Jens Krebs

It can take a while to get used to how these things work but once it clicks it becomes second nature, or close to it, for the most part.
When you add layers to another layer – I’ll call it putting child layers into a parent layer – the child layers are then susceptible to any changes you make to the parent layer. For instance, if you put some shapes into a parent layer and then you give that parent layer a new fill colour, the child layers will also be given the same fill colour. This change becomes permanent, at least until you change the colour again. You can only undo this change by using the Undo function; setting the fill colour of the parent colour back to None just gives all of the child layers a fill colour of None too. Dragging a child layer out of the parent layer will stop that child layer being susceptible to further changes to the parent layer but any changes made while it was a child layer will still be in effect.
However, adding something such as an Effect, Adjustment, Opacity or Blend Mode (I’ll call these consequences) to the parent layer works slightly differently. Adding any of these consequences to a parent layer will subsequently apply that consequence to the child layers but that change will only be applied to the child layers while they are children of the parent layer. Dragging a child layer out from the parent layer will cause that consequence to be removed from the child layer.
So, some changes to a parent layer, such as changing the fill colour or stroke width, are applied destructively which means that once a change has been made it is permanent – unless you use the Undo function or make changes to the child layer – even when you take the child away from its parent. However, some changes, such as Effects etc., are made non-destructively which means that the change only applies to the child layers while they are a child of the parent the change was made to.
Collapsing/expanding a parent layer in the Layers Panel has no effect on how the document is viewed. The Layers Panel is there for you to see how the layers are organised. However, you can set a parent layer to be non-visible (the check-box to its right) which will also make all of its child layers non-visible.
Preview mode is there so you can see what the document will look like – as far as it can be shown on-screen – when it is printed/exported. All this really does is to hide things like the guides and grid so you have less on-screen clutter.
I’ve attached a GIF that might help to make things clearer. Notice how some changes have permanent outcomes while others do not.
Note: Sorry but the GIF is very low-quality. I'll try and make time to upload a better one.
Does this help? If not, you might have to upload your document or give more detailed information.

They've probably had a very terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and therefore decided to create a very terrible, horrible, no good, very bad forum post with an even worse completely undescriptive subject line to decrease their chances of getting help ... don't worry about it, it'll get better when we're all dead.

Welcome to the forums.
Just about every object you add to a document will also be a layer, whether that’s an image, or a shape, or some text, or many other things.
Some things, such as guides and effects, aren’t added as layers but that’s something you just have to learn over time.
While having pretty much everything on its own layer gives you a lot of flexibility it can also be confusing as the number of layers grows.
However, you can also organise these layers by adding your own layers, which sounds like it might be further confusing things but it becomes clear once you get used to it.
You can create your own layers – think of them as folders to contain other layers – and move other layers into them.
All you need to do is create a new layer (menu “Layer – New Layer”, but there are many other ways to add one) and you’ll see a new layer in the Layers Panel that has a folder icon. Then rename that layer as required, e.g. “Calendar Framework”.
Select the layers you want to keep together and drag them into the layer you created.
You now have a layer containing all of the things you want to maintain together.
Repeat until you have your layers organised.
Does this help any?

@IanSG This is not obvious enough I fear. My eyes keep rotating while reading the OP comment. What is wrong with some people? Ask your questions in a civilized manner. First time I use a new software I play with it, looking through the options to get a feeling about handling the application. If this is not self-explanatory I have a look at the (normally) in-built help section. Still want some more information I am looking for some extra resources like here. The question marks on my face won't go away, then I ask here in the always helpful forum sections.
I don't get it.

Well ... I guessed wrong. 

