Feature Request: Select all on left/right page of a spread

[big smile]

In Affinity Publisher, you can create speeds of left and right pages.

When you click Select All, it selects everything on the entire spread. 

It would be super handy if there was an option to select everything on the left page only, or everything on the right page only.

Of course, you can do this by dragging with the mouse, but a keyboard short cut would help with efficiency, accessibility and also make it easier to control Affinity with automation software (such as Keyboard Maestro) which allows for batch automation on multiple documents. 

It would be also super handy if the layers panel had an option to only show layers on the currently active page of a spread, as sometimes the layers panel can get very chaotic to navigate when it shows all the layers on both pages of a spread. 

But currently active, I mean if you select an object on the left page of a spread, then layers panel will only show the left page layers.

[GarryP]

I can imagine that it might be useful – on occasion – to be able to only see, in the Layers Panel, those layers on the page of the spread I am working on, but I can also imagine that a poor implementation could cause confusion and/or frustration, especially if it was easy to accidentally select this ‘mode’. Not a bad idea, but it needs thinking about in more detail as per implementation.

As for being able to select all the layers on a specific page (rather than the whole spread), can you give a specific example of a work-flow where this would be useful? I’ve never needed to do this myself, that I can remember, so I’m curious as to what sort of thing being able to do so would speed-up or make easier. Again, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, I just can’t think of why/when I would need it.

[big smile]

13 minutes ago, GarryP said:

As for being able to select all the layers on a specific page (rather than the whole spread), can you give a specific example of a work-flow where this would be useful? I’ve never needed to do this myself, that I can remember, so I’m curious as to what sort of thing being able to do so would speed-up or make easier. Again, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, I just can’t think of why/when I would need it.

I had an example the other day. The inner margins of my document changed, and so all the graphics on the left side needed shifting to the left by 5mm, while all the graphics on the right needed shifting to the right. 

Having to drag around the objects with the mouse got stale real fast. 

It was for over 200 pages too, so I had to use Automation Software like Keyboard Maestro to automate the process.

In the end, I switched the document back to single pages, made the changes and then switched it back to facing pages. But it would be so much nicer if there wasn't the need to switch between single and facing pages, especially as switching between the two can cause the program to hang on large documents. 

13 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I can imagine that it might be useful – on occasion – to be able to only see, in the Layers Panel, those layers on the page of the spread I am working on, but I can also imagine that a poor implementation could cause confusion and/or frustration, especially if it was easy to accidentally select this ‘mode’. Not a bad idea, but it needs thinking about in more detail as per implementation.

I think just have a switch in the layers panel. When set to single pages, only the layers of the single page are shown. When set to spread, everything is shown. You could even have it that the layer palette splits into two for single-mode, so all the layers of the spread are shown, but they are clearly demarcated in the layer palette. 

[GarryP]

I can certainly see why moving so many objects would become a real chore but wouldn’t it also mean that everything else on the page was similarly shifted, meaning that they would now overlap the margin of the other side? And wouldn’t that mean that they would have to be resized manually anyway to cope with text flow etc.? Please forgive my ignorance but I can’t see the document itself and therefore can’t see what’s happening, it might not be an actual problem.

There’s certainly space in the Layers Panel to have an extra control on one of it’s little toolbars, maybe the bottom one on the left, next to “Edit All Layers” is a good place. However, I’m not sure what the icon would look like. What would be a good icon to show “I’m only displaying the layers on one of the pages”? And how would it show the user which page was ‘current’? Also, what happens if you have layers selected on both pages and then switch from showing the layers on the spread to just those on one page? Do the layers on one page get de-selected? And, if so, which page’s layers – left or right – would be de-selected? And, if not, we now have layers selected that can’t be seen in the layers panel which would be confusing. I think it needs more thought.

The idea of having the layers panel split horizontally by page isn’t one I would personally be happy with as it would mean that I would have to lose more canvas space to allow for the extra width of the Layers Panel. Maybe that’s just me though and it might not be a major problem. I haven’t put too much thought into it so far.

[Murfee]

37 minutes ago, big smile said:

I think just have a switch in the layers panel. When set to single pages, only the layers of the single page are shown. When set to spread, everything is shown. You could even have it that the layer palette splits into two for single-mode, so all the layers of the spread are shown, but they are clearly demarcated in the layer palette. 

Hi big smile, have you seen the add layer button in the layers panel, this should do what you need. Add 2 new layers label one left & the other right. With the left layer selected add whatever you need for the left spread, then select the right layer and add what is needed. to move all elements for the page just select the left or right layer all elements will move together. If you change to single page layout the master layers remain with the pages. If you want to hide the left page just untick the left layer visibility. 

[big smile]

38 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I can certainly see why moving so many objects would become a real chore but wouldn’t it also mean that everything else on the page was similarly shifted, meaning that they would now overlap the margin of the other side? And wouldn’t that mean that they would have to be resized manually anyway to cope with text flow etc.? Please forgive my ignorance but I can’t see the document itself and therefore can’t see what’s happening, it might not be an actual problem.

