Jim Monson

I am adding my related question to this older thread. I have used Affinity Designer (AD-Mac Desktop) for years a could not work without it. I know how the Color and Swatches palette work, however, I have consistently run into the following problems and have not found any forum comments nor videos that address them. BTW, I agree with the above, i.e., that making a color palette from the colors in a doc is very nice but problematic since the palette produces has far to many colors, and the option of limiting the number of colors is useful but the result is not always what I need - but that is a separate issue. Here are my problem. I have 40-50 specific colors that I always used on a detailed geology map I created. They are specifically name for various types of rock, soils and other items on the map. I save these colors in an AD color palette such as "AD-GB Colors-200109.afpalette." This allows me to update to palette with a new date, if necessary. I have done this trying all three options (Application, Document and System), understanding what the difference between these options are. Problem 1: From what I understand, the above document option means that the above named palette should appear after I close the doc and open it again. However, this palette does not appear as the one I previously used for the doc, (the name that come up just below the swatch colors. I must pull down this menu and find the palette that I want. Since a person is working with the same doc and the same palette as before, why must the user go and and find the palette every time the doc is opened? To me, this appears to be the way it should work. Problem 2: Currently, after importing the above named palette (which was exported as both an application and a document palette), and then importing it, the name above does not appear for importing, either as an application or a document palette. The various options shown in the pull down menu (below the swatch colors) are older palettes, according to how I previously exported them (either as an application or a document palette). Sorry to be so verbose but I wanted to be clear.

Saving history has been a great help in the past, although it can become a very large list in the editing of a complex map that I do. Elsewhere there is a discussion about making this history option even more helpful by organizing it by date or even being able to organized it via some type of "layers." I cannot find the thread at the moment, but hope that Affinity is considering the suggestions made in it. My problem with the above suggestions for both deleting pages and layers is that I must remember to check things out (such as the trash) before quitting, which can be quite a task. Again, a simple preference of seeing a warning for deleting a page or a layer would be very helpful in this regard.

In my opinion, deleting a page or layer in Affinity apps is too easy. Could there be a preference added that would allow the user to see a warning before deleting a page or layer? I know that the user can see if a layer is empty by its icon, but a simply touching the delete key can easily delete a layer without the user noticing. This is one of the few things I appreciated about Illustrator. As to deleting a page, I found this morning that two complex double pages of a large doc I was working on until late last night are gone this morning. I must have deleted them without noticing. OK, it's my mistake for working late at night, but a "Do you want to delete this/these pages" would have saved me tons of time today. This could be a preference so that one could receive the message or not. Thanks for considering this.

Finally, I found a work around that appears to solve this problem without rebooting. In Layer Effects I simply click on a different effect and then back to Gradient Overlay and I can then edit the Gradient color. There must be a bug somewhere in Gradient Overlay that is cleared (at least for awhile) when I do this. Your suggestion, Thorgas, did not seem to work for me.

PS - And also, R C-R, I now can change the stroke color in all three sublayers via the top layer.

You're are right on, R C-R. That is exactly what it was, a pix layer hiding in that one sublayer. It is obvious now that you pointed it out. Many thanks.

Why do some layers or sublayers in AD (Mac) allow me to change the stroke color of objects, but other layers apply the color over they entire document? When applying a color from Swatches I am very careful to only choose the stroke and not the fill. Below is a snap of the top layer and its three sublayers. In the North and South sublayers my change of stroke color is applied only to the objects in those two layers (2nd snap=larger broken line is black as intended), but in the Central sublayer the color is applied across the entire document (3rd snap=red so that you could see the difference and that the larger black broken line remains black). I see no difference if the layer is first created and then objects placed in it rather than grouping objects and naming the group as a layer. Is there a difference, and if so what is it? In addition, it appears that in the top layer only certain changes can be made to the objects in the sublayers (such as stroke size but not color, at least not for my strokes seen below). Is the protocol for such specific edits in AD layers, sublayers and even sub-sublayers explained somewhere?

