Jim Monson

LOL. G'night, Jim! 

As far as I know, there has never been an option to use CMD + OPT to resize anything proportionally in Affinity Designer. On a Mac, holding down the CMD key resizes from the center (as indicated in the Status bar), & Option-dragging or CMD-dragging on a selected object (not on its bounding box) drags out a duplicate.
 
To resize Frame text or a group or Layer containing Frame text, use the extra control handle that appears below & to the right of the selection bounding box.

By default, objects with a natural aspect ratio (e.g. images) will scale proportionally when you drag on a corner handle, but other objects (e.g. shapes from the toolbar) will not. To override the default behaviour, hold down the Shift key as you drag.
 
If you prefer the default aspect ratio constraint behaviour to be the same for all objects/layers regardless of their type, go to 'Preferences > Tools' and change the Move Tool Aspect Constrain setting accordingly.
 

You can't do it in a single operation, Jim, but if the text is all the same size and you resize the text frame by a percentage (with constraints on) you can resize the text by the same percentage to keep everything in proportion.
 

It would be useful to have an option in AD of saving what panels and how they appear in my View/Studio. These "custom" studio setups could then be brought into any AD doc. 

The SVG export in AD of a text term (both frame and artistic) does not appear to recognize AD tracking correctly.The SVG made from AD puts the proper tracking between the first and second character of a single word, but then bunches all of the next letters together as if they had no tracking, but the last letter appears in its proper place at the very end with a large space before it, i.e., as if all of the other letters had been properly tracked.
 
I have tried using kerning rather than tracking in creating the same single term (again in both frame and artistic text), but all metric options are greyed (not available). In this respect, I have to return to Illustrator which works better, although the tracking/kerning in the SVG is slightly less than in the original.
 
BTW, I'm still trying to figure out how kerning vs tracking works in AD since it appears to be different than I understand from my publishing experience. Are there any posts or help articles that could illuminate my ignorance?

Many thanks, Leigh. When I run across this again I will let you know with a sample doc.
 
I have become more and more adept at choosing the right layers or sub-layers within the Illustrator doc and dropping them in AD in order to maintain sub-layers. It is not always consistent but is far better than having to sort out all of the texts and graphics in one long layer.
 
It might be helpful for someone in the AD team to make up a list of "realities" with suggestions for your frustrated former Illustrator users since others appear to have these issues. You folks are so good at what you do that I'm sure such a list would be very clear and helpful, especially for the AD new-comer. It might even win more over to AD and its very user-friendly approach to what has become somewhat of a jungle in Illustrator. 

A good tracing tool in AD with options of exactness would be extremely useful for those of us who have brought over complex docs from Illustrator (AI). As you no doubt know, AI comes up in AD will all types of problems (ellipses become curves, curved strokes export from such AD docs as much bigger SVGs, etc.). Even a simple road I tediously drew on a map in AI exported as an SVG of about 800k from the "AI to AD" doc, but when I redrew the road in AD the exported SVG was only 7k. This is a big difference when developing an app with many such SVGs.
 
Also, myriad of city-dots imported from AI to AD became a very large SVG, but redrawing these dots as ellipses in AD greatly reduced size of the exported SVG, but this was a lot of the work, even with cutting and pasting ellipses. 
 
Thus, for those of us who are importing our previous AI work, a good AD tracing tool would be invaluable. Thanks for your consideration, all of you who make AD the wonderful program all that it already is.

It would be useful to have an option in AD of saving what panels and how they appear in my View/Studio. These "custom" studio setups could then be brought into any AD doc. 

AD has a convenient keystroke to create a new layer but once the layer appears I must click another time to name the layer. It would be very helpful and a time-saver if the new layer would come up with the label name area already selected (open), ready to type. It would seem to me that anyone creating a new layer would automatically want to name it. Naming and managing layers in AD is just a joy compared to Illustrator CC (which often crashes in the layer-naming process with my large files), and the above AD addition would be make it even better.

In working on text and graphics on a complex geology map I quickly go back and forth between graphics and text. Many thanks for adopting my earlier suggestion to make the Frame Text tool much easier to work with. I now have a request for exiting the Artistic Text tool.
 
Here is how I quickly work using keyboard shortcut "s" for the move tool, "d" for the node tool and  "c" for the pen tool. Thus my left hand can get the tool I need without moving around the keyboard. Meanwhile my right hand always stays with the mouse. When working in a text I can quickly click outside of a frame text without initiating a new frame text, then with my left hand chose one of the above shortcuts. However, when clicking outside an artistic text things get more complicated. Unless stopping and paying very careful attention while pressing one of my above shortcuts I can easily make a mistake and create a new artistic text. One must be very careful to note if one has selected a *line* with a text on it, or if one is inside the text itself. In the former case, clicking outside this selection does not activate a new artistic text, but in the latter case clicking outside does. This is confusing, or it at least increases the potential of making a mistake and then having to back up. Thus my request.
 
It there anyway to program AD so that clicking outside the actual artistic text on which one is working would guarantee that a new artistic text is not created? Seldom, if ever, do I want to do go directly from editing an artistic text to creating a new artistic text. Thus I wish that creating a new artistic text were not so automatic. I would find it much more useful if clicking outside the artistic text would take me to the Move tool or the Node tool since I almost always want to adjust something with those tools. Perhaps one click would allow one to exit the Artistic Text tool and two clicks would remain in Artistic Text tool.
 
Yes, I know I should work more slowly, stop and make a concerted effort to see just where I am (inside a text of just on a line of a text). However, since you have made the exit from the Frame Text tool to one of my shortcuts so easy, I now wish that there might be a similar solution for exiting the Artistic Text tool. Thanks for at least considering this.

