any content from 1.6) already there these WILL BE LOST! If you wish to keep that then export those out and reimport before doing the steps above.

All I'll say is that I'm blown away by it! And thanks for the amazing work on all 3 products (+ the iPad apps). I'm slowly converting people one by one to switch to Affinity apps from Adobe's apps. Keep up the fantastic work!  

My jaw didn't so much drop… it fell to the floor and smashed to pieces.
Thanks for the dental bill, Affinity!

@dominik Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for. And thanks for the tip about each spread. 

Hi @HYR,
look at the menu 'View > View Mode > Clip to Canvas'.
Note that each spread has its own area left and right to it. It's not one big paste board.
d.

Really?
Cos I thought Views were quite a different thing!
See bottom of https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Panels/navigatorPanel.html
One open document can have many saved Views that home in on different parts of the document.
Where Next Window cycles between multiple open documents.

Hi there is a simple bug on text selection on all Affinity software - Photo, Designer and Publisher.  If you start with the text tool and then select a font you want to use the font selection reverts to Arial. This exists with the Art Text Tool as well as the Frame Text Tool.  The only workaround is to start typing in Arial and then change the text selection - and while this workaround works it really slows down my workflow, and honestly it's really quite annoying. This was not the case in previous betas and also with the MAS versions. Please fix.

It's easy to cmd+click into a series of nested groups to select and element but sometimes you want select the parent or the group itself. I'd like to suggest that pressing `Esc` would then move your selection to the parent/group. Pressing it again would select the next parent element/group and so on and so forth until you at the top level. Pressing `Esc` this level would allow you to select the artboard. `Esc` at the artboard level would leave nothing selected. I suggest this because I like to try to avoid the layers panel as much as possible and stay within the canvas/artboards.
Sort of an "up the chain" kind of selection through deselection.
I know not everyone will like this type of workflow so maybe it could be a preference that is checked?

It's easy to cmd+click into a series of nested groups to select and element but sometimes you want select the parent or the group itself. I'd like to suggest that pressing `Esc` would then move your selection to the parent/group. Pressing it again would select the next parent element/group and so on and so forth until you at the top level. Pressing `Esc` this level would allow you to select the artboard. `Esc` at the artboard level would leave nothing selected. I suggest this because I like to try to avoid the layers panel as much as possible and stay within the canvas/artboards.
Sort of an "up the chain" kind of selection through deselection.
I know not everyone will like this type of workflow so maybe it could be a preference that is checked?

It's easy to cmd+click into a series of nested groups to select and element but sometimes you want select the parent or the group itself. I'd like to suggest that pressing `Esc` would then move your selection to the parent/group. Pressing it again would select the next parent element/group and so on and so forth until you at the top level. Pressing `Esc` this level would allow you to select the artboard. `Esc` at the artboard level would leave nothing selected. I suggest this because I like to try to avoid the layers panel as much as possible and stay within the canvas/artboards.
Sort of an "up the chain" kind of selection through deselection.
I know not everyone will like this type of workflow so maybe it could be a preference that is checked?

It's easy to cmd+click into a series of nested groups to select and element but sometimes you want select the parent or the group itself. I'd like to suggest that pressing `Esc` would then move your selection to the parent/group. Pressing it again would select the next parent element/group and so on and so forth until you at the top level. Pressing `Esc` this level would allow you to select the artboard. `Esc` at the artboard level would leave nothing selected. I suggest this because I like to try to avoid the layers panel as much as possible and stay within the canvas/artboards.
Sort of an "up the chain" kind of selection through deselection.
I know not everyone will like this type of workflow so maybe it could be a preference that is checked?

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, improvements, fixes.
Requirements: TestFlight Acceptance.
App Store: Not submitted
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the latest beta of Affinity Photo 1.7 for iPad.
Photo 1.7 is a (very) significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.7 beta for critical work. This is a pre-release build of 1.7 - we will release more builds before 1.7 ships. Things will be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.
Please note that any 1.6 documents you load into this beta will subsequently fail to load back into 1.6 - please make copies first!
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.
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks (as always),
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since Last Beta
 
