Bilbo Bowman

When a user clicks on the Stroke Panel's tab to bring it to the front, I would hazard a guess that the first thing that most users would want to do is set the stroke width. Is it possible that when the stroke panel is activated and brought to the front that the stroke width field be the highlighted and active field by default so it is ready for input without having to click into the field first? It's a little tweak, but it would speed things up. There are other places where this same thinking applies across all three of the Affinity apps. Also, when editing a field that already contains a value, it would be great if the user could click on that field's label or icon to fully highlight the value in that field so a new value can immediately be entered. It's faster than clicking into the field and manually selecting the value that needs to be changed. Some, but not all of the Adobe apps work this way and while it too is a little thing, it is surprising how it speeds up your work. There are still a few missing features on my wishlist before I can fully kick Adobe to the curb, but Affinity is doing an awesome job! I use the Affinity apps when I can and when I need to use Adobe, it's like taking a time machine to the past – their stuff just feels dated, bloated and slow. (not to mention expensive)

That makes sense. I figured that it was something that I did. I've been using InDesign since it's beta and XPress before that so it's going to take a bit to get the lay of the land with the Affinity apps. I do like them a lot though.

Adding a Shift-Return or extra tabs are quick and easy workarounds, although it may need to be adjusted should any text be added or removed in that particular bullet point. Indenting the remaining lines via a paragraph style is probably the best way to accomplish the task at present in my opinion, although the Bulleted List / Numbered List feature should be smart enough to look after this automatically as in InDesign. With that said, I'm still loving Publisher so far.

I tried it again last night and it worked as expected. I'm not sure what happened on the first try. Probably pilot error.

Thanks, I did find it and tested it on some random text. It didn't work quite right for me last night. I could add the grey box around the first paragraph, but I also had white bars behind the text. I tried it again tonight and it worked as expected. It must have been pilot error. Thanks!

OK, I figured out how to set up paragraph shading if I want to highlight a particular paragraph in a body of text, but why the white bars behind the text? I wasn't expecting that. Thanks in advance!

I think terms like "Paragraph Rules" where it relates to paragraphs, "Frame Rules" where it relates to frames, "Paragraph Shading" for highlighting a specific paragraph make far more sense. The term "decoration" should not even be in the same sentence as graphic design. We are professionals, we don't decorate anything. (just my two cents) Regardless, I'm glad it's in there, I too had to hunt for it. BTW, I'm still looking for a paragraph shading feature, I expect that it's there somewhere, just named something different.

Decorations? Decorations? Agreed that is simply an awful name! One of the first things that I teach my students is that graphic design is about good typography, good colour and good composition. It is NOT about "decorating" the page. Never "decorate" the page.

I am very pleased with Affinity Publisher, it is an awesome first release! With that said, I also want the packaging feature. I package all projects before moving them to my Drobo "cold storage" folder for long-term archiving. While I am generally very organized and careful in my workflow, it is wonderful peace of mind to I know without a doubt, that absolutely everything needed for the project has been archived. I'd prefer not to embed files, it's just not a workflow that I like.

Does anyone know where the toggle lives to turn guide editing off in the beta? I'd love a right-click on the canvas. Muscle memory. I must be missing it.

Greetings all! I'm Bill, a graphic designer and Professor of Graphic Design from Ontario Canada. I am a long time Adobe Creative Suite user and make my living using the Adobe programs. The Affinity apps have really sparked my interest. While they may not be as feature rich (yet), I'd say that is not necessarily a bad thing. By comparison, the Adobe programs feel a bit dated from a UI perspective and somewhat bloated while the Affinity apps definitely do not. From what I can tell so far, for seasoned Adobe pros, the learning curve is not all that bad, especially for Affinity Photo. I'm a busy guy but look forward to putting the apps through their paces as my schedule allows. I don't see them fully replacing my Adobe Suite anytime soon, but I easily see them as a compliment to my existing tool kit. Nice work Affinity Team! B