I realize that you there at Serif are busier than a cat on a tin roof, but I will add my request to that of others. The AD/AP combo would be a dream come true.

AD's option of selecting multiple layers and then locking or unlocking them via a keystroke is fabulous. Very intuitive and fast. However, there appears to be no way to reveal/hide the sublayers of a single layer or multiple sublayers under higher layer(s). This exists in Illustrator (holding down OPT in the top layer and clicking). Even better would be to chose all top layers and then reveal/hide them with a keystroke (as in your lock/unlock option). 
 
My problem is that in bringing over a very detailed geological map project from Illustrator into AD I am left with multiple sub, subsub and subsubsub layers/curves (which were clipped colored regions in Illustrator). Presently I must go down a myriad of top layers and individually expand sublayer after sublayer. To do this with a single click would be extremely helpful. Perhaps this is already possible in AD and I have not discovered it.
 
PS: All of the sublayers in this AD doc were not visible in Illustrator but became visible in AD as it attempted to "translate" the doc from Illustrator's no doubt complex programming.

Usually a doc will automatically save a color palette together with saving the doc. AD, however, appears not to do this, although I have tried all three methods when saving my color palettes (application, document and system). Today I worked hard to streamline my color palette which had become quite complex. Then I foolishly went on working in the doc and forgot to save the palette, thus losing all of my work when I rebooted. I would think that AD would have some type of message reminding the user that the palette has been altered and not saved. 
 
Perhaps I am missing something here. (For sure I forgot to save the palette!) Could someone point me to more info on the color palette since it is more complex than Freehand or Illustrator (which is quite good, I'm sure), but with more options comes the need for a better explanation of how to exploit these options. Thanks!

Eureka! Having again looked at every layer and finding nothing grouped, I persisted, thanks to your post, MEB. I finally looked at the Layer menu (rather than simply using the shortcut for "Ungroup") and found "Ungroup All." I highlighted all layers and via the Layer menu chose "Ungroup All." This worked, and now I can drag various layers, encompassing entire object(s) and thereby make my selections. 
 
At some point I must have mistakenly used the "Group" shortcut while my layers were selected. I regret putting you through this. Again, thanks, MEB.

After much more editing in AD and with the help of all of your comments, I have shed my Illustrator habits and become better adjusted to how to do what I want to do in AD.
 
1. In AD changing the position of a text box while editing within its text (including moving it to a totally new position) is simply done by revealing the needed hidden "tool," which becomes visible via a cursor move.
 
2. Actually changing from the Frame Text tool to the Move tool can be done either by pushing ESC a couple times and then choosing the desired shortcut key for a new tool, OR simply by clicking once (outside of the text box---which does not change the Frame Text tool icon on the screen but which allows one to choose the desired shortcut key for a different tool.
 
My former problem was that I had not noticed that I was in the Artistic Text tool (which does not work this way) rather than in the Frame Text tool. I wish that one could use the "click outside the text" method with the Artistic Text tool as is possible with the Frame Text tool.
 
Thanks for your patience!

After much more editing in AD and with the help of all of your comments, I have shed my Illustrator habits and become better adjusted to how to do what I want to do in AD.
 
1. In AD changing the position of a text box while editing within its text (including moving it to a totally new position) is simply done by revealing the needed hidden "tool," which becomes visible via a cursor move.
 
2. Actually changing from the Frame Text tool to the Move tool can be done either by pushing ESC a couple times and then choosing the desired shortcut key for a new tool, OR simply by clicking once (outside of the text box---which does not change the Frame Text tool icon on the screen but which allows one to choose the desired shortcut key for a different tool.
 
My former problem was that I had not noticed that I was in the Artistic Text tool (which does not work this way) rather than in the Frame Text tool. I wish that one could use the "click outside the text" method with the Artistic Text tool as is possible with the Frame Text tool.
 
Thanks for your patience!

Thanks, barninga, but this does not seem to work, unless I'm doing something wrong. I'm not sure where the title bar of the app is. I tried dragging to the title "Affinity Designer" at the very top left of the screen (where the currently used app is listed), and the doc title I'm currently working on, and to the Affinity Designer in my doc. I tried with a doc open and then restarting the program without a doc up. Thanks for any clarification you can provide. Much appreciated!

For what little it's worth, the "Toolbar" naming convention is one you will find used in many OS X apps, including some of Apple's own like Preview & Safari. So for instance, if you are using Safari to read this, control-click on the top section of the window (the toolbar) & you will see the "Customize Toolbar..." option pop up. In general, toolbars contain buttons that perform some immediate action, although there also are some that activate dropdown menus.
 
Collections of tool icons are sometimes called "tool palettes" to distinguish them from toolbars. If that was not confusing enough, we now have other window-spanning bars with different names & purposes. For example, Safari has the Favorites bar, the status bar, & the sidebar; & Affinity has the Contextual toolbar. iTunes has ... well, a bunch of stuff, some of which doesn't even seem to have a name.

From my few days of working in AD I believe that one can only making arrowheads in AD by creating a separate graphic and attaching it on to a shaft. The arrowhead can thus be manipulated as a separate part of a group. Is that correct or does AD have an "arrowhead maker" that I have not found yet?
 
I should add that I imported at lot of my Illustrator work. Arrowheads I made in Illustrator come out beautifully in AD. Hats off to you at AD who thought of all of us with tons of previous work in Illustrator. This makes AD more fabulous than ever!

Hi Jim,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
Without seeing a screenshot of your layer structure it's difficult to guess what's going on (or a dropbox link to a sample file - since new users can't upload files in the begining).
Are you sure you are placing the objects inside another layer instead of inside another object (layer clipping)?