Move pages, minimize studio, % scale transform

[MarekGFX]

Hi guys,

so I have been using the Affinity studio bundle for a year now, almost completely migrated from the Adobe products. Anyway, there are a few things that I miss. 
1) For instance, is there a way to move document pages/spreads via some kind of a command/tool (move pages 10–15 before/after page 128)? It is quite annoying to drag them in the panel, especially in the extensive document.
2) Being not able to minimize the studio is also a pain.
3) Is there a way to scale an object, text frame etc. by % value? Did not find any tool for this, and I consider it as a basic feature.

Sorry for the grammar (I am not a native speaker.)

[MAC OS 10.15.6, MacBook Pro Late 2013, 15-inch, 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 500GB SSD]

[dominik]

37 minutes ago, MarekGFX said:

Hi guys,

so I have been using the Affinity studio bundle for a year now, almost completely migrated from the Adobe products. Anyway, there are a few things that I miss. 
1) For instance, is there a way to move document pages/spreads via some kind of a command/tool (move pages 10–15 before/after page 128)? It is quite annoying to drag them in the panel, especially in the extensive document.
2) Being not able to minimize the studio is also a pain.
3) Is there a way to scale an object, text frame etc. by % value? Did not find any tool for this, and I consider it as a basic feature.

Sorry for the grammar (I am not a native speaker.)

[MAC OS 10.15.6, MacBook Pro Late 2013, 15-inch, 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 500GB SSD]

Hello @MarekGFX,

@1: There is no command to do this but in long documents it can be of use to reduce page icons size to small. You also can resize the pages panel to display quite a huge number of pages. This way reordering spreads and pages with the mouse works quite well. But I do agree, a special command would be helpful, too.

@2: I am not quite sure what you mean by 'minimize studio'. Try the Tab key. Is this what you are looking for?

@3: Yes, you do it in the Transform Panel. Simply type into the field of width (or height) e.g. 200% and make sure that 'lock aspect ratio' is checked. You also can type a factor behind the actual value, e.g. 'W 45mm*2'.

d.

[MarekGFX]

1 hour ago, dominik said:

Hello @MarekGFX,

@1: There is no command to do this but in long documents it can be of use to reduce page icons size to small. You also can resize the pages panel to display quite a huge number of pages. This way reordering spreads and pages with the mouse works quite well. But I do agree, a special command would be helpful, too.

@2: I am not quite sure what you mean by 'minimize studio'. Try the Tab key. Is this what you are looking for?

@3: Yes, you do it in the Transform Panel. Simply type into the field of width (or height) e.g. 200% and make sure that 'lock aspect ratio' is checked. You also can type a factor behind the actual value, e.g. 'W 45mm*2'.

d.

Hello Dominik  

Thank you for your suggestions! Especially 3rd helped a lot.
@2: by "minimize studio" I actually mean an option to collapse studio panels to a more space-efficient layout. I know the TAB workaround, but I need to constantly press TAB in the current workflow (TAB completely hides studio). That is what I consider annoying. Other apps (including InDesign) have an option for a more efficient panels view.

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by MarekGFX
typo

[dominik]

8 minutes ago, MarekGFX said:

@2: by "minimize studio" I actually mean an option to collapse studio panels to a more space-efficient layout. I know the TAB workaround, but I need to constantly press TAB in the current workflow (TAB completely hides studio). That is what I consider annoying. Other apps (including InDesign) have an option for a more efficient panels view.

Hi @MarekGFX,

I see what you mean. I know these reduced panels from InDesign. This has been suggested several times and I assume the moderators have taken note of it.

Cheers,
d.

[garrettm30]

5 hours ago, MarekGFX said:

2) Being not able to minimize the studio is also a pain.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet: if you have the studios docked to one of the sidebars, you can double-click on the studio name (it's in the form of a tab in this context) to collapse it, and a single click will expand it again.

[dominik]

5 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet: if you have the studios docked to one of the sidebars, you can double-click on the studio name (it's in the form of a tab in this context) to collapse it, and a single click will expand it again.

Thanks for mentioning it 🙂   I thought of that when I was writing the above but then I thought this perhaps is not too helpful because it does not change the width of the viewing area.

But for completeness sake it's worth to know, at least.

d.

[Hilltop]

On 9/10/2020 at 9:56 AM, MarekGFX said:

2) Being not able to minimize the studio is also a pain.

I have a workaround until such time that the panels can be opened through, e.g., buttons on the toolbar. I like all studio panels to be visible and ready for use, so I created two additional panel clusters and placed them in the empty space at the top of the UI. I made the panels in each cluster of the same width so that the header bar's size won't jump left and right. This assures that the panel names always remain readable and that there is always enough space left on the header bar to double-click to close the then open panel.

Be careful though not to click on the 'X' because it will close the complete cluster. You can reopen the cluster again in Studio by selecting the relevant panels one by one. They will appear at the same location and be of the same size. It would be nice to be able to lock such panel clusters. 

[MarekGFX]

4 hours ago, Hilltop said:

I have a workaround until such time that the panels can be opened through, e.g., buttons on the toolbar. I like all studio panels to be visible and ready for use, so I created two additional panel clusters and placed them in the empty space at the top of the UI. I made the panels in each cluster of the same width so that the header bar's size won't jump left and right. This assures that the panel names always remain readable and that there is always enough space left on the header bar to double-click to close the then open panel.

This is actually fairly interesting approach! Thanks. Tried it and gonna give it a shot for a while. On the other hand, it is pity I did not retrieved any of the horizontal space...

[Hilltop]

10 minutes ago, MarekGFX said:

 On the other hand, it is pity I did not retrieved any of the horizontal space...

I'm not sure, what do you mean by that?

[MarekGFX]

17 hours ago, Hilltop said:

I'm not sure, what do you mean by that?

Can't reduce the width of the studio on the right side (I left there layers and some panels I use on the regular basis) 

[Hilltop]

Can you post a screenshot to illustratie the issue?

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, MarekGFX said:

Can't reduce the width of the studio on the right side (I left there layers and some panels I use on the regular basis) 

If you have the Show Right Studio enabled then it will show, regardless of the panels being collapsed or not. This is annoying but perhaps you could set a Keyboard Shortcut to toggle it on and off. Or just remove those panels and minimize them in the same general area.

[Hilltop]

4 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

If you have the Show Right Studio enabled then it will show, regardless of the panels being collapsed or not. 

Where can I find this option?

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, Hilltop said:

Where can I find this option?

View > Studio > Show Right Studio

[Hilltop]

Duh! I somehow overlooked that every time! Thanks for pointing it out.