Great discussion. Since in my data heavy file I have to wait for the Move Tool to appear after pressing CMD, and since it getting the mouse in the exact position to do what I want to do, I'm wasting more time than simply pushing ESC and shortcutting to the tool I want. More often than not, whatever key shortcut I use then appears in my text and I have to undo and try again. Clicking outside the Frame Text box to exit the box works great, but for Art Text it's a different story. In this case I use the ESC method since the Art Text took is too eager to create another Art text. But AD is light years beyond Illustrator so I'm not complaining - but it would be nice to have the Illustrator feature that pushing CMD •totally• frees me to work with the Move Tool and does not require me to take the time to find the exact place for my cursor in order to resize or move. I'll live with that any day rather than struggling in Illustrator again. Bravo Affinity!

Can Affinity Designer allow the user to use the modifier CMD in Mac temporarily to use the Move Tool? This was so helpful in Illustrator. I find in AD that holding down CMD acdtually shows the Move Tool, but I cannot actually use. This means that when working with a text I must go to tools or use my shortcut, which of course means that I have to use ESC or some other method to exit the text itself. It would be so much easier simply to hold CMD, move the the text box and then release CMD. Perhaps this would not work with Art Text.

The above tips have been very useful. Thanks. Now I wish that Affinity could add he option of having the actual view icon box disappear and only show the list of views. I combine various panels as much as possible and arrange them on my screen, but rather than clicking to show the Navigator, to take up less real estate it would be very useful to just have the list of views, even though I have reduced the Navigator to be as small as possible.That is, adding an option in the Navigator to show the full panel or only the list of views. This would be very neat and unobtrusive.

I agree with Walt. Why not the choice? I just wasted a couple hours looking for some where in AP to get rid of what was outside my 140 mg tif since I did not want to carry that weight around. Adobe Photoshop made this so easy 25 years ago. I am taking a beautiful set of 19th century maps drawn in some 20 very large sheets (yes, each a 140 mg scan for top readability), cropping the huge borders on each panels and pasting and placing each panel into an AP doc of much larger dimensions (my master map) in order to create one continuous borderless map. I open each panel in a separate AP doc, crop its borders and then with select all (CMD A), copy it and paste it in my master AP doc. Problem is that sometime my Copy/Paste contains the cropped map and sometimes with the map and the borders, changing nothing in the Copy/Paste process. I searched for an answer and found a tiny online note: "Cropping is non-destructive, you can always uncrop by selecting the document drop-down and select unclip canvas.” I wish Affinity had alerted us to this rather than forcing us to discover it ourselves. In the meantime, it looks like exporting or trimming method above is the only option. I could drop (embed) each AP doc in my master map but that quickly becomes cumbersome. PS: Just tried your Rasterize and Trim tip, Walt, and it worked well. Thanks! I wish Affinity had let us know that instead of all this forum discussion.

Great help, Walt and R C-R. I should have guessed that Affinity would have thought of some creative way. Your input, however, made it crystal clear. Many thanks.

The above explanations were helpful, but it also would be useful to be able to go back to recent views, especially if one had the shortcut option to do this. I am working on various parts of a large map on an iMac Pro and having to find which screen is which takes time, even if I leave a little part of each screen visible. Being able to go to different views on the same screen would be much easier. Now I simply use the Mac' Spaces and put different views on different spaces (two or three). That works but it is hard on the eyes going back and forth.

Yes, Meb. I am a constant shortcut user, but It do not use alt+space and click to zoom out. I simply use CMD 0 (zero). I will ty to not when this occurs, but by the time it happens and I notice it, it is hard to remember what I actually did. I do not think it happen on thw "Save" shortcuts, Lee. Will let you two know when it occurs again.

I would like to "second the above motion." I use colour palettes all the time and have about 50 of them I can call up, but why can't I simply have the same palettes that I was just using in the same AD or AP doc appear when I bring the same doc up again after bringing the app anew? As thomaso states above, why is there not an option to make my current palatte the default palette rather than going looking for it among my many palettes. Thomaso's three suggestions above seem to me to be a given and would be a big help for me and I'm sure for others, also. I wonder why Affinity has not made it so.