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Apps: All Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad Using even space distribution on a multiple selection will now behave differently if you have a key object nominated. This relates to either the space horizontally or space vertically options available in the alignment drop down (or Alignment Options available from the Transform panel on iPad): The previous behaviour was always to space the objects in your selection with (in the case of horizontal spacing) the furthest left item and furthest right item remaining in the same position, and all other items in your selection spaced evenly between them. This is still the default behaviour. However, the new functionality is that if you additionally specify a key object in your selection (alt-click an object) the behaviour changes to mean the furthest left object and the key object will not change position, and the other items are spaced evenly between them. This is particularly useful as you may quite often have the first two objects in your selection at the correct spacing and you want to space all other objects the same distance. Now you can nominate the second object as the key object and achieve this. Additionally if you Alt-click the spacing button the distribution will be calculated between the furthest right object and the key object. Below shows the different results: All the above showing results for horizontal spacing, but the same applies to vertical spacing when working top to bottom.

Hey everyone, Update: Okay, apparently I completely missed the introduction of Key Objects somehow. Thanks for telling me it’s already there! 🤯 Firstly, however, part of my original subject was that key objects should work for any alignment – this includes the spacing operations »Space Vertical« and »Space Horizontal«. They currently work for the general alignment options such as top/bottom, left/right. From my logic it could/should work like this: If NO key object is selected, the last set »Align To:« option works as intended and expected. However, if a key object IS selected, the »Align To:« option should react and prioritise it by changing the »Align To: Key Object«. As soon as there’s no Key Object selected, it switches back to the previous item in the list, like »Last/First Selected«. Without checking, I think this is how it works in Illustrator as well. And I mean, it's just logical (at least to me): If a user actively selects a Key Object (and for Designer this can't be accidental, since you have to hold down an extra key on your keyboard), the user most likely wants to use it as such. So the Key Object should always have the highest priority in the list of alignment candidates/options. Secondly: They also only work from the Context toolbar – when I work with the toolbar popup and want to align (top/bottom, left/right, ...) it prioritises the selected »Align to:« option from the drop down. I think there's an item missing from this list for key objects to work in the toolbar popup as well, and I think that's the culprit. It's not at all obvious that »First Selected« equals »Key Object« in the »Align To:« dropdown in the Toolbar (not Context Toolbar). ––– I very dearly miss the ability to click on one of multiple selected shapes (especially in Designer and Publisher) in order to define it as some sort of »pivot« object, so to speak, around which all other alignments will happen since day one switching to Designer almost ten years ago. (Wow, Designer really turns 10 next year!) The »First/Last Selected« options in the »Align to:« dropdown come close to what I mean, but are not as intuitive, nor do they work for all alignment operations such as »Space Horizontal/Vertical«. Illustrator has solved this more elegantly and functionally by allowing you to mark one of the already selected objects as the »centre« by clicking on it, around which all further alignment operations will take place. They call it »Align to Key Object«. Here's a short clip of how it works. Here’s a video that explains its differences a little bit better compared to other alignment options present in Designer. Please please pleeease Affinity, I need this QOL back in my process and would love to see it and in the Affinity Suite. 🥲 Cheers Dennis