h_d

I don't know why it's happening, but I can tell you how to stop it. If you expand the entries in the index panel you'll see that there are a number of apparently blank lines:
 

 
If you click on these lines and then press the delete (bin) icon in the Index panel, the full stops (periods) will disappear.

 

 
Possibly a bug, but hope this helps you to sort them.

I don't know why it's happening, but I can tell you how to stop it. If you expand the entries in the index panel you'll see that there are a number of apparently blank lines:
 

 
If you click on these lines and then press the delete (bin) icon in the Index panel, the full stops (periods) will disappear.

 

 
Possibly a bug, but hope this helps you to sort them.

I can duplicate that if I create a caption box asset using a style called Caption, and subsequently make changes to the style.
The asset retains the settings for the original style, and rather than overwrite or update the newly edited Caption style it creates a new one every time I place the asset on the page.
I suspect this is intended as a helpful feature. The quickest way round it (assuming I've identified the problem you're having) would be to delete the original asset and create a new one.

Unfortunately the link from the first of these posts to the guide itself is dead. The second link (ultimately to @dmstraker's comprehensive PDF) is live and really helpful.

Hi Thank you for your response and advice. I have also received a response from the FB which was very helpful! It sounds very much like AP{ is would provide me with what I want i.e. somewhere to learn the basics but also provide more advanced features as I getter better! I like the fact that it uses layers which I believe means that it is non destructive! 
Being retired I have the time to spend learning and the fact that there are tutorials is also a bonus. I think I will take advantage of the free trial and go from there! It certainly looks a good programme and it receives good reviews! When it comes time for me to purchase I will buy direct from the site rather than through MS store.
Thanks again for your time and advice. Best wishes Dave. 

It's specifically connected with Apple's security settings on apps downloaded from the Apple App Store, nothing to do with the age, speed, memory or hardware configuration of the machine. I bought Photo and Designer from the Apple App Store and they exhibit the issue. I bought Publisher from the Affinity Store and it does not.

Thank you h_d for taking time to show me how things are done. 👍
Yain

If you mean this sort of thing, then yes, it's possible. Here's a crude and inexpert example:

 
I created a new document. The plain background is a fill layer with a paper texture over it, the blend mode on the paper is set to Linear Burn.
The moss is a placed image, rasterised, then a hole cut into it by dragging out a rough shape with the Freehand Selection Tool and deleting the selection.
The dog statue and the mushrooms are placed images, rasterised, and cut out using the Selection Brush Tool. They're layered behind the moss. I duplicated the moss layer, dragged it above the dog and deleted an area of moss around the dog's head so it appears the dog is over the moss at the top and under the moss at the bottom.
I also applied some very rough Outer Shadow and 3D effects to the image layers.

I know, it looks rubbish. A better artist would make a better job.
 
 
montage.afphoto

It's specifically connected with Apple's security settings on apps downloaded from the Apple App Store, nothing to do with the age, speed, memory or hardware configuration of the machine. I bought Photo and Designer from the Apple App Store and they exhibit the issue. I bought Publisher from the Affinity Store and it does not.

😮 That's odd - reproduced here. I'll get this logged with the developers. 

Further update to original post:
This behaviour is repeatable for all tools using the following steps:
1) Switch into Separated Mode
2) Open a document or create a new one.
3) Select any tool.
4) Drag the document window so the status bar disappears at the bottom of the screen.
5) Click on the Desktop to activate Finder.
6) Click on the Affinity Photo document window and drag the window back so the bottom is in view.
7) Status bar info, shortcuts etc are displayed briefly and then disappear.

@h_d   Definitely chains.  Back in the 1700’s George Washington would have employed chain bearers to help him with his surveyor chores.  If it worked for GW it would surely work for us!  

Ells... Perches... Rods... Chains... No fully-featured graphic design application should be without them.

That must be a Windows thing because it doesn't seem to happen on macOS:

But only by a matter of seconds, and you gave a slightly different solution, and also added smoothing which I failed to mention.

Ells... Perches... Rods... Chains... No fully-featured graphic design application should be without them.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Lizzie.
What’s happening is that there is an embedded subset of the font in the PDF, but that subset only includes individual letters. So when ligatures are used for letter sequences such as the ‘fi’ in ‘fiction’ or the ‘ff’ (or, more likely, the ‘ffi’) in ‘office’, they aren’t available for display and you get a blank instead. To fix it, you need to arrange for the font to be embedded without subsetting.

Sloppy answer on my part in the wee small hours typing on a tiny iPhone screen.  Ugh.  Should have written “measurement units.”   Yes, I vote for furlongs, and perhaps leagues too?

Also go to Document>Resize and change the units without changing the measurements:

And what I want to know is why don't we have furlongs...

Try Document>Flip Horizontal, or selecting the layer with the Move tool before choosing Arrange>Flip Horizontal.
Both have the same effect.
 

I believe that files are completely interchangeable between the two platforms. I've opened .afpub files uploaded to these forums from both, and both have worked. Buy, buy, buy... 😃
(Or get the 90-day free trial and give it a whirl before you do.)
EDIT: as long as you both have the same fonts...

As far as I'm aware, the Pen Tool's Selection (and Mask) buttons are only available in Affinity Photo:

 

One intro is @James Ritson's tutorial on compositing images.

"Horizontal" and "vertical" refer to the orientation of the guides, not to the position of what you're measuring. You do indeed use a horizontal guide to measure the vertical distance from the origin to the position of the guide. But the guide itself is horizontal, and that's why it's called a horizontal guide.
 In other words: vertical guides are parallel to the y axis. Horizontal guides are parallel to the x axis.  
Every graphic application I have ever used has this convention. Arguing against it is fruitless.

Also, we never scanned a halftone print at a degree, which is dividable by 45 (or better 30). As those hit the common angles of at least one of the raster layers for print. The results have been better (read: less moiré), if you scanned at an odd angle (like, turn the sheet by just 3-ish or 7-ish degrees.