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available
---
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that a new Customer Beta of Affinity Publisher (1.8.0.499) is now available as a download from the link above.
As this is a 'Stability and General Testing' beta it is considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity where you may be adversely affected by the application failing, including the total loss of any documents. 
We hope you enjoy the beta, and as always, if you've got any problems installing or running up, please don't hesitate to post in this thread. 
Any problems actually using this version please make a new topic in this forum and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Please feel free to leave general suggestions and comments in the Discussion Forum. 
Many thanks for your continued feedback.
---
StudioLink
This build of Affinity Publisher, 1.8.0 Beta, requires 1.8.0 Beta builds of Photo and Designer for StudioLink to function. We hope to make these available soon.
---
New Features and Major Improvements
Unified Applications Toolbars
Updated layout of toolbars in main application Window. (Mojave or later)
Text Editing Keys
Choose between 'Serif Defaults' or 'Apple Defaults' for text editing keys. e.g. Serif default for 'Move to Beginning of Word' is <Cmd>-<Left Arrow> whereas Apple default is <Alt>-<Left Arrow>. Available via Preferences.
Improved master page handling when adding single pages in a facing page document
Adding single pages to a facing page document with facing masters no longer shuffles master pages from left to right or vice versa.
Migrate frame contents when replacing Masters
Option to 'Clear' or 'Migrate' content when replacing a master which has modified text / image content on the target page. Available via Pages Panel 'Apply Master…' etc.
Re-order Master Spreads
Added the facility to re-order Master Spreads using drag drop in the Pages panel.
Merge Documents
Facility to merge specified pages from one document into the current document. Available via Pages Panel context menu or Document > Add Pages from File...
Linked 'Embedded Document' Resources
Better handling of Linked 'Embedded Document' resources to prevent files with such resources bloating on save.
Collect Resources
Facility to collect all up-to-date linked document resources in a single specified folder. Available via Resource Manager.
Find and Replace MRUs
MRU lists for recent Find and Replaces, available on the field drop menus on the Find and Replace Panel.
Anchor Panel
To manage Hyperlink Anchors. Access via View > Studio > Anchors.
PANTONE
Updated PANTONE Solid and Bridge Palettes for September 2019 update (Link)
Text Features
Last line outdent.
Drop Caps now let you set the number of characters dropped.
Indent to Here.
Add Right Indent Tab.
Insert from the Text Menu 
Added additional fields, plus option to show the Fields Panel.
TOC
Added option to skip line breaks in a TOC.
Added option to skip or include inline images in a TOC.
General Fixes and Minor Improvements
Open / Import
"Make a copy" and "Continue" buttons when opening a non-beta project file were reversed
Improve support for DeviceN bitmaps based on LAB colour space on PDF import
Document Management
When moving pages, transform pasteboard content so it doesn't end up on spread
Margins change with document DPI on non-master pages
General / Tools
Added option to make bleed of embedded Affinity documents visible
Strokes on master page objects now extend into the page bleed area
Setting K-Only for a missing linked image caused crash
Linked images that fail to load now fall back to previews
Fixed Populate Picture Frames across multiple artboards
Convert to Picture Frame was disabled for EPS
(Win) Create Palette from CMYK images imports as RGB
(Win) Fix for inconsistent document tabbing
Text
Can now use <Ctrl> / <Cmd> (Win / Mac) to link multiple text frames
When linking text frames stories are now concatenated
Preserve Manual Position not reflected correctly in Pinning Panel
Add special hyphenation rules for solidus (U+002F) to distinguish e.g. fractions
Changing spread / artboard in an Embedded Document now updates Text Wrap
Fixed default wrapping around Embedded Documents with transparency
Prevent table cell separators from being copied to non-tables (fix for non-deletable breaks)
Fixed auto-correct bug entering double spaces
Fixed line endings for Paragraph decorations
Now possible to remove arrowheads if inadvertently applied to Text Frame
Leading override could not be set to Auto in Text Style
Text with 'No break' did not always break before the no break
Fixed hyphenation issues in last line of column
(Mac) Missing font dropdown doesn't list missing fonts
(Win) Spell check identifies numbers mixed with other characters as incorrectly spelt
Tables
Adjusting Table properties for multiple cells fails if selected cell already has the desired property
Fixed possible crash when auto fitting table to text
Find and Replace
Fixes for skipping occurrences when replacing
Tidied up finding around end of text
Hyperlinks
Fixes for hyperlinks in Tables
Hyperlinks are no longer generated in PDF output if hidden
Fixes for Hyperlink panel not always displaying correct page of link target
Fixed hyperlink bugs when switching to / from facing pages
Glyph Browser
Glyph Browser now always renders glyphs at screen scale
DocX
Importing tables from docx files could fail to import formatting resulting in crash
Fields
Added yyyy-MM-dd date format
Resources
Linked images - Context toolbar not updated after converting to embedding
Filenames with underscores not displayed correctly in Resource Manager
Font Manager
Font Manager 'Locate' did not locate full runs
Export / Print
Prevent spurious warnings about overflow text in text frames that won't be output anyhow
Overprint Black now only sets to overprint if tint set to 100%
Fix for "Rasterise nothing" was causing PDF export failure in certain circumstances
(Win) Print dialog wasn't always removing the red overlay after page had been scaled to fit
---
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

The roadmap was removed from view several months ago. If you try to follow the link in my previous post to this thread you’ll find that it no longer works.

