Two Publisher Questions (was: Adrian Collett)

[Adrian Collett]

I have high hopes for Affinity, but I am struggling to get going.  My two latest, simple, objectives are:

1. To produce white text in a black rectangle.  I have made the text white, but cannot work out how to make the background black.  I have searched online and in the Publisher Help facility, but am totally confused by layers. objects, panels, etc.

2. To edit a grouped set of objects.  I have clicked on ungroup, but cannot get the items I want moved to move.

Please help, as the Help facility is impenetrable.  Thank you.

[Old Bruce]

Hi and welcome to the forums @Adrian Collett,

1) Use the Character Panel. Now you can also have the entire Text Frame coloured Black using the Text Frame properties if that is what you want. 

 

2) After ungrouping the entire set of objects are probably still selected. Click in a clear area or off of the page then click the object. Sometimes the Group is in another Group, check your Layers Panel.

[Adrian Collett]

Thank you Old Bruce.

1) I followed your advice and used the Character Panel.  This allowed me to back highlight the text in black, so thank you for your help with that.  But how do I get the entire Text Frame coloured black, as you are right that this is what I am really trying to achieve?  I have tried everything I can think of and Search in Affinity Publisher Help just comes up with "No Results".

2) I can't presently make any sense of the Layers facility.  It isn't clear which Tutorials to watch, as I have watched several already which did not answer the questions I was trying to research.  It's all VERY frustrating!

But thanks again.  Your help is appreciated.

[Pšenda]

32 minutes ago, Adrian Collett said:

But how do I get the entire Text Frame coloured black

Text Frame panel, Fill color (first rectangle in General group) set to black.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/photo/desktop/video/311178905/

[Adrian Collett]

Maybe my software is not set up correctly, but despite searching for over an hour I cannot find a Text Frame panel, just a Text Frame tool.  

 

[Joachim_L]

Maybe you just have to display it?

[Adrian Collett]

Thank you.  No wonder I couldn't find it!

 

[h_d]

16 hours ago, Adrian Collett said:

To edit a grouped set of objects.  I have clicked on ungroup, but cannot get the items I want moved to move.

You don't need to ungroup to move an individual object in a group. In the Layers panel, click the triangle next to the name of the Group. This will display an indented list of the grouped objects.

Click once on the name of the single object you want to move/edit. It will be selected as an individual object on the page, and is editable while remaining part of the group.

From this...

 

to this...

to this...

 

 

Cheers,

H

[Move Along People]

-

[Pšenda]

28 minutes ago, Adrian Collett said:

No wonder I couldn't find it!

Why? The display of all panels is controlled in one place, and everything is in the "View" menu. Where should it be to make it clearer?

[walt.farrell]

33 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Why? The display of all panels is controlled in one place, and everything is in the "View" menu. Where should it be to make it clearer?

The word "panel" is used in several different contexts by Serif and in the documentation. For example, this is a panel:

It is controlled in a different place (View > Show Tools). The important thing about discussing the Text Frame panel (in my opinion), is that it is a "studio panel". And if one refers to it as the "Text Frame studio panel" then it is (again, my opinion) more clear that one should look for it in View > Studio

Perhaps that ambiguous use of the term "panel" is what confused Adrian.

 

[GarryP]

I agree that this can be confusing.
Panels can be placed inside either the Left Studio or the Right Studio, and that’s fine, as long as you know about Studios.
However, if the user doesn’t know about Studios, then they are unlikely to look in menu “View → Studio” when looking for something to do with Panels.
That said, it is pretty-clearly documented on the first page of the User Interface section (second section) of the Help – see attached image.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

That said, it is pretty-clearly documented on the first page of the User Interface section (second section) of the Help – see attached image.

Just to add, in the help to APublisher, the chapter/group is devoted to the description of "Panels".

Among them is a description of the searched "Text Frame Panel".

At the beginning of the description of this "panel" is the following:

 

[R C-R]

Panel, studio, tool, selection/select, layer, bitmap, window, image, & place are words that can have different meanings in different contexts in the Affinity apps. There are probably others.

I do not think there is any practical way to avoid that.

[Adrian Collett]

Thank you to everyone for your help.