Rpen

When I Export (a PNG or JPG, etc) from Affinity Photo, the Export dialog panel offers the previous Export folder, regardless of where the current source image resides. I have to go browsing through deep photo collections to choose the original image folder.
But when I use Save As, the output dialog always offers the source image folder for the new file.
This inconsistency is awkward, and not particularly useful when editing a series of photographs that reside in different folders. There are times I want the exports from a series of images to all be placed in the same folder, sure, but usually I need the Export to live beside the original for comparison and future use.
I see two ways to achieve this.
(1) Leave the behaviour as it is but provide a checkbox on the Export dialog that would allow us to choose "current folder". It should remember its state between sessions. If we toggle it off before finalizing the Export, we want to target the previous Export folder. The remembering of the previous folder shouldn't change when we use the current folder via the checkbox, so that repeatedly saving some Exports to a specific folder will be easy, no matter how many times we also use "current folder". (You're already saving that path, so don't change it when you place the Export in the current folder.) The previous folder path would be set when we specifically browse for some target folder, just as it works today. The difference is that we could toggle on the "current folder" checkbox to save the Export beside the source image.
Or (2) You could use the concept you already use in Save As, and consistently offer the current image folder as the default folder. To avoid annoying people who enjoy the "remember the previous Export folder" concept, you could provide a way to choose some remembered Export folder and make a checkbox for "use assigned Export folder". With that toggled off, Export will use the folder holding the source image, just like Save As. An expectable place. Or just have a toggle for "use previous folder". That works too, but it doesn't seem as reliable as assigning an export folder on purpose. I would think that people wanting to always use some "previous folder" will actually prefer that the folder be consistent until they specifically ask it to be changed, so they can browse to export in some folder without accidentally altering their assigned export folder.
Thanks for reading. Great software you have here. Hope we can all enjoy improving it.

Tab seems to be a way to continue working on the document without the side panels. Using Tab, the top menu bar is still visible, and if Rulers are on, they are also visible. If the image happens to be the same size as the screen, going 1:1 won't show the entire image because of these extra widgets. So Tab is no replacement for a simple FullScreen view. And going 1:1 doesn't quite solve the rendering problem because unless I turn on Pixel view mode I will still see the working design lines, not rendered output. Then I'll have to turn off Pixel view mode to get back to editing.
I understand the complications of fullscreen in a document with multiple artboards, but in my opinion, only the current artboard need be shown fullscreen. The concept is to quickly and easily see the particular image being worked on, rendered as if a PNG, without surrounding widgets. It is not a request to make a FullScreen Edit Workspace. The Tab view works fine for that, and personally I wouldn't want to get rid of the side panels at all if I could just get the fullscreen preview.
So, to repeat for clarity: if the image is smaller than the screen, it should render 1:1 in the center of the display, with a black background. No frame. No buttons. No labels. Nothing but the image. (I suppose the background color could be set in Preferences). If the image is larger than the display, it should be scaled to fit, and if the aspect ratio is different, any non-image area should be the background color. I suppose some people might want a larger document to be rendered 1:1 as well, and the mouse could drag the rendered view as needed. Perhaps the mouse wheel could even be used to zoom the rendered view. It depends on how much work you want to put into this, but for me the simple fullscreen render first mentioned would be enough.
ps. Thanks for being. Great software. Great forum.

Hello @Rpen,
 
I stumbled over this some time ago, too, and learned that those 'Forward' and 'Backward' buttons are more like a 'History-Navigation' and not a 'Flip through the available Preferences'. I settled with this.
 
After reading your post I think it's not a perfect solution as it is. It is misleading and hopefully will be made more intuitive in the future.
 
I know that the Affinity developers are spending a lot of time into how they implement functionality. So there must be some idea of user friendliness with it. But obviously we didn't get it 
 
d.

In my opinion, it would be enough to define the directory/folder absolutely.
If it is defined relative (as it is now), it is necessary to specify "where", and dialog must be displayed.
If it is defined in absolute forms, there is no need to enter anything.