A shortcut to select all on a left/right page, isn't intended to be a magic cure all for the problems you described.
It's just intended to cut down on using the mouse to select things, which will increase efficiency (as shortcuts are quicker than a mouse) and make Affinity Publisher more accessible to automation software. 
Yes, it won't fix things like overflowing text, but it will a big help in speeding up the process.

It's a bit like style sheets. If you have to downsize a document from A4 to A5, having text style sheets is super handy for reducing font size. It won’t fix everything (you'll still have to go back and resize text frames), but it will a big help in speeding up the process.

38 minutes ago, GarryP said:

There’s certainly space in the Layers Panel to have an extra control on one of it’s little toolbars, maybe the bottom one on the left, next to “Edit All Layers” is a good place. However, I’m not sure what the icon would look like. What would be a good icon to show “I’m only displaying the layers on one of the pages”? And how would it show the user which page was ‘current’? Also, what happens if you have layers selected on both pages and then switch from showing the layers on the spread to just those on one page? Do the layers on one page get de-selected? And, if so, which page’s layers – left or right – would be de-selected? And, if not, we now have layers selected that can’t be seen in the layers panel which would be confusing. I think it needs more thought.

I think it's a only a novice user that would get confused. Also only a novice user would need such heavy-handed feedback that they are only displaying the layers on one of the pages. But if you hide the option to activate the switch in a menu, then a novice user would never come across these confusion problem. And they aren't really problems, as if the user flips to the next page, the "missing" layers will come back and they'll work out what's going on. 

To be honest, the way it works now, where you have a mass of left and right page layers is more confusing than the issues you have identified. 

It's worth noting that Indesign doesn't have the problem of having a mess of left and right layers in it's layer panel, because it only allows all pages to have the same layers. So maybe an idea would be to have an option in Preferences that allows Affinity to behave more like InDesign. 

38 minutes ago, GarryP said:

The idea of having the layers panel split horizontally by page isn’t one I would personally be happy with as it would mean that I would have to lose more canvas space to allow for the extra width of the Layers Panel. Maybe that’s just me though and it might not be a major problem. I haven’t put too much thought into it so far.

You could have the left and right layer panels stacked on top of each other, to avoid taking extra width. And if it bothers a user, they can choose not to activate the option and so everything will remain as it is now. 

17 minutes ago, Murfee said:

Hi big smile, have you seen the add layer button in the layers panel, this should do what you need. Add 2 new layers label one left & the other right. With the left layer selected add whatever you need for the left spread, then select the right layer and add what is needed. to move all elements for the page just select the left or right layer all elements will move together. If you change to single page layout the master layers remain with the pages. If you want to hide the left page just untick the left layer visibility. 

Problems with this:

• Has to be done for every page (Not fun for large documents). 
• If you use a master page for this set up, then on the individual pages, you can't add objects to the right and left layers that aren't part of the master page. 
• Now content is grouped within layers, so you have to hit the triangle icon in the layer to see content, which is fiddly. 

[carl123]

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, big smile said:

I had an example the other day. The inner margins of my document changed, and so all the graphics on the left side needed shifting to the left by 5mm, while all the graphics on the right needed shifting to the right. 

You should/might be able to do this in Spread Setup by resizing the page larger (width only) by the right amount.

Then by resizing the page back to the original width

Using the appropriate Rescale options (Anchor to Page & Anchor to Spread) during each resize

The beauty of this is that you can apply it to all 200+ pages at once

I did a quick test on the left-hand pages which seemed to work but got too bored to test the right-hand pages 

[Move Along People]

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[big smile]

33 minutes ago, haakoo said:

You can have a masterpage for the left and another for the right page

But you can't add any objects to a master page from an Individual page. 

E.g. I set up left and right layers on the master page.

I know go to pages 2-3  of my document. I want to draw a text box that will appear on the left master page layer. I can't do that. 

Instead, I'll have to create a new left/right layer for each page, which isn't fun on large documents. 

@carl123 

In my usecase, the document stayed the same size, only the margins changed. 

[Move Along People]

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[big smile]

2 minutes ago, haakoo said:

Of course you can
Edit linked>add an object and it will be in all pages using that masterpage and on the masterpage itself
It sometimes draws the object outside the masterpage layer on the regular page but simply dragging it into the masterpage layer will do the trick.

But what if I only want the text box to appear on page 2 and in the left layer of the master page, but not appear on all the other pages that use the master pages. Is that possible? If so that would be a big help! 

[Move Along People]

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[Murfee]

22 minutes ago, big smile said:

But what if I only want the text box to appear on page 2 and in the left layer of the master page, but not appear on all the other pages that use the master pages. Is that possible? If so that would be a big help! 

Yes that is possible, if you just want a text box then go to page 2 and add it there, you can add anything directly to pages or Layers that are not included on master pages.

[big smile]

12 minutes ago, Murfee said:

Yes that is possible, if you just want a text box then go to page 2 and add it there, you can add anything directly to pages or Layers that are not included on master pages.

