PaoloT

One of the very few times Microsoft actually gets something right that so many others completely mess up.
Windows apps should look like Windows apps, Mac apps should look like Mac apps.
The only case in which there is any legitimacy to making apps "look the same" across platforms is that in which they present full-screen interactive environments such as the case with many games.

Windows and macOS have different standards for light and dark mode. Affinity, like Adobe CC, tries to bridge the two systems with one user interface that is identical on both platforms to make it easier to document and support but at the expense of breaking with system conventions.
On macOS, "lighter" is supposed to mean selected in both light and dark modes. 
On Windows, "lighter" = selected in dark mode and "darker" = selected in light mode. This is not a criticism of Windows, both methods are equally good, they're just different.
This makes the job harder for cross platform apps. Some such as Microsoft Office adhere to the standards of each operating system so Office for Mac doesn't look the same as Office for Windows.
In Affinity "darker" = selected for the most part. But some things are the opposite, including document tabs, panel tabs, dialog tabs (including the vertical ones in New Document), revised link/lock icons in 2.1, and probably several more things. As you've pointed out this isn't ideal. 
We discussed this a lot when 2.0 first came out. The inconsistencies would be less confusing if a second visual cue were employed. For example, the segmented controls and the dialog tabs are opposites in this dialog. The Model tab is selected and shown light but Vertically and Left which are also shown light are deselected. The solution would be to use the true segmented control design used in Preflight which has rounded corners to make it clear which is selected.
 

But not on macOS.

On macOS, "lighter" = selected in both light and dark modes. 
On Windows, "lighter" = selected in dark mode, and "darker" = selected in light mode.
Full details in this other thread.
 

Hi, the tab colours are correct in Affinity 2. In dark mode, the active tab in a window should be lighter grey than the inactive tabs. You'll see similar shades of grey in Apple apps like Safari, too.
The problem is the opposite - Snapping should be grey when selected, not black. In dark mode on macOS, selected icons should have a grey background that is lighter than window background.

I noticed that Adobe has greatly changed their target in the ads of the latest couple years. Where looking at their graphic creation was pure joy before, they are now proposing some grudgy videos and images. Overexposed, badly-cut and fake-color videos. Bland urban backgrounds with the same character replicated as is. Skyes replaced with fake colors. People smiling at the phone while walking around proposed as "working".
One of their most recent series on Facebook shows pets over a uniform-tint background. Thousand of comments, all focusing on the pets and not on the technique. They have obviously saturated the falling professional market, and are pointing to a growing amateurish one, the type where you just want to put Santa Claus' hat on a dog with a click. (By the way, this is called artificial 'intelligence', ins't it?).
Hopefully, Serif will go for a niche of resisting professionals, still in need of fine-ceasel tools. Without wasting their forces after too many toys.
Paolo
 

I did it now, and indeed it solved the issue! Thank you!
Paolo
 

Have you tried resetting your studio? You could save your current setup as a preset, reset your studio, quit, restart - if it works fine then you'll need to create a new default setup because something was wrong with the old one. If it doesn't work, you could at least restore your current setup.
Good luck.

There are many, many features that are context sensitive and good usability takes context into account. If the cursor is beside a cross-reference the insert cross-reference command is replaced by edit cross-reference. Same for inserting and editing hyperlinks, anchors, and index marks.
But back on topic, if a picture frame is selected then File > Place will replace image but if an image that isn't in a picture frame is selected then File > Place will not replace the image. So in that light, what I'm asking for is for File > Place to work consistently for images that are in frames and not in frames.
And if others don't like it then perhaps it could be an option. This is super annoying for me because I have two books on the go. For my history book all of the several hundred images are in picture frames so to replace them I press my keyboard shortcut. For my Publisher manual, none of the thousands of images are in picture frames and every single time I press my keyboard shortcut it places a new image instead of replacing it. So to me this inconsistent behaviour feels wrong.