Tab seems to be a way to continue working on the document without the side panels. Using Tab, the top menu bar is still visible, and if Rulers are on, they are also visible. If the image happens to be the same size as the screen, going 1:1 won't show the entire image because of these extra widgets. So Tab is no replacement for a simple FullScreen view. And going 1:1 doesn't quite solve the rendering problem because unless I turn on Pixel view mode I will still see the working design lines, not rendered output. Then I'll have to turn off Pixel view mode to get back to editing.
I understand the complications of fullscreen in a document with multiple artboards, but in my opinion, only the current artboard need be shown fullscreen. The concept is to quickly and easily see the particular image being worked on, rendered as if a PNG, without surrounding widgets. It is not a request to make a FullScreen Edit Workspace. The Tab view works fine for that, and personally I wouldn't want to get rid of the side panels at all if I could just get the fullscreen preview.
So, to repeat for clarity: if the image is smaller than the screen, it should render 1:1 in the center of the display, with a black background. No frame. No buttons. No labels. Nothing but the image. (I suppose the background color could be set in Preferences). If the image is larger than the display, it should be scaled to fit, and if the aspect ratio is different, any non-image area should be the background color. I suppose some people might want a larger document to be rendered 1:1 as well, and the mouse could drag the rendered view as needed. Perhaps the mouse wheel could even be used to zoom the rendered view. It depends on how much work you want to put into this, but for me the simple fullscreen render first mentioned would be enough.
ps. Thanks for being. Great software. Great forum.

Tab seems to be a way to continue working on the document without the side panels. Using Tab, the top menu bar is still visible, and if Rulers are on, they are also visible. If the image happens to be the same size as the screen, going 1:1 won't show the entire image because of these extra widgets. So Tab is no replacement for a simple FullScreen view. And going 1:1 doesn't quite solve the rendering problem because unless I turn on Pixel view mode I will still see the working design lines, not rendered output. Then I'll have to turn off Pixel view mode to get back to editing.
I understand the complications of fullscreen in a document with multiple artboards, but in my opinion, only the current artboard need be shown fullscreen. The concept is to quickly and easily see the particular image being worked on, rendered as if a PNG, without surrounding widgets. It is not a request to make a FullScreen Edit Workspace. The Tab view works fine for that, and personally I wouldn't want to get rid of the side panels at all if I could just get the fullscreen preview.
So, to repeat for clarity: if the image is smaller than the screen, it should render 1:1 in the center of the display, with a black background. No frame. No buttons. No labels. Nothing but the image. (I suppose the background color could be set in Preferences). If the image is larger than the display, it should be scaled to fit, and if the aspect ratio is different, any non-image area should be the background color. I suppose some people might want a larger document to be rendered 1:1 as well, and the mouse could drag the rendered view as needed. Perhaps the mouse wheel could even be used to zoom the rendered view. It depends on how much work you want to put into this, but for me the simple fullscreen render first mentioned would be enough.
ps. Thanks for being. Great software. Great forum.

When I Export (a PNG or JPG, etc) from Affinity Photo, the Export dialog panel offers the previous Export folder, regardless of where the current source image resides. I have to go browsing through deep photo collections to choose the original image folder.
But when I use Save As, the output dialog always offers the source image folder for the new file.
This inconsistency is awkward, and not particularly useful when editing a series of photographs that reside in different folders. There are times I want the exports from a series of images to all be placed in the same folder, sure, but usually I need the Export to live beside the original for comparison and future use.
I see two ways to achieve this.
(1) Leave the behaviour as it is but provide a checkbox on the Export dialog that would allow us to choose "current folder". It should remember its state between sessions. If we toggle it off before finalizing the Export, we want to target the previous Export folder. The remembering of the previous folder shouldn't change when we use the current folder via the checkbox, so that repeatedly saving some Exports to a specific folder will be easy, no matter how many times we also use "current folder". (You're already saving that path, so don't change it when you place the Export in the current folder.) The previous folder path would be set when we specifically browse for some target folder, just as it works today. The difference is that we could toggle on the "current folder" checkbox to save the Export beside the source image.
Or (2) You could use the concept you already use in Save As, and consistently offer the current image folder as the default folder. To avoid annoying people who enjoy the "remember the previous Export folder" concept, you could provide a way to choose some remembered Export folder and make a checkbox for "use assigned Export folder". With that toggled off, Export will use the folder holding the source image, just like Save As. An expectable place. Or just have a toggle for "use previous folder". That works too, but it doesn't seem as reliable as assigning an export folder on purpose. I would think that people wanting to always use some "previous folder" will actually prefer that the folder be consistent until they specifically ask it to be changed, so they can browse to export in some folder without accidentally altering their assigned export folder.
Thanks for reading. Great software you have here. Hope we can all enjoy improving it.