Synchronize Defaults Not Working

[lepr]

 

On 12/11/2020 at 1:41 PM, GeoVictor said:

The sync option is not working. Is there a way to fix it?

 

The following is how I see the app's behaviour, and I think it is working as designed.

A document has a collection of default attributes: fill (primary) colour, stroke (secondary) colour and stroke width. These defaults are used to define the initial state of the next object to be created.

If an attribute is edited when no object is selected, the default attribute is changed.

If an attribute is edited when an object (or multiple objects) is selected, both the object's attribute and the default attribute are changed.

Defaults > Synchronise From Selection copies the attributes of a selected object to the default attributes.

 

[thomaso]

@anon2, do you get this auto-sync behavior consistently for various objects? If yes, can you show a screencast?

To me this auto-sync works partially only and is hard to understand & manage this way, for instance...

1.  for a Pen tool object it doesn't apply its fill color – though there is obviously at least a default grey saved.
2.  for Text it auto-syncs the font first but suddenly stops syncing but applies a former font instead – though I neither pressed the sync nor revert button:

[lepr]

 

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

 

To me this auto-sync works partially only and is hard to understand & manage this way, for instance...

1.  for a Pen tool object it doesn't apply its fill color – though there is obviously at least a default grey saved.

The purple fill and grey fill failed to appear for your Pen Tool because Use Fill was disabled in the context toolbar.

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

2.  for Text it auto-syncs the font first but suddenly stops syncing but applies a former font instead – though I neither pressed the sync nor revert button:

Yes, that does seem to break after a few changes of font.

[KJV1611]

Is Synchronise Defaults globally not working yet? When I try to save a default for text it does not remember it when I create a new document. The document based defaults are working for me if I stay in the same document. But reading the WorkBook it looks like going to Edit and then Save is supposed to make it work globally when creating new documents. Not working for me.

I'm using Affinity Publisher 1.8.6 on Mac OS 10.13.6

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, KJV1611 said:

Is Synchronise Defaults globally not working yet? When I try to save a default for text it does not remember it when I create a new document. The document based defaults are working for me if I stay in the same document. But reading the WorkBook it looks like going to Edit and then Save is supposed to make it work globally when creating new documents. Not working for me.

Please describe the exact actions you took.

[prophet]

Here's how I understand the Synch Defaults button to work.

Any new object created will use the characteristics of the previously created object. If there is no previous object, the app defaults (hairline black stroke, grey fill) will be used.

If you'd like the next new object to use the characteristics of an object other than the last object created, select the "reference" object and click the "synchronize defaults from selection button." The next object created will use those characteristics.

You can test this by "synching" from an object and then selecting and clicking off of (deselecting) various objects and noting the stroke/fill color wells or stroke weight.

[thomaso]

@prophet, your experience sounds to be the same that @anon2 mentioned recently, + confirmed in later post my experience that the permanent working auto-sync feature for text stops working after some usage.

However, the most recent user report concerns the "Save" function to make the Defaults work for new documents, too.  As I read KJV166's post the workflow is:
• format text
> synchronize
> save default
> new document
> create text frame.

By the way here is another situation where defaults after  sync + save get applied limited by one specific workflow of two.

 

[GeoVictor]

7 hours ago, prophet said:

Here's how I understand the Synch Defaults button to work.

Any new object created will use the characteristics of the previously created object. If there is no previous object, the app defaults (hairline black stroke, grey fill) will be used.

If you'd like the next new object to use the characteristics of an object other than the last object created, select the "reference" object and click the "synchronize defaults from selection button." The next object created will use those characteristics.

You can test this by "synching" from an object and then selecting and clicking off of (deselecting) various objects and noting the stroke/fill color wells or stroke weight.

Yes @prophet. This is how Synch works. Now it is clear to me. Thank you.

However, the way it works is not intuitive. One would expect that once you set a style as default, new objects would always respect the default, even if a change the style of one specific object. But, now you made it clear for me. Once one understand how it works, it is easier to adapt.

[prophet]

14 hours ago, GeoVictor said:

However, the way it works is not intuitive. One would expect that once you set a style as default, new objects would always respect the default, even if a change the style of one specific object.

It seems almost superfluous to me. Most of the time, if I need an object to match some other object, I'll just copy the reference object and Edit > Paste Style on the new one. And if I need a style saved, I'll just save it in the Styles panel. That's what it's for right? I've never used the buttons in question except for researching this specific forum topic.

