JCarls

Thanks! That was definitely a missing bit of information for me. However, even if I clicked on the copy with a text tool it still lost those properties as you said, disappearing and leaving only the text I had typed. This seemed to be a permanent change, which makes me wonder why this is even a "feature." Perhaps I misread what you wrote and the proper procedure is to create a separate text box and move it over the callout, then group those if desired. That seems to work with more predictable results. Another problem kept happening, though: I would suddenly get the message that the layer I was working on was rasterized, and I could no longer edit the textbox at all. I get the feeling that there is something about the Affinity interface that is at odds with the way I expect it to work. I understand how that can happen, but until I understand how to control the interface, I keep feeling lost.

Is there a tutorial showing the most direct way to create comics-style "word balloons"? I've been trying to use the "callout rounded rectangle" tool and and finding it almost completely unpredictable and impossible to control. I was able to work with it a week ago and get a black outline with white opaque infill. I had to create a separate text box and group that because at no point was there any indication that the callout included a text feature. This week, I can put text in it but cannot control anything but the nodes. That is, I cannot change the line color or thickness of the blue shape (see attachment), nor give it an opaque fill. Clearly, there is something about this control that is completely changed by some kind of not-obvious setting. What is really needed is a simpler version of this that immediately produces an opaque white "callout" with black lettering and editing nodes, not something that requires that you understand every possible nuance from the very beginning. Help, please!

This seems a little too basic to have to ask, but the Help system is not helping. I have an image that I want to rotate a few degrees prior to doing some perspective correction. The Help entry says I can grab "rotation handles" but all I see are a blue outline with blue X's at the corners and midpoints. When I try to "display rotation point" I get nothing. None of the shift type keys have any effect. Is this one of those "can't get there from here" features that I seem to run into on occasion? Thanks!