[Post when Affinity tutorials are updated / added?]

Hi, the Start to Finish video hasn't been changed, the flowers are instead part of the Liquify Retouching video - the videos use different photographs but of the same model!

 

The pinned tutorials list topic (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10119-in-house-affinity-photo-video-tutorials/) points out which videos have been recently added and also updated (e.g. Frequency Separation); this will continue as videos are added and revised so customers can always stay up to date with the tutorials.

[List of tools for beginners]

Hi Alan,

 

Thank you for the voiceover compliment!

 

Regarding information on the tools, have you tried accessing the help documentation? If you go to Help then Affinity Photo Help on the top toolbar, you'll open up the documentation.

 

From the left hand table of contents, you can then go into Workspace - Tools and then pick a subcategory (e.g. Text Tools, Selection Tools). You'll find a topic on each tool available in the software.

 

Hope that helps!

[Is there a way to select Highlights ?]

Hi Anstellos, have you tried either:

 

• Select the pixel layer from the Layers tab (eg Background), then go to Select - Tonal Range - Select Highlights. This will create a selection of just the highlights.
• Shift+CMD click the pixel layer to select areas of luminance. This will usually select more of the image than Select Highlights.

You can then add adjustments/filters/masks to manipulate these highlight areas, e.g. I like to add a gaussian blur with an Overlay blend mode which creates a really nice diffuse light effect.

 

Hope that helps!

[Quick Mask not working]

Hi there, looks like you got a sneak preview of the release videos! Sorry about that, looks like Vimeo displays videos in a channel even when they're set to private. We've removed them for now.

 

Thank you for the feedback, the brush colour was already set to white when I recorded the quick masking, probably from a previous session. I will correct this for release.

 

We'll be launching with a comprehensive set of videos for Photo, and there are more coming for post release. Requests welcome!

[Marquee editing]

Thank you for checking, we suspect these will all be related to the translated copies not being up to date, so once we've solved that, those issues should all be resolved!

[Marquee editing]

Let me apologize for my unspecific complaint in post #13, James … and thanks for your suggestion to load the UK help. It works!  :)

 

No problem at all, I just wanted to check that the text wrapping was definitely fixed: I was able to test through Lion running Safari but not the Photo app itself, so confirmation that it works is appreciated. Any other issues or feedback with the help, please do let us know!

[Marquee editing]

Hi guys,

 

unfortunately I just cannot get the topic Selections > Transforming pixel selections on OS X Lion by clicking on the menu entry. This is somewhat strange since all the other topics seem to work …  :unsure:

 

And the rewrapping issue is cured … thanks a lot! 

 

Cheers,

Alex  :)

 

Hi again, the issue with not being able to load that topic is to do with the process by which the translated help content is brought into each build. The TOC is updated but currently the translated pages aren't quite as recent as the UK (base) copy. If you were to load up the UK help (are you familiar with the process using Show Package Contents? If not I can post it) you would find the page will load successfully.

 

Apologies for the trouble, the beta builds are an opportunity to iron out issues with the translation workflow and we're working on tackling them.

 

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Marquee editing]

Oh my dear, that’s the way to do this … I guess the Help files need to get fixed on Lion first of all …  ;)

 

Hi A_B_C,

 

Could I just ask if you're referring to the text wrapping issue on Lion? That should be fixed; it was addressed a few beta builds ago but translation issues meant only UK users would have seen the changes. The Help has undergone a heavy rewrite since the first beta so any feedback or issue reports are always really appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[Affinity Photo Help - the good, bad, or ugly?]

Hi Bob, thanks for testing with some different security software, would it be possible to move any further discussion to the thread in the Bug forum (it's easier to keep track of in a separate bug thread)? I'll update the thread with that new info.

 

Thanks

[Affinity Photo Help - the good, bad, or ugly?]

You figured it out!

 

I run Avast Anti-Virus. I disabled the Web Shield, but not the file and email shields, and low and behold, I see the table of contents.

 

The Web Shield can exclude servers from scanning but I have no idea what to specify. I thought the help was local to the app.

 

Thanks

 

Bob

 

Hi Bob,

 

Thanks very much, I've reproduced the issue using Avast successfully and identified what the issue is, I'll take it over to bug reports!

[Affinity Photo Help - the good, bad, or ugly?]

