[Notes as I installed 1.5.0.7]

Hi everyone. A friend told me about Affinity a few months ago, and I've been waiting for the beta. I downloaded and installed it today.

 

Then I realized that what I really want is Affinity Photo.  :wacko:  (Am I automatically put on the beta list for that??) So I probably won't be an active participant in the Designer beta. Still, I thought I'd post notes from the installation in case they're useful.

 

I have (why can't I copy and paste the text from dialogs like this?? :angry: :

 

 

and:

 

 

Now, the installation.

 

I logged on as an administrator user and created a System Restore point.

 

I started the installer from the file located in a subfolder of the Desktop (which is on the C: local drive) named "program installers".

 

It told me that I needed an Aero Theme for best results. I already had an Aero theme (which looks like a Microsoft Logo), so I clicked Continue.

 

A box popped up listing two programs that must be terminated before the install began. There was a "Refresh" link at the lower left. So I waited for those other programs to complete, expecting to click the Refresh link. But what I saw instead was a dialog saying that the installation had completed.

I looked on the Start Menu and Desktop. There were no Affinity icons. I checked the two "Program Files" folders on c:\, but there weren't any I recognized. I DID find a folder at the root of a removable drive (F:) named 277b0517a668c11f72496f7dff388c2f, Why use a removable drive -- or, at least, not clean up this weirdly-named directory after installation?  I renamed the folder to Affinity-DELETE-ME

 

I started the Installer again. This time started better.

After a dialog asking the installation language, it said I needed an Aero Theme. Since I had an Aero theme, I tried quitting the installer and re-selecting the same Aero theme I had before. The next time I started the installer, it didn't complain about my theme anymore.

I got a dialog asking me to accept the End-User License Agreement. I did that. After a couple more steps, the installer completed; there was an icon on the Admin desktop. I signed off Admin and onto the standard user.

 

From the standard user desktop, I double-clicked the new Affinity icon.

I saw a splash screen listing version 1.5.0.7.

A window popped up asking me to share my work on forums or to use the tag #MacAffinity in the usual places. Mac?? I'm running Windows 7.

When I clicked the Close button on that window, I got another window with no help, introduction, etc: just a window with menus/tools across the top and at the eides. It would help to have some info about what to do next. (Maybe I should have clicked "New Document" on the previous screen? I didn't want to create a new document; I wanted to learn how the program works first.)

On the "Help" menu, I clicked "Welcome...".  I got the same screen I'd seen before. So I closed that window. I clicked "Tutorial...." and was taken to a web page that looked like a forum. it was a list of seemingly random topics. The top of the list was "in-house Affinity Photo Video tutorials", so I opened that. It turned out to be for a different program. So I went back to the forum topic list and chose the Affinity Designer tutotials. It began by saying that the tutorials are available at the address https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/. It would be nice if the program's Help / Tutorials... menu entry had taken me there in the first place, I think?

 

I hope these comments were helpful. I may not be monitoring this forum.

As I said, I think I need Affinity Photo instead. I'll be looking forward to it.

 

 

[LEGACY: Official Affinity Designer Video Tutorials (70+)]

Hi. I have a comment about ease of access to tutorials.

 

I've seen pages like https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/and https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10119-in-house-affinity-photo-video-tutorials/. But I'm looking for something else: more text that I can read. The tutorials I've checked have been videos. I know that designers like visual presentations. But I like to be able to search for text, scan through lists or info quickly -- not have to replay a video to find a particular bit of information. For instance, I might have questions like:

• "Someplace is the button/menu item/etc. that does XYZ. Which is it?"
• "What does this ABC menu item / button / dialog do again?"
• "I remember that I can do XYZ, but I can't remember how to do it. Do I have to watch endless videos to find out?"

As an extreme example, imagine a language dictionary that is only available as a video. Let's say you want to find the definition and/or synonyms of a word/concept. You have to either play the whole video or try to scroll through it on the video player timeline and hope you get lucky finding what you need. It'd be even worse if the dictionary were split into multiple videos.

 

So I'm suggesting that you make the tutorials "text-friendlier" for people who need or prefer that way of getting info. Ideally, you'd do this as you produce the video. Otherwise, you might at least retro-fit it... for instance, you might:

• Put the script used to make the video (the written words) onto a web page. Link each section of the script to the point on the video that shows it. For instance, if the section on doing XYZ is at 3 minutes 45 seconds into the video, make a link to something like http://path/to/video?start=3:45
• Make a series of bulleted/numbered lists that do the same thing.

Thanks from a long-time computer user who is used to reading things and looking at illustrations, not watching endless videos.

 

P.S. The Help page https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?app=core&module=helphas a lot of missing icons at the left edge of the list.