Substitute for a Global Layer

[jochoalions]

Context: I use Designer to create slide presentations; I am setting up a template file in preparation for a fairly large number of presentations, involving 20 to 30 slides in each presentation. Each Artboard is one slide. I need to place Layout Guides and other features on each slide, which I turn off when I export the slides to individual PNG files. I can certainly do this with a layer on each artboard, but then I would need to go and turn off each individual layer. It appears that a Global Layer that would cover all Artboards is not possible on Designer.

Solution: It occurred to me to create one huge artboard that covers all other artboards. That was indeed possible. At first I placed it behind all other artboards but that did not work well; so I placed it in front but selected the Transparent Background Option in the Document Setup. That worked fine, and I now can place all my Layout Guides and other features on the global artboard.

Questions: Has anybody tried to do something like this? Am I likely to run into problems that I cannot see yet? Is this how the experts would approach the problem.

[hatGuy]

Go and try publisher, with master pages you can easily do this. Designer is not optimal for multi-page documents. 

[lepr]

1 hour ago, jochoalions said:

Context: I use Designer to create slide presentations; I am setting up a template file in preparation for a fairly large number of presentations, involving 20 to 30 slides in each presentation. Each Artboard is one slide. I need to place Layout Guides and other features on each slide, which I turn off when I export the slides to individual PNG files. I can certainly do this with a layer on each artboard, but then I would need to go and turn off each individual layer. It appears that a Global Layer that would cover all Artboards is not possible on Designer.

Solution: It occurred to me to create one huge artboard that covers all other artboards. That was indeed possible. At first I placed it behind all other artboards but that did not work well; so I placed it in front but selected the Transparent Background Option in the Document Setup. That worked fine, and I now can place all my Layout Guides and other features on the global artboard.

Questions: Has anybody tried to do something like this? Am I likely to run into problems that I cannot see yet? Is this how the experts would approach the problem.

Have you considered using presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote?

[Pšenda]

If you already have to do it in ADesigner and not in APublisher, which would probably be more suitable for that, then I would try to make the Layout template as a Symbol, which I would then copy to individual artboards. Editing in this symbol/template (or hiding it) is then automatically reflected in all artboards.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, jochoalions said:

I need to place Layout Guides and other features on each slide, which I turn off when I export the slides to individual PNG files. I can certainly do this with a layer on each artboard, but then I would need to go and turn off each individual layer. It appears that a Global Layer that would cover all Artboards is not possible on Designer.
(...) Is this how the experts would approach the problem.

"The experts" would use another app. Others maybe experts in preferring cumbersome workflows or workarounds for some reason. In that case you might consider to use for your "guides and other features" a separate object type which can get defined from 1 certain spot: For instance a.) AD's symbol objects or b.) linked, external files (e.g. .afdesign documents). Both could be edited for the export procedure to be empty and not to show up this way in your final presentation.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot, AD always embeds external resources. So, linked, external files would not work in AD but require APub again, sorry!

Edited October 9, 2020 by thomaso

[jochoalions]

3 hours ago, thatGuy said:

Go and try publisher, with master pages you can easily do this. Designer is not optimal for multi-page documents. 

Excellent idea; I agree that Publisher is better suited for multi-page works, and I had not thought about it that way. And since the Designer Persona is available from within Publisher, I might be able to do all the design that I am currently doing in Designer, right there from within Publisher. Thanks much!!

[jochoalions]

3 hours ago, anon2 said:

Have you considered using presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote?

Previously I worked in Adobe Illustrator; after using Affinity Designer, I only want to go back to Illustrator for legacy work. Presentation software has not worked for this sort of project; I did start out in PowerPoint some years ago, but it did not provide adequate design capabilities. Thank you for your reply!

[jochoalions]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

If you already have to do it in ADesigner and not in APublisher, which would probably be more suitable for that, then I would try to make the Layout template as a Symbol, which I would then copy to individual artboards. Editing in this symbol/template (or hiding it) is then automatically reflected in all artboards.

Yes, the use of Symbols is of great help, thank you for your ideas; I am going to try the suggestion of working in Publisher, the Personas may prove to be powerful in this regard. Cheers!!

[jochoalions]

17 hours ago, thatGuy said:

Go and try publisher, with master pages you can easily do this. Designer is not optimal for multi-page documents. 

This was an Excellent suggestion; not only it addresses the issue I was facing, it also shows the wonderful power of the Personas. The Affinity applications are fantastic!! Thanks much!!