drkanukie

Lovely to see this - did you look at being able to create a global variable for every slice to share? Currently the slice variable is per slice instance, it's much more useful to have a global token such as the name of a product and use it in every slice, the document name works around this as the file can be named after the product but isn't as flexible as a global slice name variable.

I'm affected by this so much I've just started looking into other apps. 
 
AD is increasingly death by a thousand cuts. "Small" but important problems have been ignored for years. It's just not cut out for serious interface work.
 
Figma and Sketch and Penpot get this right. Fireworks, Freehand and all the apps of the past got it right. Where did it all go wrong?

I spent 2 hours trying to get 9 artboards and all their background layers all aligned so I could export to the right size rather than 1 pixel bigger than it should be with a transparent edge. This is not OK as a workflow. There are tools like Sketch that make pixel alignment very easy and there is a button where you can select a object and say snap to pixels and bam no sub-pixels. 
In Affinity even though the property panel looks like it's on the pixel boundary 780  it isn't because if you turn on 3 significant places on the pixels display (trick I found in forum on this issue) it's actual 780.029. I don't want to have to wrangle to 3 significant places to get my art aligned for export! Nor do I want to have to be worrying about 100ths of a pixel cluttering my property display.  If the force pixel alignment is ON then it should never allow a layer to be off the pixel grid when creating or moving it and ALL X/Y should be integral. 
I have to admit I was a big fan and advocate to other UX designers of this product until now, but it's such a ridiculous thing to implement as it is that I have lost a lot of faith in it.
Stop adding new features and fix the fundamentals you are being told about by professional designers. Or stop claiming this is a professional tool because it clearly isn't. Because for all it's excellent parts it let down by flawed thinking in the fundamentals. I'm not the only voice here there are many threads here on the same topic from professional designers. 

I've moved to Figma 100% - I only use this for publishing, photo masking and compositing, things that Figma can't do very well as its vector based. Also to be fair Affinity SVG is much better than Figma too so I use it to clean Figma SVG exports. Figma even has a warning that exports are pixel misaligned. Another good idea.

Thanks @Return thats a useful way to use an existing image as a mask. Appreciate the video. Would never have throught of it otherwise.
 

It can sync my commercial brush packs - why not any settings and studio presets via my Affinity account. I jump from Windows to Mac all the time but its never in sync. This is the joy of software like Figma its cloud based so always the same where ever you access it.

Perhaps this will give you some pointers.

2023-10-21 12-15-04.mp4    

Thanks Trent this really upped my understanding in this area. Hopefully we get AI based background removal soon as this process is so common and time consuming. Your tutorial style is excellent. I'm going through your Youtube channel now lots of great stuff.

This is what I enjoy so much about these forums: Useful information brought to us all by forum members who know what they are talking about. Thank you, all.

Wow Mike, that's a really well written manual, in publisher I'm guessing. Thanks so much this is really useful as I'm about to embark on a big new pub project. I really like the Tips very useful guidance. The section on master pages and spreads is very in depth and it's my least understood area.
Serif need to improve their supporting documentation. The inbuilt help is terrible to use, hard to read the layout isn't helpful and hard to find anything relevant. Their videos are good but its the wrong format it you are stuck mid work. They should take some tips from this.
The books they published were great but now way out of date, they should do a digital update (paid) for each major release or as an add on to the product package.

Quick Tips: for finding Affinity content with Google Search
Search engines: It’s easy to underestimate the power of a simple Google search (and it’s apparent many people on online forums who don’t know how to make use of it).  It can save you a lot of time, because someone, somewhere, at some point has undoubtedly had the same question you have—all you need to do is find out where they asked it and what answers and problem solutions they got in response!

With a few helpful Google search engine tricks, searching the Affinity Forum via Google can be made much more effective.

The Common Search
In general, you should string search terms with a space together to start the context search. Thus, the input "Affinity forum gradient" or "Affinity forum macro" in the search window shows all found link entries on the screen which contain those terms. Quoting ("...") helps to search after more closely related search text here.

