Mark Oehlschlager

@andersoncosta I am using the latest Publisher beta on Mac OS High Sierra, just as you are. I'm also using a U.S. keyboard layout. However, I am unable to reproduce your error. For the "ó" character in "Relatório", I'm using the option + e key-combo followed by the "o" key.

Working with Publisher 1.7.0.206. There appears to be a bug with resetting ruler origins on pages/spreads. I noticed the following with a 4-page, facing-pages document: When repositioning the ruler origin on page 1, the zero point of the Y coordinate is correctly repositioned, but the X coordinate is not. (See illustration) When repositioning the ruler origin on page 2, the zero point of the X coordinate is correctly repositioned, but the Y coordinate is not. (See illustration) When repositioning the ruler origin on page 4, the zero point of the X coordinate is correctly repositioned, but the Y coordinate is not. The error from page 2 appears to have doubled. (See illustration) The bug does not manifest itself on master pages.

@Mithferion Thanks for the referral. I've discovered that for standard graphs, I can use Apple's Pages or Numbers apps to generate fairly clean, attractive graphs that I can then copy as a PDF graphic, paste into AF Designer, and then customize. It's a great fallback option. As long as I keep the Pages/Numbers source file, I can update the graph if my client supplies me with new data.

Occasionally, I have the need to produce data graphs for business, scientific or financial reports. When it comes to producing tables, I know that the forthcoming Publisher will have a table making capability, but for those who need to produce attractive data graphs for scientific and financial reports, would Affinity consider adding this capability to Affinity Designer? In the meantime, can anyone recommend a tool and a workflow for producing attractive and professional looking data graphs including but not limited to bar charts, pie charts, and scatter graphs?

Working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Currently reading about the Clip to Canvas item in the Help files. I have a few questions about display behavior: When I stretch a colored shape to reach beyond my artboard out to the boundaries of my 1/8" bleed, the colored shape is automatically clipped to the artboard. Why? When I follow the Help file instructions to deactivate "Clip to Canvas" (View > View Mode > Clip to Canvas), what I find is that the Clip to Canvas command is checked and greyed out (un-selectable). Is this a bug? Am I missing something? How does one show art extending out to bleeds? How does one show art on the pasteboard?

On further reflection, the over-riding UI design principle should be to keep things simple: reduce the urge to design ever-expandable control panels. There are many reasons to be angry with Adobe right now, the subscription pricing model not least among them, but they've successfully solved a lot of UI problems along the way. Their Character and Paragraph panels are relatively compact and work well. Adobe Illustrator's Character panel accounts for the "Positioning and Transform", "Decorations", and "Language" sub-panels of AFDesigner's Character panel in one, relatively compact window which requires no scrolling. The basic kerning preference (auto; optical; font metrics) is embedded as an option within the kerning pop-up menu. Illustrator offers a separate "OpenType" control panel which accounts for AFDesigner's "Typography" sub-panel. I'm sure there are legal and philosophical-design reasons for not copying the Adobe interface exactly, but I would encourage Affinity to take some inspiration and guidance from the things that Adobe has done well in their UI design.

@Dave Harris Thanks for pointing that out. Did I miss that in the available online Help files? I didn't find any instruction on that point.

@Sean P Okay. Thanks.

@Chris_K I've just noticed that another confusing aspect to this is the fact that there are scrollable frames within the sub-panels, and therefore in certain circumstances with a shorter Character or Paragraph panel one might find it difficult to "escape" and scroll to the top of the Character or Paragraph panel. For example, with the Character panel window shortened, one might scroll down to expand the Typography and Language and Optical Alignment sub-panels, only to find oneself stuck in the scrollable frame within the Optical Alignment sub-panel. Not sure what the best solution is here from a UI point of view. Perhaps making the sub-panel headers persistent even as the sub-panel content scrolls out of view, regardless of how many sub-panels are expanded? Perhaps, also, the default appearance of the Character and Paragraph panels is to show all the persistent sub-panel headers, but in a zipped-up or collapsed position?

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Bug? Following the Help files for Special Characters, I've tried to insert an Emoji from the Mac OS Character Palette, which is called up by Designer's "Edit > Emoji & Symbols" menu item. However, the emoji character from the Apple Color Emoji font doesn't display.

