Old Bruce

I want it to choose the tool I am staring at. Seriously I have had to undo several steps after trying to do just that in many many different applications over the years, you would think I would learn but no.

Uncheck the "Replace Existing"

+ 1

More like DOA ('dead on arrival' here in Canada).

Do you have View > Show Tools checked? the Text Frame ('text placeholder or text box.') looks like a square with a T in it. It is up near the top of the tools. Select that tool and then click and drag on the page. I think that @fde101 means is that using a Text Frame on a Master Page will not be blank on pages it is applied to and allow you to put text into it on those pages. This method will be available later on we all hope. If you want text on the Master Page repeated on each page then yes use the Master Page with a Text Frame. I use it for page numbers and Section Names and static stuff too.

Hmm, could well be. I would like to point out that I was unclear, a failing of mine, and that I think we agree on much of what you have written. My comment about 'hit and miss' was meant as a comment on the entire ecosystem using the "Full Keyboard Access:... All controls" I have found that many times I cannot use the tab key to speed things up because there are so many fields, buttons and checkboxes in a dialog box that it is easier and quicker to just mouse into the one I want. So I do not use the function. If I had difficulty using a mouse, as many people do, then I would engage it and silently curse the poor design of whatever dialog box I am in. Much of the current betas from Affinity suffer from poor implementation of tabbing between fields. Again, I think we agree on much of what you have written, perhaps all of it. Thanks for looking for instances of 'wrongness'.

Text Styles could be an Epic Series of videos.

Does it have to be margins? Can you not work with guides? And yes this Master Page margins thing is a pain.

Not seeing that here, but I don't really know what a 'Power Field list item' is.

I think I may have the same problem, but I am tired so I will do more investigating tomorrow. Not certain that it is a bug or my inconsistent releasing of the cursor, always the Y axis though.

You can only change the Start page. Choose the section in the Section Manager and change the start page Number, it will now go from the new start to then next section.

Those are a real nuisance. We all get bit by them from time to time. I set mine to that and had no problem, I have frequently done so and experience no ill effects. Also I messed about with offsets in the text frame and kerning at all sorts of settings and the worst thing that would happen was an overflow of text. No doubling or superimposed letters.

I made a new preset in Designer Beta and the New Artboard checkbox won't stick after I 'create a new preset'.

Well I tried to replicate it here and all I get are 10 or at text overflow if I make the text frame too small (which you haven't done, lots of space there) for a two digit number. Try typing "Page <space> <page number field>" in the text frame and lets see if the 10 is still borked. If it is try to reset by starting Publisher with the Control key held down to clear the user settings.

No problems here on Mac. Are you Mac or Windows? Is this on a master page or are you placing them on each page? What font and paragraph settings do you have (Left Centre Right, space before after, text offsets, etc)? Any offsets in the text frame? Snap to grid on off? Same with baseline grid? Text wrap applied to anything?

The developers are aware of this bug. I notice that I lose the comma and all that comes after it when pasting, stuff before is okay. Strange little bug that kind of kills search and replace.

Click on one of the red arrows, then click on that text frame. You'll see the cursor change to a Breaking Link image.

I find this feature to be quite hit and miss depending on the various ways it gets implement, more often not, by developers so you can see it is off for me. All controls means anything that could possibly be highlighted gets attention from the Tab key being hit. No rhyme nor reason to it.

I would expect the file to be linked so I guess it is a bug if you have set the document to prefer linked. This behaviour would be expected. If you paste something there is nothing other than the clipboard for the document to refer to for a location and name of the file.

Get the trackpad.

I wish it was 30 seconds, several minutes. So yeah, clean the desk or start making a sandwich. It will clear a lot of junk out and reset tons of things to their proper functioning selves.

I am not too sure if I agree* with your folders idea, I fear it would complicate things but a not too little §-1, §-2, etc in the pages studio/pane/panel/palette would be welcome. * I am also frequently wrong with my initial reactions and I could become a huge fan of that idea if if were to be implemented.

There is NO guarantee that it will be so, I hope it will but I don't intend doing anything I cannot afford to lose until the final is released and I can work with that.

Try using Timed Screen for including stuff that disappears.

ditto