I just tried it:

1. I created a master page spread that has two layers: one named "Master-Left" (for the left page); one named "Master-right" (for the right page)

2. I applied this master page spread to all pages in the document. 

3. I went to pages 2-3 of my document 

4. I added a box to page 2 (that's only supposed to be on page 2 and nowhere else on this document). The box appeared on top of  "Master-Left" layer. There didn’t seem to be anyway to put the box into the  "Master-Left" layer.

Just to recap the context of the conservation, as I think it's getting confused:

I said I would like to see an improved layer panel interface that gave the option of displaying on the content that's on the right/left of a spread and not the whole spread, otherwise it ends up with a mess of layers. 

@haakoo suggested I can just use right and left layers, and I can use master pages to avoid having to create a left/right layer for every page. But that doesn't seem to be possible, as shown by steps 1-4 above.  If it is possible, please let me know, as that would be a big help!

 

[Move Along People]

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[big smile]

4 minutes ago, haakoo said:

SimpleMpS.afpub

Hmmm... When I try to open your file it says "The file includes features from a later version of Affinity."

[Move Along People]

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[big smile]

@haakoo Thanks!

The document you provided doesn't solve the listed use case.

Example: I am making a magazine. I want all my layers to be organized into left and right layers, so I create these on a master page (With Master-Left and Master-Right). I then apply to this to whole document, so every page has Master-Left and Master-right. 

Page 3 of the magazine is going to be the "Letter from the editor page". This is the only page that will have a letter from the editor in the whole magazine.

I draw a headline titled "Letter from the editor". There's no way of putting this headline in the Master-left layer. With the document you provided (SimpleMpS.afpub) I would have to create a brand new master page just for the headline "Letter from the editor", which is not good workflow. 

 

[Catshill]

I have created the following master pages for my magazines...

1. Front Page (contains banner and elements for cover, no page no)  - singe page

2. Inside with headings (contains guides , L & R page nos and rectangles containing headings and sub headings) - facing pages

3. Inside with no headings (contains guides , L & R page nos) - facing pages

4. Blank (no guides, no page nos) - single page

I then apply these throughout the pages as I require them. I never apply a master page to every page.

[Old Bruce]

10 hours ago, big smile said:

@haakoo Thanks!

The document you provided doesn't solve the listed use case.

Example: I am making a magazine. I want all my layers to be organized into left and right layers, so I create these on a master page (With Master-Left and Master-Right). I then apply to this to whole document, so every page has Master-Left and Master-right. 

Page 3 of the magazine is going to be the "Letter from the editor page". This is the only page that will have a letter from the editor in the whole magazine.

I draw a headline titled "Letter from the editor". There's no way of putting this headline in the Master-left layer. With the document you provided (SimpleMpS.afpub) I would have to create a brand new master page just for the headline "Letter from the editor", which is not good workflow. 

 

I would just use the actual page for the heading Letter to the Editor.

Also there are options to turn things on and off using the Layers' Panel by right clicking on the Master Page Layer and choosing Edit Detached from the drop-down menu. You could have Letters to the Editor on your Master Page and leave it turned off and just turn it on on the page you want.

[big smile]

@Catshill @Old Bruce

I think the conversation is getting a bit muddled and out of context, so lets recap:

The issue is that Publisher's Layer panel can get cluttered in spread mode, because it shows all the layers for the left and right pages.

It was suggested that you can create a layer for "left pages" and put all your left page content in it.
And then create a layer for "right pages" and put all your right page content in it.

The downside with this suggestion is that you have to create a seperate "left page layer" and "right page layer" for every page.

It was then suggested that master pages can be used to create a "left page layer" and "right page layer" for every page, which would avoid the need to create those layers manually on each page.

However, if you do this, you cannot put objects into the "left page layer" and "right page layer" that are not part of the master page. I gave an example of a "letters to editor" page to illustrate. If you create a headline called "letters from the editor" that only appears in on page 3 of the magazine (and no other page of the magazine), there is no way to put this headline in the "left page layer" that comes from the master page. So the ability to organise content into left and right layers, without having to create these layers manually for each page is not possible. 

Although @Catshill @Old Bruce suggestions are correct, they do not relate to the topic discussion of organising content into left and right layers without having to create a seperate left and right layer for every page.

I do appreciate that this is a complicated issue, so it's understandable that it's got a bit muddle. And I do appreciate everyone who took the time to provide those suggestions!

[fde101]

On 11/22/2019 at 3:54 AM, big smile said:

It would be also super handy if the layers panel had an option to only show layers on the currently active page of a spread, as sometimes the layers panel can get very chaotic to navigate when it shows all the layers on both pages of a spread. 

Here you run into a complication when dealing with parent/child relationships.  If you have a group containing layers on both pages, do you show the entire group in the layers panel, show the group but only the children on that one page (which might make it appear that the group is smaller than it is, causing both pages to lose content if you delete the group after only having seen objects from one page within it...), hide the group (since it contains content from the other page), ...

 

Also, what are you going to do with layers that are outside the spread and not on either page?

 

This is not the simple request you seem to think it is when you start digging into the details of what is being requested.  I agree in principle that having filtering options for the layers panel would be quite nice, but this request as specified could lead to dangerous forms of confusion if not implemented very carefully.

[Move Along People]

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