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. I believe I've found a bug in the behavior of the Character and Paragraph panels: The panels do not auto-size to fit the sub-feature panels (e.g., Spacing, Tab Stops, Justification, etc.), and there is no scroll bar or other visual indicator that more panel features remain below the bottom edge of the Character or Paragraph Panel. When one does scroll to the bottom of a foreshortened Character or Paragraph Panel, the panel window sticks and it's impossible to scroll back up to the top of the panel feature set.

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Regarding Text Frames, I would like to requests the following: Bring the threaded/linked text frame features from Publisher into Designer. Bring the text overflow control icon (red eyeball icon) from Publisher into Designer. EDIT: Adding a Text-on-a-path linking icon for overset text on a path would be desirable as well. Even for one or two panel jobs (e.g., a poster, a direct mail postcard, etc.), which could be laid out in AF Designer, it's often useful and desirable to be able to flow text through a few linked/threaded text frames.

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Regarding Vector Brushes, it would be great if many of the dynamic variables that are programmable in the Pixel Brushes (e.g., scatter jitter) could also be made available to Vector Brushes.

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Regarding object attributes and effects, I would like to request a new Appearance Panel like the one in Adobe Illustrator that allows one to manage multiple strokes, fills and effects. The proposed new Panel would allow the following: The ability to add/delete multiple strokes, fills and effects. The ability to directly edit the individual strokes, fills, and effects within the new Panel. The ability to control the stacking order, opacity and blend modes of the strokes, fills, and effects. The ability to control the visibility of the individual strokes, fills, and effects.

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Regarding Layer Effects, I have the following request: Add the ability to cut/copy/paste Layer Effects directly from an object/layer within the Layers Panel (via right-click contextual menu, and panel menu).

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Regarding symbols and the Symbols Panel, I have a few requests: Let the Symbols Panel show the synchronization status of the objects/attributes within a symbol, along with the ability to re-synch one or more un-synched objects/attributes. The ability to edit/re-define symbols within the palette (via drag-n-drop from the art board, right-click contextual menu, and panel menu). The ability to re-assign a new parent symbol to an existing symbol instance (via drag-n-drop, and right-click contextual menu).

Currently working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Regarding the Styles Panel (which is basically a Graphic Styles panel), I have a few requests: A built in None/Clear/Default style option or command that would make it easy to clear all object level Layer Effects and reduce the fill and stroke to a basic white fill and 1pt solid black stroke. The ability to edit/redefine an existing graphic style within the panel (via drag-n-drop from art board, right-click contextual menu, and panel menu).

@Old Bruce Hmm. I guess you're right. Hopefully this is a feature (allowing for multi-panel foldouts or gatefolds) that will be incorporated in the final release.

Oh. That's a new one for me. Please have this Xor concept explained in the final Help files. Thanks.

Working through Designer 1.7.0.3. For the sake of collaborative workflows, it would be nice if the Affinity products could both import and export ASE color palette swatch files, respecting any named groups within those ASE files.

Working through Designer 1.7.0.3. When building color palettes, it would be nice if swatches could be organized into logical groups. For example, one might want to organize 2-3 different color chords into named groups. Or, one might want to organize swatches into groups named "Primary", "Secondary", and "Accent". Currently, the swatches just live together as one big, undifferentiated group within each palette.

Working through Designer 1.7.0.3. Currently, when choosing to save a new color swatch or chord from the Color panel, the new swatch(s) end up in the last selected palette. But it would be better if in the process of saving a new swatch(s) from the Color panel, one were then prompted to select an existing palette to target, or to create a new palette to target. Saves the user from having to click back and forth between the Color and Swatches panels to target the correct palette for the new swatch(s).

Working through Designer 1.7.0.3. There is a display problem with the Geometry buttons in the toolbar: The order of the last two (Divide and Combine) has been flopped. The roll-over label for the Combine button reads "Xor".

@mac_heibu On further reflection, I understand how one might choose to set up a separate, single-page document with guides to layout a magazine cover, or a book dust jacket with interior flaps, but now how exactly would you set up a two-panel, magazine-page foldout in Publisher? I'm stumped.

Good question. I'm not familiar with the Windows interface. Perhaps through trial and error (or via Help files), you can discover a way to "print" directly to PDF. Or, even better, perhaps one of our fellow members who uses a Windows machine can point you in the right direction. Best of luck.