R C-R

I for one would absolutely hate having to run through a long list of file types to be included in the Info.plist before I could install any of the Affinity (or any other) app!

AFAIK, it is the OS, not the apps, that sometimes does this, typically when a new app is installed that signals to the OS that it can open open specific file types. IOW, the app does not force the OS to change the default binding of a file type to a particular app; the OS just assumes that because the app is newly installed the user wants that done.

If you mean about 'activating' decimals, I think what @thomaso meant was to set Decimal Places for Unit Types for Pixels values to more than 1 decimal place, like to at least 3 or higher.

Yes, it is CMD on Macs. This is a standard feature of most Mac apps, like when you want to select only certain files in Finder windows.

The main thing to check is the startup time after you have restarted your Mac.

It seems to vary, user to user. Personally, for me they seem to work about the same: All of them crash occasionally, but not often, & usually just when I am verifying that a bug someone has reported does in fact crash the app.

I think it is, too.

Assuming the online version is meant, I'm not sure on my Mac it is doing more than showing the preview thumbnails, & like you said it doesn't do vectors (& many *.afpub) files very well.

A bit clumsy but another way to do this without adding strokes or separating curves: Convert the letter to curves. With the Node Tool select the inside nodes of just the upper part of the B. In the Node Tool context toolbar select Transform Mode & then Selection Box from Curves. In the Transform panel, make sure the W & H proportion is locked (chain icon not broken) & for example in the W: field enter w*0.8 or w/1.5 or whatever you like to reduce the size of that inner B part. Repeat steps 2 through 4 with just the lower inside nodes of the B selected. This gives you separate control of how much each inner part is thickened if you want to do that, to use ruler guides to align edges if desired, & all the nodes remains editable without extra work.

Technically, even if you do not have the same versions, or even if you do not have any version of Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer installed at all, by default* you will still see the other two persona buttons in Affinity Publisher. But if you click either of them you will get a StudioLink message telling you you must purchase the other apps to use those personas. (If they are installed but not yet updated to the same version, you can just open them separately, update them to the same version as Affinity Publisher, run them once, & then the buttons will work.) * Note also that in Affinity Publisher via View > Customize Toolbar... it is possible to customize the Toolbar, to remove the 3 persona buttons if you want.

At least on my Mac running Catalina in Finder the names do not include the minor version numbers, so instead of open /Applications/Affinity\ Photo\ 2.4.0.app the command would be open /Applications/Affinity\ Photo\ 2.app. A simple way to see what is required is to open a Terminal window, type the word "open" followed by a space, & then from the Finder Applications window drag the app into the Terminal window. You can press return to open the app.

I only tried Dan's version but it instantly crashed AP V2 on my Mac.

Unless my eyes deceive me, New is selected, not Templates, is selected on the left so I am not sure what you mean about them being missing. But regardless, the control run step might work.

I doubt that's the only reason. It seems likely that they have decided that the cheaper iPad apps fit their marketing strategy better than more expensive versions that fewer people would buy.

If the goal is to support as many iPad models as possible, I do not understand what you mean by separating any new functionalities into two groups, one of which the non-pro models could not support. Isn't that contradictory to that goal?

I would be quite surprised if small changes like this one will have any significant impact one way or another on those who are deciding if buying and/or using one or more of the Affinity apps is worth it for them. It is obvious you are frustrated because the developers have not agreed with you & the others who think this is a change for the worse. That's understandable but ranting about it in the forums, which seems like what this is devolving into, is not going to do any good, so I have to wonder why you keep at it. In short, can you explain what you hope to accomplish that your other posts have failed to do about this change?

Well, considering I have one of the non-pro models, I hope they never do that!

The alternative argument that the old behavior did not make sense is just as substantive as yours. For the obvious reason that just complaining about it here in the Questions forum will do nothing useful to convince the developers to revert to the previous behavior. As you just said, there has been no response from them here & there likely never will be. As an aside, I think that it is extremely unlikely that the user base will shrink because of changes like this one. Most users seem not to care enough even to comment about it.

Probably because of the limited iPad screen space compared to the desktop versions. As it is, on my smaller iPad the context toolbar has to include a (somewhat hidden) scroll feature when I use it in portrait orientation to fit all the Move Tool options on it, due to the smaller width of the screen. If they did, they probably would have to bump up the minimum system specs, excluding older & less powerful non-pro models like mine. And of course, they probably would charge more for it, too.

One of which is people seldom mention changes they do not find annoying or illogical while those who do are much more likely to complain about them. So there is not much anyone can conclude from these supposedly "numerous" users complaining about the change, which at best represent a tiny fraction of the user base. Regardless, if you feel so strongly about this, all you can do is make a feature request in the appropriate forum or quit using/recommending the Affinity apps. The rest is just a waste of time.

Thanks! I was looking at the Align dropdown in the Move Tool context toolbar (or whatever it's called on the iPad) but it had not occured to me to look in the Transform Studio. That makes sense now that I think about it ... but I wonder if the context item is really needed now or just there for convenience.

@Alfred, since I rarely use my iPad & am not too familiar with its studios, could you tell me which one you are showing with this (I guess) Alignment sub menu?

Isn't the 'wasn't doing anything' comment what you meant by your " ... while for distribution/spacing the changes in this parameter and dropdown should take no effect, be ignored"? Also, this is not my 'theory,' just something as I said I vaguely remember being mentioned somewhere by one of the staff in response to why it was changed. I'm not going to speand any time looking for it but my guess is that it was somewhere in the V1 bugs topics.

Hmmm. From https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/whats-new/#2-4-size-rotate-objects:

How far back did you look? IIRC, this behavior was changed around V 1.5 or so, & the reason given was as I mentioned that some users were reporting that it wasn't doing anything, believing it to be a bug.