- Provided an upgrade path for adjustment layers created in 1.6 documents which now look wrong in 1.7. When you load those documents, they will now look correct - until you attempt to change their settings - at which point a message will be shown explaining that they have been upgraded.
- Fixed issues with Unsharp mask looking different at small radii with Metal compute enabled.
- Fixed HSL adjustment clamping 32bit values > 1.0.
- Fixed Vibrance adjustment clamping 32bit values > 1.0.
- Noise reduction improvements.
- Brightness / Contrast now works properly in 32bit mode and the Linear checkbox works again.
- Fixed the large text in the Stock panel search box.
- Attempted fixes for some "Touch for gestures only" issues.
- Rasterise & Trim added to the Layer menu.
- Fixed failure to show UI when adding Live Denoise / Live Procedural texture.
- Fixed Channel Mixer UI not fitting properly on smaller iPads.
- Significant stability improvements for newest iPad Air / iPad Mini devices.
- Long press menu will now offer "Duplicate Selection" if there is a pixel selection.
- Show the "Force Pressure" toggle in the inpainting tool to avoid confusion.
- Fix Colour Balance adjustment on older GPUs.
- Improved Colour Balance midtone adjustments.
- Improved lens correction detection rate for Panasonic Lens IDs.
- Completed HSL adjustment UI for iPad - including pretty range controls.
- Improved appearance of "Import from Photos".
- Live Filters are more stable on older iPad devices.
- General stability and performance tweaks.
 
Changes Since 1.6 Release
 
Performance
- Second generation Metal hybrid compositor, now 100% shared code with macOS Photo 1.7. All Metal accelerated features are now significantly faster - sometimes by over 100%.
- We have tweaked a number of app features to work better on both new and old iPad hardware.
UI
- All UI has been reworked aiming to make the usable area of the canvas bigger and the controls less intrusive.
- A new “monochromatic iconography” switch has been added to preferences - it does the same as the desktop version.
- The small buttons on the content bar (without labels) are gone.
Brushes
- Significant improvements in brushing performance and responsiveness.
- Photo 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time.
- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring.
- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.
- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.
- ABR brush import has been improved - preserving controller options correctly.
RAW
- The denoise algorithm has been rewritten.
- Added support for CR3 RAW.
- Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively).
Filters
- New “Voronoi” filter.
- Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona).
- More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter.
- Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document.
- Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters.
- Added round dot type to the halftone filter.
- Bilateral blur accuracy improvements.
- New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support.
- New “List mode” - like adjustments.
- Ability to add Live Filters directly from the filters studio - avoiding rasterisation.
Adjustments
- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.
- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.
- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.
- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.
Layers
- Layers page - added ability to tag layers with a colour - including PSD round-trip.
- New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection.
- Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu.
- Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim.
- Allow adding an empty group from the Layer menu.
Selections
- Significant improvements to selection refinement.
- When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate.
- Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool.
Tools
- The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism.
- The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results.
- Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off.
- Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool.
- A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)
- All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brushing has started - not just the pixel tool.
- Preferences now has a spline for controlling pencil input pressure.
- Preferences now allows you to assign actions to a pencil barrel double tap.
History
- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Photo will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.
- Snapshots are now available from the history panel.
I/O
- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.
- TIFF export now has user selectable compression method.
- Added support for 12bit TIFF files.
- Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness.
- Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.
- Added Focal Length to metadata summary view.
- Support 16bit CMYK TIFF import.
General
- Official support for iPad Air 3, iPad mini 5.
- The “Stock” panel is now available in Photo iPad. Tap to search and long-press-drag to drop content into your document.
- Added an “Assets” panel to Photo.
- The modifier keys on a hardware keyboard now work (alt, cmd, etc.). If you enable on-screen modifiers, a symbol has been added next to each one indicating which key it corresponds to.
- New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back.
- Ability to create a document from the contents of the clipboard.
- Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access.
- “Lock guides” added to menus.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
- Wonderful new samples.
- Numerous bug fixes - too many to list!

.

You could also reverse the relationship and make the shape a mask for the photo instead of making the photo a child of the rectangle.  To do that, drag the rectangle layer in the Layers panel over the thumbnail of the photo's layer; a vertical highlight should show up on the right edge of the thumbnail when you are in the right position to let go.  This makes the rectangle an actual mask of the photo, so you can select the rectangle in the layers palette and manipulate it without impacting the photo itself.
 
As @>|< pointed out, you can also use Lock Children with your current configuration.

Here is an official tutorial on Constraints:
Best regards!