When an image is select a handy Replace Image button is added to the Context Toolbar. I'd love to be able to replace the image via a keyboard shortcut so it would be nice if File > Place replaced the selected image rather than placing a new one.
I often select an image to replace but then mindlessly press my keyboard shortcut to place an image when I really want to replace the selected image. This would normally be minor, just click to place the new image, delete the old one, and move the new one to the same position. But I'm replacing images inside of inline groups. If I place the image, it will obscure the original one and then I'll have to move the new image to the same position, select the image below it and delete it, all while the text is being reflowed because the group's bounding box changed when I placed the image and again when I moved it.
So rather than go through that each time I do this I cancel the place, double click the image to select it again (because it's inside a group) and then click Replace Image. It would be so much nicer if Place Image defaulted to replacing the selected image. Or if there was an option to do this if others wouldn't want that to happen.
Thanks

Applying Endnotes to the end of a section in Publisher currently involves having to split a continuous story into individual stories which makes for a poor and messy workflow.
The addition of both Insert > Section Break and Insert > Section Endnote would greatly improve the functionality and ease of including section end Endnotes in a continuous story.
Apple Pages implements this extremely well and also auto-selects all pages in a section when one of the section pages is selected allowing the user to quickly and easily move an entire section to a new location...

Endnotes.mp4

It makes sense, in that it is one of the most used languages, but not one of the most printed. The country publishing most books, for example, is China, followed by the United States and, much behind, the United Kingdom. Then come France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Italy and South Korea.
Therefore, from the point of view of a developer of software to make books (and the likes), no RTL language can be considered a priority. This is not only in the case of Serif: Adobe took forever to implement RTL support, and a long time to tune it up. Having the advantage of being based in a country officially speaking the mostly used language in books, makes supporting every other language not so urgent.
I see this matter in a different perspective: most of what I write originates in English or Italian. But it must then be translated both in Chinese and Arabic. So, a program only dealing with Roman typography is not enough for my work.
Paolo
 

Hi @TKS and welcome to the forums.
I rather like the right-click = select word shortcut.
Have you considered adding a keyboard shortcut for the space you want entered so that you don't have to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse? That would be even more convenient. For example, if you type a lot of en spaces you could assign a shortcut to it with Settings > Shortcuts.

Correct.
V1 was a one-time purchase, and you don't need to pay again to continue using V1.
V2 is a one-time purchase, and if you have purchased a V2 license you don't need to pay for that license again to continue using V2.
In other words, this is a perpetual license, not a subscription.

This is false advertising. Regardless of what exact verbiage the used, they marketed V1 as a one time purchase you would never have to do again. Only a few years later and already they want me to pay again. Bah.

Apps: Designer
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
When using Pencil Tool the behaviour has always been that after drawing any curve that curve is then selected. There has been many requests to add an option to change that behaviour so the newly created curve is not selected. This is particularly useful when you often want to change the colour or stroke width of the curve you create next without changing the properties of the curve you have just created.
You can find this option in the context toolbar of the Pencil Tool (“Keep selected” checkbox, default value is on as per current behaviour).
On iPad the option is represented with the below icon (again it's toggled on by default)

 
We have also added this option to all shape tools on iPad too. This was previously available on desktop versions only (note we have also changed the name of that option on desktop from "Select new object" to "Keep selected" for consistency)

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
All Affinity apps now allow you to both create and place password protected PDFs.
Create
In the advanced export options for PDF files you will see two new options:
1. Require password to open. If you set a password here that means anyone who tries to open that PDF will be prompted to give this password before they can open it.
2. Permissions password. Here you can further protect the PDF with options for restricting printing, modification, editing and copying with a secondary password.
You will also see the type of encryption being used for the file in question. This is based on the PDF compatibility being used in Export. PDF 1.6 & 1.7 both use AES-128, PDF 2.0 uses AES-256. Password protection is not available with PDF 1.4, 1.5 or PDF/X file compatibility.

Passwords can be saved with the document preset, so for example you could have a preset of “Company Internal PDF” which both specifies the export settings, DPI, etc. you want for that type of document, but also the password settings.
Place
Previously you could not place password protected PDFs in Affinity. Now you can - when you attempt to place the PDF you will get a prompt asking you for the password for the document you are attempting to place.
 

Apps: Publisher
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
In Find and Replace fields are now available from the drop down. This will also include any custom text fields you have set up, therefore making it easy to replace many instances of a text string within your document with a custom text field for example.

In addition, as was requested during the previous beta, we have now added the option to ‘Convert Text to Field…’ from the right click menu when you have a text selection.