Extended or Exclusive Search
To make Google search more effective, you should use so-called operators. Here are some of them.
A tilde (~) before a search term makes the term synonymous. So "Affinity ~forum" brings both the Affinity forum as well as hints for possible other related forums. With a minus sign (-) you can specifically exclude terms from the search. For example, the minus designer in "Affinity layer masks -designer" calls up a list of Affinity layer masks related entries without designer in the context. With a plus sign (+) you can instead specifically include terms to the search criterias.
Search in and for Websites
To specifically search a particular website/page, prefix your search term with a "site:URL" - where the URL is the web address of the site/page on which you read the info recently. For example, "site:affinity.forum.com macro recording" searches and calls for a list of threads which deal with macro recording on the Affinity forum.
A minus sign in the "-site:URL" input behind the actual search terms excludes results from the named URL. So "Affinity video -site:youtube.com" will exclude all Youtube videos from the search. With "site:de" it will only search German websites with the extension .de; Of course, other endings like .org or .com etc. can also be used here. With "related:URL" you can find out if other websites have similar content. In order to browse only publications from a specific period, you must connect the adjacent years with three points: here "2014...2018" only lists publications between 2014 and 2018 in the results list. For example in order to find at affinity.forum.com current practical contributions to macro recording you would use "site:affinity.forum.com macro recording 2016...2018".
  Some helpful browser shortcuts
To speed up the search in general, there are a few shortcuts available. For example, "Ctrl + F" will bring up a small search window at the bottom of the page that will help you to search the current page for terms. Ctrl + or - enlarges the view, zooms in or out. Ctrl + L moves the cursor back to the address bar so you can enter a new website or search term.
 
Calculations, units of measurement and currencies
The Google search engine can also calculate and convert. For those of you who struggle with mental arithmetic, just type the math questions directly into the Google search window using the +, -, * / symbols. This calls at the same time the calculator for further input of even more complicated tasks.
If you want to convert units of measure or currencies, you can also type these directly into the search window. Thus, the input "inches in millimeters" picks up a unit calculator, with "pounds in euros" you get the current price displayed as well as references to various currency converters.

[Updated Nov 30 2023 - new version for Publisher 2.3 with 120 more pages than the first version]
Learn how to format text and publish books and other long documents with Affinity Publisher 2.3. This free in-depth manual is filled with steps, tips, and recommendations for:
Character and paragraph formatting - added Nov 30 Text styles - added Nov 30 Documents, Pages, Master Pages, Sections, and Baseline Grid Text Frames, Text Flow, and Stories Books and Chapters Cross-References, Table of Contents, and Index Notes - including Footnotes, Sidenotes, and Endnotes Fields - including Page Numbering, Running Headers, and Custom Variables Anchors and Hyperlinks Printing and Exporting Settings This manual does not cover objects and photos so it covers approximately half of the topics.
Updated version:
Publisher Manual Nov 29 2023.pdf
 
Q&A
Is there a full manual I can purchase? No, this is all there is. Is this really free? Yes, I'm making it available free of charge. It's copyrighted to prevent others from publishing it as their own. Is there an iPad version? No, the steps and screenshots are for the macOS and Windows versions. Is there a version for Designer or Photo? No, but the text features are largely the same so you may find it useful. Why does it use a print layout if it's a PDF? It's a demonstration of how to use the features it describes to create a print book. Original version:
Publisher Manual Sep 26 2023.pdf
Publisher Manual Sep 18 2023.pdf

Thanks I thought you could just detach any layer within. Much appreciated.

You have the table layer selected inside the masterpage layer.
You should select the masterpage layer and there you can edit detached or linked.

You generally shouldn't have Move by Whole Pixels enabled, for most work
 

@Affinity Designer I still can’t believe this is a problem and has not be fixed, even in version 2. I must admit I’m getting pretty tired of using affinity designer because of this issue alone. Regardless of whether I’m designing a logo, website designs, if I introduce text at any point it introduces fractured pixels.
 
So no matter how many items I export there is always an extra 1px edge or size.
 
I designed a website. I then came to export all the logos, assets, images (probably 50-60 items). Every single one I had to manually reposition so it was on a solid pixel axis AND I had to resize the item itself so it was solid pixels.
 
