DavidMac

Yes! It drives me crazy. I keep forgetting to rasterise when I first import. There are a whole heap of instances where AP could pop up error/advisory messages and doesn't. It's one of its weak spots, especially while you are first getting to grips with it.

Wow! Now that is very erudite and well put ............... The original poster asked a simple question and we've all managed a superb job of mudddying waters (along with a quick slightly off topic spin through gaming pads) ............ poor blokes head must be spinning. Aren't forums wonderful? :) :)

Yes of course - but the 'sensible' change to AP I am suggesting is as simple as hit the "A" key you get a lower case "a", shift hit the A key you get upper case "A". Not many people oppose this on the basis of personal preference because it makes sense. To my mind "Click the Mask button you get a reveal selection mask" and "Alt click the mask button you get a hide selection mask" has exactly the same simplicity. If people want to contest this on the basis of personal preference then they are far too complicated for my simple mind ...... :rolleyes:

What? You mean sensible individuals don't expect it to work sensibly? Well, under the circumstances, that might just be se sensible! ;)

Everyone is suggesting one click, two click, one handed, two handed, solutions, but everyone seems to be ignoring the very simple logic of Laverda2c's original request - which I agree with entirely. Yes of course there are are a dozen different ways of achieving what he wants ..... but that's not the point. He's asking why doesn't it work the way any sensible individual would expect it to work? This subject has been covered before in other posts and there seems to be a remarkable reluctance on the part of experienced AP users to accept a very simple little anomaly. Clicking the mask icon in the layers palette with no selection present produces a 'reveal all' mask. Alt clicking the mask icon in the layers palette with no selection present produces a 'hide all' mask. Clicking the mask icon in the layers palette with a selection present produces a 'reveal selection' mask. Alt clicking the mask icon in the layers palette with a selection present produces a 'hide selection' mask ....... except it doesn't - it ignores the selection entirely! This is inconsistent, illogical and unexpected. It begs not a one click or two click alternative - it begs the question "Why?". I am not trying to criticise AP. I am not ignoring all your helpful alternatives. I am simply saying that it is utterly logical and simple and consistent to expect Alt clicking the mask icon with a selection present to produce a hide selection mask. This is what a newbie unused to AP's idiosyncrasies expected because it is so absolutely logical and "expectable". He's right - it should work that way! So please, can anyone give me good reason why this shouldn't be implemented when it makes such perfect sense? Let's not just accept alternatives and work arounds ...... let's quite simply ask to have it work in the simplest, most logical, most instinctive and simplest way possible. Why not? :)

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Very smart of you! Remember you will need to also buy a good keyboard mapper to re-program it.

There's lots of choices and ways of approaching it. I started by adapting an ordinary numeric keypad using a third party software that can recognise and reprogram just about any input device. I set it up for Sketchup, PS and AP. Then it started to malfunction with a hardware problem and needed to be replaced and I decided to go for the much bigger and uglier, but more flexible, gaming pad.

Yes we all have our little preferences. I would like to be able to duplicate by simply Alt dragging a layer directly to it's destination in the stack. I dislike keyboard shortcuts as I use a large slate and the keyboard gets in the way. It also often needs two hands which interrupts my flow with the pen. Being no longer in the first flush of youth I also have difficulty remembering them all! To get round this I use a 24 key gamers keypad which sits permanently under my left hand just to the left of the slate. It has a palm rest which helps locate the hand relative to the keys. It also has a thumb joystick which is handy for small precise movements. It is completely programmable with either single keystrokes or macros. I have all the modifiers plus Esc and Enter and del on it plus shortcuts to all my most frequent operations. It is also application aware and will switch its programming according to which app is currently foreground. This means that, although the actual shortcuts are different, I can have both Photoshop and AP respond to exactly the same key in the same manner. Bizarre ....... but it works ...... ;)

Not as fast and easy as a simple Alt Click on the Mask button! It's a tiny little thing but, added to all the other tiny little things in Affinity that need two or three actions where one would do, it does get a bit niggling. ;)

As far as I know this is currently normal. It's a pity. I have put in a feature request for this as it's entirely logical and consistent and I cannot believe it would be hard to code. I suggest you do the same. I would imagine the more people request something, particularly something so basic, the more likely it is to get implemented.

Exactly ...... just what I would do ........ Possibly with limited success ........ :(

I think transferring might be a nightmare. But you can create a family account which gives you both full access to each others existing apps.

A number of us have been asking for this from the days when it was just AP and AD ........... well over a year - probably more. A drop down box or button that must be pressed on any new post before it is accepted. I agree with you it really IS getting a bit silly now. Especially with iPad now 'live' - as each new release brings new users struggling for the first time together with new bugs and problems which tend to dominate the forum for other users.

Plugins do appear to be AP's Achilles heel. Apart from some of Google's Nik collection I have had no success with any of my plugins. I can confirm that I have been unable to get particle shop to work with AP. It shows up in the filters menu but when invoked AP crashes completely. It's such a shame that AP's construction makes plugins so difficult and limited. I have seen a number of explanations for this but I find them hard to accept when just about every other photo editing app I have tried that accepts PS plugins does not suffer these problems. I don't really know of a ParticleShop substitute although, depending on what type of ParticleShops's brushes you like, you might take a look at https://www.escapemotions.com/products/flamepainter/ .... it's available standalone or plugin.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) said Not nearly as profound, but in similar vein, the largest single part of my job as a Director of Photography is lighting the set. I have always followed the philosophy 'It's not where you put the light that counts ..... it's where you don't.'.

But that's another thread ....... ;) You could start one ......... things to remove could be interesting ......... most people post on things to add! :)

And an excellent point it is too. The difficulty is that, despite the 'universality' of some of the principles, I think all books on the subject are specifically app based. I really don't know of a general photo editing book or web tutorials. That being said I learned a lot about AP from PS tutorials and, perhaps more unexpectedly, a lot about PS from AP tutorials. Looking at other apps tutorials gives you an idea what to look for ........ even if not how to find it or which button to press ........ Affinity is still very young so most of what is available comes only from Serif. There hasn't been time for a culture of independent tutorials to develop to a significant degree yet. PS has been around so long that there are hundreds of independent tutorials - many of them covering the absolute basics. Googling these can teach you a lot about general principles - even if you need to adapt the specifics to AP.

Yes of course Pruus! What we all share is a common desire for learning to be a joy. I don't think anyone would dispute you for a second. But many of the posters in this thread are experienced well known names here who are already sprinters and marathoners ..... what they are discussing is not the principle but the method. :)

Yes that's a very fair point. Then I shall re-phrase. What I would love are static PDF tutorials (that I don't need to keep stopping and starting and can follow at my own pace) to supplement the tutorial videos.

Yes ............ So-o-o much! ;) But no worries .............. with time and experience they're getting more expected! :o

And I have just noticed that the AP course is by Steve Caplin who wrote the excellent "How to Cheat in Photoshop" series of books. I haven't checked it out but Steve is a hugely experienced professional with a remarkable ability to explain complicated things simply.

Now that is neat! It is one of those simultaneously obvious and elusive "I wish I had thought of that" ideas!

In that case would you be so kind as to move this reply with it please. I would request that Cmd be reassigned to drawing from a central point which would make it consistent with all the other tools and that moving contents with selection be assigned a new key combo. IMHO consistency in the use of modifiers across tools is vital to ease of use. Thanks Miguel.