They are available here:
http://www.miguelboto.com/affinity/photo/video-tutorials/

It wasn't necessarily that, it was that we didn't keep the roadmap up to date, and we started shipping new features which never appeared on the roadmap, and then customers (understandably) asked about why the particular feature they were interested in, that was still on the roadmap, hadn't shipped it yet. The roadmap was a vision of where we thought the software would go, 5 years ago, but over time, our vision has changed slightly (well, individual features have got re-prioritised).

HA! You solved it, thanks ... I didn't notice the two buttons "assign" and "convert", seems the standard setting on my machine is "convert". Thanks!!
Is there an option to set the standard to "assign"? I opened and closed Publisher a couple of times and it always reverts to "convert" when I open the document settings.

I'm almost afraid to post in this particular topic, as I do not have much experience with color profiles (all of my printing is in black). But let me ask this one question just in case it might be of help:
When you "change" the job's color profile, by change do you mean "assign" or "convert," as both options are available and should have different results? Perhaps that might at least clarify the discussion.

I clarified with the developers before stating it was by design. I do understand your point here and I think it's a perfectly valid feature request (maybe a way to control how it inserts it would be ideal), but the way it currently functions is how it has been designed.

Have you tried clearing the user data (CTRL key when starting the software, select all, then clear / reset, see screenshot) to give it a fresh start? There might be some things hanging around from a previous beta or installation that give the software a hiccup.

I've probably been one of the annoying critics of Affinity products in the past ...  but since it's always easy to talk about negative things I feel it's time for some positive feedback as well.
The new drag and drop feature for layers in the beta is excellent! Very long looked after and now working very well! Makes things just a lot easier. Thanks for implementing it!

Until now the Mac betas always had preference and the Windows ones came a bit later ... I'd guess (without knowing) that the Mac betas are not far behind and will come either the next couple of days and / or around the time the new MacOS releases.

That would be very useful.

You could embed all linked files very easy in the document. There is a tutorial about this feature

For book design, I use the folio/running header for section names, and I define a certain paragraph style as a <Section Name>. This is vital for my use since the book may have hundreds of subsections within a given text, and the header needs to be produced automatically to show the first or last section name on the page as the running header. There is no way to do this reasonably by hand, and InDesign allows for this feature as a normative process. I can't seem to figure it out with Publisher. Any help?

No we will not make the StudioLink activate in a Publisher beta without the equivalent version Designer beta or Photo beta installed. This is because it would expose the Photo and Designer functionality as it was on the day that Publisher was built, and it could be that Designer and Photo may not be "customer ready" when Publisher was built. So we have decided not to make the Publisher beta StudioLink options enabled by anything other than a beta build. Sorry if that creates dilemmas as to which build to use, but it has been made consciously.
 

Status: Release candidate
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download: Here
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first release candidate build of Affinity Designer 1.7.3 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.7.2 version recently released to all customers. We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Matt
 
Changes Since 1.7.2
- Fix for importing .abr brushes
- Fix for masked adjustment groups drawing incorrectly
- Fix for PSD import crash
- Miscellaneous text fixes and improvements
- Fix for brush angle input occasionally producing an unwanted artefact when used as a dynamic
- MacOS Catalina compatibility

As much as i love AP, i can't work with it if i'm not able to place client provided ads in there.
Also what i noticed, you can't set a stroke around linked documents...
So, yeah keep looking forward to those pdf features!

I need it too and judging by the number of posts (including useful suggestions for workarounds) on these forums so do others.

While the ability to edit PDFs is nice, I would also like the ability to embed a PDF without it being "translated"/"interpreted". To have "PDF pass-through". If Publisher could access the fonts embedded in the PDF, that would be AWESOME; I don't always have the fonts installed that are used in PDFs, and the entire purpose of the format is to be able to share a layout without having to install fonts to see it displayed correctly.

The issue that a long time ago I railed about is that there is even a document dpi. If there wasn't a document dpi as implemented, there wouldn't be this particular issue at all. If there is even a vector application with such a thing, I haven't used it. 
This applies to both AD & APub. Just damn silly.

"because of —your— app bug!"
Why do you say - in application is bug? The fact, that the application behaves differently than you expected and did not verify the result, is just your fault.