It really is totally stupid this issue exists.  How does the affinity team use this product.

@fde101Thanks for the response. As I stated in my previous video (which has been deleted now) the problem is when you introduce text/fonts. I have the settings where if I am just working with shapes etc by and large the whole pixel environment stays. As you as you add text and then scale, fractured pixels are introduced. If you are doing UI work you will always be working with text.
Can you test your settings. Make a simple square. Put text inside > group the text and square. Then enlarge or scale the square up. I bet you you get fractured pixels. Can you let me know. Thanks.

I still can't believe this issue hasn't been fixed. It is unfortunate as I was using Affinity designer for all my client working and loving it. Now I'm moving more and more over to Figma. Such a shame. I'm still hoping but soon Affinity may not even be on my machine anymore. Gutted.

Pitching in, May 2021, I've just lost approximately 8 hours of billable time due to this madness hunting down and _manually typing in whole numbers_ so that slices export predictably.

If you don't want to change the existing behaviour, throw in another tickbox that says "Always Round To The Nearest Pixel Value" or so help me I'll end up back on a subscription.

V1 export no question.

Nope - constraints are still busted

V1 export no question.

Just add possibility save to Affinity V1 file with warrning about possible lost some "new" features. This should be not so hard... All pro apps give us this option.
Reason: I have older macbook that is not possible install nor run V2 (High Sierra). So i have to use V1. That goes for my another mac with Mojave.
And...  same goes with my iPad where i have V1 Affinity. I want use Aff v1 as well as v2 with possibility open V2 in V1. I do not mind click some compatibility checkbox as we have in Adobe software.
And fix the problem mentioned previously. Automatic backup and saving options cause compatibility problems with V1 files opened in V2. This should be fixed by popup window where we are notified about it and disable this options for the file as we lost possibility open some files in V1.
Thanks in advance

My view?
That kind of verbiage is unprofessional and immature sounding. If in fact the troubles are real then they're real. If you want to write, for example, a blog entry outlining the issues you've had that's certainly your prerogative. In fact, it might even be useful to other potential users. But do it factually, professionally and without spite. After all, your readers buy your books for their content, not because of the tools you used to create them. I mean, how many music lovers say, "I'm not listening to that guy -- He's playing a Fender!!"  🙂  Besides, saying "after two major versions I am not still able..." just raises the obvious question: "Then why are you still using it?"
As much as we might get invested in the process (been there myself) customers aren't. They just want the product. If you can't create the product you and your customers want with Tool X, then use something else. End of story.
It's tempting to vent (again, been there myself) but it's something you'll immediately regret.

Yeah, I'd even say this post makes you seem very inexperienced with any type of design or publishing software. I use all 3 Affinity programs for a wide variety of things and I have some issues here and there, but no more than other companies, video software, music software, the internet, Windows, Mac, etc.
Publishing software doesn't really like more than 400 pages in a single document in my experience, and I have some of the most powerful computers I could ever need to run way more than a simple publishing doc. In InDesign, I used to use the books compiling feature to keep files under 30 or so pages (based on chapter lengths), and so Affinity was a shock at first when I had V1 and docs over 350 pages. Massive slow down and scrolling loss.
V2 now has the chapters feature, and it seems a little buggy/crashy since it is brand new. Hoping it gets fixed as quickly as issues arise, but today is my first time trying to get it set up. I've already learned that how you save the main book file vs the chapters is very important, or yes, you will lose some things. It hasn't been difficult to get back though.
As far as the hyperlinks part goes...what do you need them for in a massive print file? (Side note, if you plan on publishing yourself or on behalf of a self-published author on Amazon, hard cover copies have a limit of 500 pages). If you are publishing a digital copy to Amazon, they need an ePub anyway, which Affinity doesn't do. Though you could probably get away with exporting a WebP file to Amazon still (how Microsoft Word users used to have to do it). Most authors use Google docs for Kindle copies, set up their basic formatting there, export the ePub, and then let Kindle take care of the rest since it has so many formatting restrictions. Hyperlinks work great. Using Publisher for something like that definitely wouldn't be my recommendation unless they worked together with Amazon to create some sort of awesome, seamless export style.