rjvela82

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Sorry I didn't understand you the first time but that was the issue.
I basically updated the style to clear the override and then re-edited it with the [No Change] in the properties and importing it didn't break the ordering I had in the frames of the older file.
thanks for the help, good one! @Old Bruce
😁

Hi Wayne,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
No, Affinity Designer doesn't support it (or any kind of plugins at this point). This requires a level of integration/features with the host application that we currently don't provide, sorry.

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Problem: The page list panel only displays Page #s alongside their thumbnails which means users either have to  look at thumbnails carefully or remember page numbers. Not a huge deal breaker, except when there are projects that are not page number based. For example a set of sales sheets where each page might be a product. Currently, users must remember which product is a certain page number. But you might say they can use large thumbnails to navigate the project, true but its not that helpful since its common for these kinds of projects to have pages that resemble each other.
 
Suggestion:  Have an option in 'Document Properties' that enable Custom Page Names. This option will then display the Name field in the Spread Properties for regular pages that users can edit the page names, (the way it is in Master spread properties).
When enabling:  the user should be warned that Page name labels will stop updating automatically when moving pages around in the project.
When disabling: the user should be warned that Page name labels will be overwritten by Page numbers. Then as pages are moved around again, each page name will update with the number like before.

Imagine an app that integrates the locally installed Affinity software with an online asset collection service from Serif paid through yearly subscription.
I call it "Afffinity Collage" an Affinity app that serves as a locally installed asset and project manager for the Affinity suite. However, the key persona in this new app is called "Spotlight" (yes, just like our Spotlight newsletters from Serif), where you pay $50 a year (in line with a single Affinity app), to store and share an online showcase of your work, portfolio, and community assets.
Back to the locally installed Collage app, there are two additional personas:  the main persona ties the operating system files to the App's library of folders and collections. 
Studio Examples for main Collage persona: 
Preview Studio, which shows content in a large view depending on the studio you're browsing: File Browser Studio, (i.e. OS files and folders) Library Browser Studio (for separating different lines of work, graphic designer, photography etc), Collections Browser, (where you can create manual or smart asset repositories) Project Browser ( where you can store client related assets, or any project) Tag Browser (an internal tagging system where you can browse by tag) Task Browser (simple flagging studio) This is straight forward until now, but there is the 2nd persona which is unique, it is the Portfolio persona and it essentially serves as a staging area for assets that sync with the Spotlight subscription service.
The general usability of the Portfolio persona is that it mostly mirrors your Library, Collections, and Projects, but only the assets that are marked as Portfolio appear. 
The user can mark and unmark portfolio assets from either the Main Collage persona or the Portfolio persona itself. The Portfolio persona removes all of the management aspects of your projects and simply features and highlights the most desirable assets of your projects, collections, etc, for the purpose of seeing a showcase of your work. From this persona you can push specific portfolio items to your Spotlight Subscription Service profile.
The last persona, is the Spotlight persona, a website viewer. On the surface it seems just to be only a web viewer for the Spotlight website, but what you can do is build a collection of public assets that you don't have to browse the website for. This studio could be shared with the main Persona for flexible usability. I think this kind of connection with your internal Affinity files and your user Spotlight profile would be magic, but I also want to mention that a lot of people might criticize that it makes no sense to add a website viewer in the app, but I wholeheartedly disagree because this creates a seamless experience as far as managing your project data, your portfolio data, and your public asset library. This is basically what Collage is and does. 
I could go on how I imagine such an app would impact the Affinity ecosystem but I have no need because Affinity generated community assets has to be in the cards for Serif sooner or later, but I think an app that connects the Spotlight public profile of an Affinity user with their internal assets and private collections creates a truly unique, and worthwhile experience which also adds manifold value back to the Spotlight subscription service.
 
thank you
 
P.S. Pls note, these are just conceptual ideas, pls do not be overly critical to me on specifics. I'm sure the community here could piggyback hundreds of more great and useful ideas. -- again -- thank you for taking time to read this post
 

Imagine an app that integrates the locally installed Affinity software with an online asset collection service from Serif paid through yearly subscription.
I call it "Afffinity Collage" an Affinity app that serves as a locally installed asset and project manager for the Affinity suite. However, the key persona in this new app is called "Spotlight" (yes, just like our Spotlight newsletters from Serif), where you pay $50 a year (in line with a single Affinity app), to store and share an online showcase of your work, portfolio, and community assets.
Back to the locally installed Collage app, there are two additional personas:  the main persona ties the operating system files to the App's library of folders and collections. 
Studio Examples for main Collage persona: 
Preview Studio, which shows content in a large view depending on the studio you're browsing: File Browser Studio, (i.e. OS files and folders) Library Browser Studio (for separating different lines of work, graphic designer, photography etc), Collections Browser, (where you can create manual or smart asset repositories) Project Browser ( where you can store client related assets, or any project) Tag Browser (an internal tagging system where you can browse by tag) Task Browser (simple flagging studio) This is straight forward until now, but there is the 2nd persona which is unique, it is the Portfolio persona and it essentially serves as a staging area for assets that sync with the Spotlight subscription service.
The general usability of the Portfolio persona is that it mostly mirrors your Library, Collections, and Projects, but only the assets that are marked as Portfolio appear. 
The user can mark and unmark portfolio assets from either the Main Collage persona or the Portfolio persona itself. The Portfolio persona removes all of the management aspects of your projects and simply features and highlights the most desirable assets of your projects, collections, etc, for the purpose of seeing a showcase of your work. From this persona you can push specific portfolio items to your Spotlight Subscription Service profile.
The last persona, is the Spotlight persona, a website viewer. On the surface it seems just to be only a web viewer for the Spotlight website, but what you can do is build a collection of public assets that you don't have to browse the website for. This studio could be shared with the main Persona for flexible usability. I think this kind of connection with your internal Affinity files and your user Spotlight profile would be magic, but I also want to mention that a lot of people might criticize that it makes no sense to add a website viewer in the app, but I wholeheartedly disagree because this creates a seamless experience as far as managing your project data, your portfolio data, and your public asset library. This is basically what Collage is and does. 
I could go on how I imagine such an app would impact the Affinity ecosystem but I have no need because Affinity generated community assets has to be in the cards for Serif sooner or later, but I think an app that connects the Spotlight public profile of an Affinity user with their internal assets and private collections creates a truly unique, and worthwhile experience which also adds manifold value back to the Spotlight subscription service.
 