If anyone else has the issue of the disappearing Help table of contents, please post a "Me too". I'd like to know that it's not just me.

 

Downloaded the Dssigner beta (I do hope I can trial Designer again when I have the time to play with it) and I have the same issue. The TOC is displayed for less than a second. Enough to know it was there, and then disappears.

 

I use Firefox as my default browser. The only extension I have in Safari is 1Password. I also tried unchecking the Block pop-ups in Safari but it didn't help.

 

On the off chance, I unchecked Block popups in Firefox as well as disabling AdBlock in Firefox, but that didn't do anything.

 

Bob

 

[Edit]

 

Do you know of any other apps that use the type of Help that you do with a TOC off to the side? I'd like to see if they have the same issue.

 

Hi Bob, interesting that the Designer TOC disappears as well, as the coding behind it is completely different to Photo's. I've also tried a variety of plugins with Safari and none of them interfere with Apple Help.

 

It's a bit of a stretch, but are you running any kind of web server or service that uses localhost (or 127.0.0.1)? Any apps of a similar nature that run a service or share files? Additionally, are you running any extra security software?

 

Also, I've checked for other apps that use a similar TOC system but haven't found anything yet.

 

Thanks

[Affinity Photo Help - the good, bad, or ugly?]

Yosemite 10.10.2

 

Everything's fine in Firefox. It's the Apple Help window that comes up when I click Help>Affinity Photo Help.

 

As for the greyed out buttons, it's probably because I was taking the window shots with Preview. When you navigate away from the Help window to Preview, the buttons grey out even though you focus on the window to take the screen shot.

 

I am running Moom and Hyperdock, but I quit both and had the same problem.

 

Maybe we should take this issue over to the bug forum?

 

Hi Bob,

 

I'm trying to investigate the issue you're having with no TOC being displayed; I've tested on several setups (all Yosemite) with different screen resolutions and they all display fine. I'm looking into any potential settings that could effect the behaviour of Apple Help.

 

Could I ask a favour - do you have Designer? If not, the beta version will run for 10 days before expiring - I just wondered if you could test whether or not a similar issue happens with Designer's help (which still uses the old layout)? There's a link to the latest beta build in this thread: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/6567-affinity-designer-customer-beta-rc3-11223834/

 

Thanks

 

[Edit]

 

Also, could I check whether you're running any additional plugins with Safari (such as Adblock, Noscript etc)? I don't really see Safari affecting Apple Help but it never hurts to check.

[Affinity Photo Help - the good, bad, or ugly?]

I've attached a screen capture of the Help window and the help in Firefox if I open index.html in AffinityPhoto.help. I've used AffinityPhoto.help to get at the help in Firefox. I'm actually going through it that way to send comments.

 

I've tried resizing the help window from the smallest it can be up to a very large window and no luck. Is it possible that there's a setting to disable a TOC somewhere? If no one else sees this, It might be me.I've had UBFs (User Brain Failure) from time to time.

 

Bob, could I just check what version of Mac OS you're running? That is very odd for it not to be displaying the menu at all. In terms of backwards compatibility issues I would expect the menu not to hide when you make the browser window smaller (I take it the responsive functionality is OK in Firefox?).

 

I noticed you've got grey window buttons (top left) - is that from the OS version or something else?

 

Thanks

[Affinity Photo Help - the good, bad, or ugly?]

Nope. By "locale" do you mean language? That's the only other option I could find. Set Language to English (U.K.) and Region to U.K. and everything else. Same issue. The TOC is there but disappears immediately. I can see it flash if I click the back button. Interestingly, the button to show the TOC is disabled (greyed out). Verified the version at 1.1.2.23923.

 

Maybe it knows I'm trying to fake the U.K.

 

If I'm the only one reporting this, maybe I should wait for the next beta version.

 

Hi bob, would it be possible to post a screen grab of what you're actually seeing? We're not using the TOC feature in Apple Help (I think that's what you're referring to when you say it's greyed out?), we have our own TOC that becomes off-canvas navigation if the help window is small enough. Do you have a "Show Menu" option in the top left at all?

 

Another thing to try, if you find Affinity Photo Beta in Applications and Show Package Contents, then drill down to Contents/Resources/ and find AffinityPhoto.help, do a Show Package Contents for that file. Would you be able to try loading index.html found in Contents/Resources/English.lproj and see if it displays properly for you?

 

Thanks!