[LJ Swanepoel]

I have a similar issue to the video of this thread. It's quite annoying when you select an object (in my case a stroke with no fill, at 0.2pt in thickness), and click on "synchronize defaults with selection" thinking that the default will be changed to that selection, and it doesn't.

So I press the "synchronize defaults with selection" button with my stroke selected with these settings: "no fill, at 0.2pt in thickness"
I create another stroke, change the thickness to 3pts.
Create another stroke which then stays 3pts.
I click on the "Revert Defaults" button and the stroke goes to "Grey fill, no stroke fill."

As I understand it, the "Revert Defaults" button should make whatever curve or shape I draw to the defaults I synchronized with the selected object in the first round (a stroke with no fill, at 0.2pt in thickness).

Another alternative would be to make the eyedropper tool behave to copy the style of the object by pressing Shift or Ctrl / Cmd, which would solve this issue.

Edited March 20, 2021 by LJ Swanepoel

[walt.farrell]

40 minutes ago, LJ Swanepoel said:

Another alternative would be to make the eyedropper tool behave to copy the style of the object by pressing Shift or Ctrl / Cmd, which would solve this issue.

Or, which should work now: Edit > Copy, then Edit > Paste Style.

[sbe]

Thanks for the clarification. Now I know that I don't need the object defaults button

A new "style eydropper" with built-in copy-paste style function like @walt.farrell mentioned would be better for the most of the tasks.
This new eyedropper should not always pick up all object styles at once, but also much more selectively also single text formatting etc.
Best of all the user should be able to decide what is taken over:

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, sbe said:

Thanks for the clarification. Now I know that I don't need the object defaults button

A new "style eydropper" with built-in copy-paste style function like @walt.farrell mentioned would be better for the most of the tasks.
This new eyedropper should not always pick up all object styles at once, but also much more selectively also single text formatting etc.
Best of all the user should be able to decide what is taken over:

Your suggestion will not be noticed by the appropriate Serif team members here. You need to find an existing Feature Request to update or create your own.

[thomaso]

@sbe if you like to nudge a thread to bump it up, there are two for instance:

 

 

 

[sbe]

Just posted my suggestion

Together with your support maybe we manage to convince Serif to take a second look at the issue with the whole attributes copy/paste/set/reset/synchronise-behaviour💪

[thedivclass]

On 3/20/2021 at 2:58 PM, LJ Swanepoel said:

As I understand it, the "Revert Defaults" button should make whatever curve or shape I draw to the defaults I synchronized with the selected object in the first round (a stroke with no fill, at 0.2pt in thickness).

+1 - strongly agree with this and thomaso

[thedivclass]

ORIGINAL COMMENT

"as it stands I have no idea what the "synchronize defaults from selection" actually does? the default style for a new object is just the last used style, and reverting just reverts styles back to the saved default, not this "temporary" one as expected.

as mentioned above - "edit > defaults > save / revert" work as expected - but are not "temporary"

should there not be a "revert to temporary" as well as a "revert to saved" option? That would be a truly useful"

 

UPDATE - leaving my original comment above for any newcomers :

I) Doesn't work as expected:

• okay, my confusion is just that it doesn't work as expected. I assumed I could select an object, synchronise those as temporary defaults, continue designing and then at some point in the future click "revert" and the style that I had selected when I clicked "synchronise" would magically be applied.
• I assumed that this was simply a temporary version of the more permanent "edit > defaults > save / revert" - which works exactly that way - but the default is saved globally for all new documents.

II) How it actually works:

• How it actually works is that you need to "synchronize" before you start to draw your new object. Not afterwards.
• You can only revert the style of an object retrospectively to your globally saved defaults - "edit > defaults > save". Not to some other "temporary" style 
• To apply a different style, you must first select the object of the style you want to use, then click "synchronize". Now when you draw the new object that "synchronized" style will be applied.
• Otherwise, the style for new objects will always be whatever was last used for that object.

III) How I would love for it to work

• I would love for it to work as I had initially assumed.
• However, rather than leveraging the current "revert defaults" button to encompass "temporary" default overrides too, I would love there to be a "revert to temporary" button/option also. This would be scoped to the current document only, and would temporarily override the "saved" default for this document, until you click the "revert to defaults" - and then the defaults would once again return to your globally saved preferences. 
• That would add great consistency and also great functionality.

 

Hope this helps summarise things for anyone stumbling across this with the same confusion

thanks