thank you
 
P.S. Pls note, these are just conceptual ideas, pls do not be overly critical to me on specifics. I'm sure the community here could piggyback hundreds of more great and useful ideas. -- again -- thank you for taking time to read this post
 

When working with gradients you may wish to save one of the colors as a swatch but there are quite a few steps to do to make this happen, and doing so will affect the current gradient scheme ie. its object. I explain further below.
 
My suggestion is to add the Swatch Add button to the Node of the gradient, which saves you all the steps explained further below.

 
 
Now I will explain how taking the extra steps to add this color to a palette changes the current gradient scheme.
 
1. To best explain, I begin with showing the previous color in the gradient scheme so you can see the full workflow.

 
2. I will now alter the color. You will see that the color picker in the HSL popup is the previous color.  To make the color picker the new color, I can either drag the color picker to the Node in the gradient scheme, OR I close and reopen the HSL popup (which is faster). 

 
3.  After closing and reopening the HSL popup, the color picker is now my desired color to save to a palette. 

 
Now that the color picker has been changed....
4. The swatches panel shows the color picker has the new color, but the current gradient scheme will be changed as soon as I click the color picker.
 
 
5. I click the color picker, and the gradient has changed which allows me to proceed to saving the swatch, but the current object color is also changed.

 
This workflow greatly reduces the ability to both experiment with colors in a gradient by impeding my ability to develop a set of preferred color in swatches palette.
• It forces me to save a gradient prior to saving a node color.
• It forces me to think whether I should finalize my gradient scheme so I'm not creating unwanted swatches in my color palette.
• It abruptly changes the color of my object in the process of saving a desired color in the gradient scheme.
• It stifles creative development as I may encounter other experimentation phases with other objects and not seek to go through all the steps to save a color node as a swatch.
 
thank you
 
 

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Serif's icon choices are fun and engaging. Let's be careful what we ask for.....
 
.....

 
 
 
 
 

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Hi rjvela82
Sorry to see you're having trouble - I'm not 100% certain what's happening here, could you please upload a copy of your .afpub file to the following link for me?
https://www.dropbox.com/request/NEO3zd2T8f7w1J2HdzjR
Thanks in advance!

Same thing with an asset would be nice...  and if replacing something with an asset that has an unpopulated text or picture frame, if the thing being replaced has one that is populated, the content should be retained in the replacement object.

Problem
Even the most organized designers may find themselves needing to redefine a number of elements as symbols. After all, there are deadlines, the all too easy to use Copy / Paste / Duplicate options and other scenarios that keep us from relying on symbols.  But what is worst is that to go back and reorganize these elements as symbols can also be daunting, because of large number of nested layers and each with their own unique locations. 
 
Solution
Introduce a function that takes any element and replaces it with a symbol in its place. The function intelligently uses the same X-Y coordinates of the object its replacing to position itself automatically.
 
Result
With a Symbol Replace option, a user can Create their Symbol, and then go anywhere in the document and replace those items that should be that symbol.
• No need to drag the symbol into the canvas.
• No need to position that symbol into the correct location manually.
• No need to nest that symbol in the layers studio.
 
Thank you and pls consider ! 

Okay, I see what you mean. The lack of display precision is a bug, but the 0.75 is entered and honoured.

Screen Recording 2019-06-21 at 1.16.38 PM.mov

We're in the home stretch. I can feel it.... 

Love the new Default OS option in the UI Preferences guys - nice work! 

I am skeptical that this would take a "major" rewrite - maybe a minor one...  but that is ultimately for Serif to decide.
In any case, it would be a more correct level of functionality.

If you set one of the color nodes in a gradient using a global color swatch, it seems to copy out the color instead of referencing the global color.  As a result, if the global color is changed the gradient does not update.
It would be much better if the gradient updated along with other users of the global color swatch.

Ahh seems to be on the second or later page. Thanks for this I shall get it reported to the development team
[Cheers

There are 2 workarounds to get "gradient borders".  The attached is the most flexible and uses two identically sized tables.  I have attached the APub file so you can see how it is constructed.
1. All text editing for the table is done on the Main Table layer in the layers panel.
2. The gradient can be modified by selecting the Rectangle Layer and then the Fill (gradient) tool.
3. Everything is grouped simply to allow easy resizing of the Table(s) by selecting the Group Layer and resizing that.
If I have missed anything else you wanted to do, please let me know
 

table1.afpub

Don’t forget to post a link when it’s ready!

Many thanks rjvela82,
I'll get this logged