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
 
We have now added a spiral tool which is available from the shape tools flyout. This is something we have had many requests for, but also varying requests as to the type of result wanted. For that reason we have tried to make this as flexible as possible, both offering different types of spiral and variables to adjust.
When you create a spiral you will see from the context toolbar the different options available. Here are some examples of what you can create with the tool:
Spiral Type: Linear

Spiral Type: Decaying

Spiral Type: Semi-Circular
This type replicates the way many people have been creating a spiral in Affinity - effectively by joining decreasing semi circular arcs together.  With this type we also offer a counter Semi-circular option which returns the spiral back on itself:

Spiral Type: Fibonacci

Spiral Type: Plotted

 
 

Apps: Publisher
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
There is a new Tags panel in Affinity Publisher which allows you to add Alt-text to any image or object when exported to PDF for accessibility purposes.  To use just open the Tags panel from the Window menu, select the image or object you want to add Alt Text too and add your description in the box:

Alt Text Source
As well as adding your own custom description to any object, you can also choose to scrape the Alt Text from the Title, Description or Headline meta data which may be embedded within the image in question.

Mark as Decoration
You also have the option to “Mark as Decoration”. This means no image description will be exported or used by screen readers as the item is purely there for decorative purposes rather than important to the understanding of the document. It’s primarily there so you can positively tag an image as not needing a description so will not return as needing one in preflight.
Preflight
Options have also been added in preflight to make it easy to check your document for any missing Alt Text should you wish. When creating or editing a profile you will see a new section for Alt Text. Here you can choose whether you want preflight to return a warning if images, placed documents or vector objects do not have Alt Text added (or marked as decoration).

Export
In the advanced section of PDF export there is a new option of "Tagged PDF". This is required to be checked if you wish to export your PDF including any tags you have added. Currently this is off by default for all factory PDF presets, although we do intend to make this on by default for all non-print based factory PDF presets.
General note on accessibility features
I also just wanted to say that there are a number of accessibility features we are working on which will be added in upcoming updates such as reading order, heading tags and other document structure tools important for screen readers. For the time being, and so to not go off topic, please keep comments on this thread focused on the new Tags Panel / Alt Text feature added in this version.

Hi Jane,
In the latest beta we have now added a panel to allow you to add alt text to images in Publisher. We have other accessibility features in the work (such as reading order), which should be available in upcoming updates in the not too distant future.
 

Typesetting an academic magazine, I have to start each article directly after the previous article, and each one has endnotes at the end. I can put section breaks to get the endnotes after each article, renumbered to start at 1, but I can't get the new section to start anywhere except on a new page. Is this something that will be changed in an update?

Publisher (but probably suit):
I can't find the option to save all open documents. Wanted.
Thanks!

Hello Affinty team,
I would like to share an idea that would add a very ingenious possibility to Affinity Publisher 2. If the measuring tool for measuring lengths and areas could be permanently displayed as information and also be used multiple times on one page, this would be very useful for all types of dimension drawings and constructions. These functions are already in Affinity Publisher 2 and just need to be usable multiple times and permanently visible. I have to recreate these measurements in my drawings every time and create them manually using arrows and text fields (like shown in the attachment) and, above all, measure them again and then adjust them if I change/move the objects on the page.
That would a very cool feature (at least for me) - thank you very much!
Cheers,
Thomas

I am the one who started this topic, so I cannot be suspected of ...connivance with the enemy 😁
I had a long experience with FrameMaker and some with Indesign and Photoshop and had some endless fights with Adobe. Their products also are not flawless and their support is simply a joke. In addition, I have several paid licenses that I cannot any longer use. I had no serious answers from them... simply they don't register anymore and eventually I gave up.
All that to say that Affinity has its (many) problems, first of all APub stability. Recently things are getting better and I no longer regret having used it instead of the Adobe suite (which I still pay).
IMHO, however, the best part of Affinity is this forum. Used to the Adobe support ("Did you remember switching on your computer? Many people forget its... Oh yes, it's on, but you must ask Apple, not us..."), here I can find competent people, very quick answering and trying to find real solutions together, without any politically correct attitude. 
In the end, beside reasonably good products and a fair pricing policy, for me this forum is the best reason to continue using the Affinity suite. Don't underevaluate it, it's a true difference.

@Nigelum

Hi

In case you dont know there is vector graphics animation program
called “Cavalry” (Mac/PC). There is also a free version, you just need
to create an account.

Instead of saving the results, they need to be rendered.
You can also export an SVG file (also via rendered).

Here the Link:
https://cavalry.scenegroup.co/