create new categories in affinity publisher

[Toche47]

Can someone tell me why I no longer have content preferences in affinity publisher and can no longer create new categories or subcategories? Thank you in advance

[GarryP]

Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by “content preferences”? Do you mean Table Of Contents settings, or something else?
Also, Categories are used in various places; what sort of Categories can you no longer create? (Which Panel are you using?)

[Toche47]

I found it very handy to store images in the "contents" sub-window of which I'm giving you a screenshot. But now I can't find how to create a new category or subcategory. The preferences wheel is missing which would allow me to create or export a content category.

[walt.farrell]

Interesting. The Assets panel should have the "hamburger" menu/icon showing at the right edge of the tabs. You would click on it to get the option to add a new category.

I'm not sure why it would be missing like that.

[Lee D]

@Toche47 If you undock the panel and resize does the Preferences icon return? You can also try disabling/enabling the Asset panel using View > Studio. If this fails you can reset the app, hold down the CTRL key and open, when the window appears release the key and click Clear.

[Toche47]

The solution proposed by Lee D does not change anything : the "hamburger menu" exists in version 1.8.3 mac and disappeared in version 1.8.4 as well as in beta 1.9.0.

[Pšenda]

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Toche47 said:

The solution proposed by Lee D does not change anything ...

He proposed 3 different solutions. Did you try them all?

[Toche47]

Non, aucune des solutions ne fonctionne. Il y a un défaut dans la version mac et je reviens à la version 1.8.3 en  attendant la solution.

[Toche47]

No, none of the solutions work. There is a defect in the mac version and I'm going back to version 1.8.3 while waiting for the solution.

[walt.farrell]

Have you tried View > Studio > Reset Studio?

[Pšenda]

24 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Have you tried View > Studio > Reset Studio?

In case of a problem from my link, it supposedly didn't help.

[PaulEC]

2 hours ago, Toche47 said:

There is a defect in the mac version and I'm going back to version 1.8.3 while waiting for the solution.

If it is a defect in the software it seems a little odd that no-one else has noticed it! 😉

[Pšenda]

3 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

If it is a defect in the software it seems a little odd that no-one else has noticed it! 😉

In all probability, this is a defect in the Affinity application (or do you think it is a HW failure of the user's monitor that the hamburger menu refuses to display?), see also my link, which, however, occurs under specific circumstances.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, PaulEC said:

If it is a defect in the software it seems a little odd that no-one else has noticed it! 😉

All I can say about that with any certainty is I cannot find a way not to show the hamburger menu icons for (among others) the Assets & Colors Studio panels in the Mac Affinity desktop apps installed on my Macs. Even if I resize a panel or panel group to the minimum width permitted by these app, these icons still appear.

@Toche47 has not that I can see mentioned which macOS version is running on that Mac, so there might be a bug related to some specific version of that, perhaps in combination with the app language setting. Although that seems unlikely, perhaps temporarily setting APub to use US or UK English & relaunching it will reveal some clue about that possibility?

[Toche47]

Changing the language does not fix the problem. Neither does resetting the studios. I'm in mac version 10.15.6. I'm surprised I never encountered this problem until version 1.8.3, and that it exists for the 2 studios on the right and left also for version 1.9 beta.

[MEB]

Hi Toche47,
Press and hold CTRL while launching the application until a Clear User Data dialog appears. Keep just the first three checkboxes ticked only (otherwise you may lost custom brushes, assets etc you may have added to the app) then press Clear (as Lee mentioned earlier). Check if it fixes the issue.

[Toche47]

I have already performed this maneuver but it doesn't solve the problem.

[MEB]

Thanks for confirming Toche47. Are you using a multi monitor setup?

[R C-R]

20 minutes ago, Toche47 said:

Changing the language does not fix the problem. Neither does resetting the studios. I'm in mac version 10.15.6.

I use the same macOS version. Since the menu icon always appears for me, I thought that maybe the language difference might have something to do with why it does not appear for you. Unfortunately, that does not seem to have anything to do with it.

Hopefully, with help from @MEB you will be able to sort this out.

[Toche47]

I have only one monitor: the screen of my iMac!
But that doesn't explain why these hamburger menus appeared in all the old versions and disappeared for 1.8.4 and 1.9 beta

[PaulEC]

5 hours ago, Pšenda said:

In all probability, this is a defect in the Affinity application (or do you think it is a HW failure of the user's monitor that the hamburger menu refuses to display?), see also my link, which, however, occurs under specific circumstances.

It's always possible that there is something in the Affinity update which may, in some very specific circumstances, combined with the particular macOS version, be causing the problem. I was only trying to point out that there's no point in just blaming the update. It's a bit unlikely that it is just down to an update if lots of other people aren't reporting the same problem. Obviously this particular problem is quite rare so it might be as well to investigate other possibilities, maybe connected to mac updates, or the particular configuration of the OP's set-up. 🙂

[R C-R]

If nothing else helps I wonder if -- only as a last resort -- deleting Affinity Publisher & re-downloading & installing it might?

[walt.farrell]

Or, perhaps, try some directory renaming and see whether it fixes the problem. (This is basically a safer/recoverable way of resetting everything.)

This FAQ gives the directory names, which depend on OS, application, and where the app was purchased. It refers to the "user" directory, but if one renamed the directory just above that one, then restarted the app, this would perform a full reset. If that resolves the problem, then one could start recovering pieces of the old "user" directory, so nothing (brushes, assets, ...) would be lost.

 

[thomaso]

... and what if you login as another user? (to prevent any existing custom Affinity pref file from becoming used)

EDIT: I recently did the folder renaming mentioned by Walt – but noticed that my panel arrangement (two monitors, separated mode) was NOT affected. I have no idea yet where these data are stored.