Why can I not have more that one panel column on each side of the screen on the Mac version?

[HarleyN]

The latest 1.8.6 version on a Mac does not allow me to dock more than one panel on the right or left. This is mind boggling considering the wider screens these days. Am I missing something here?

[Dan C]

Hi @HarleyN,

Welcome to the forums

19 hours ago, HarleyN said:

The latest 1.8.6 version on a Mac does not allow me to dock more than one panel on the right or left

I can confirm this is by design, and expected behaviour of the Affinity app.

19 hours ago, HarleyN said:

This is mind boggling considering the wider screens these days. Am I missing something here?

As far as I know, this is a macOS convention which is rather universal through many mac apps - although of course there will be exceptions to this.

If you'd like our devs to consider changing this in a future version, then I recommend posting in the feedback section of the forums!

I hope this helps

[thomaso]

20 hours ago, HarleyN said:

does not allow me to dock more than one panel on the right or left.

As a workaround you can choose menu Window > Separated Mode and additionally menu Window > Merge All Windows.

Separated Mode enables you to freely arrange all panels and both toolbars, Merge Windows keeps documents in 1 frame with tabs.

Unfortunately the Separated Mode can cause various issues, even in situations where you wouldn't expect it to influence at all.
(for instance app crash when using "Save As..." with same file name or UI misbehaviors, e.g. in the Resource Manager)

[user_0815]

I had a similar thought where I am uses to collapsible columns of tools in my raw editor. To have a similar funcionality in Publisher, I pulled some of the tools out of the side bar so they float free. Double-click on the tool tab collapses the entire thing. I have the fixed one right and the floating one left. That's a good solution for me personally. Hard to explain, please see screenshot where both are left. Perhaps you might find it usefull, too.

 

 

 

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, user_0815 said:

I pulled some of the tools out of the side bar so they float free.

When you use floating panels and place them within the main window area – as in your example – then the document workspace continues behind the floating panels. This will lead to undesirable situations, for instance at certain zoom levels, in particular fit-to-width or when double-clicking a spread in the pages panel. Also the document scrollbar, the document ruler and tabs of several open documents can get covered and reduce their accessibility which would require to move the floating panel slightly down.

To avoid this issues you would reduce the main window size and arrange the floating panels outside.

[HarleyN]

The one issue I have with float menus is that if I float the menu on the left, the character size dropdown menu drops behind the floating menu, making it useless. If I float on the right or anywhere really, the app sometimes opens not full screen which means I need to adjust those floating windows AGAIN. It just creates more steps to set up. 

[walt.farrell]

You can have one stack (column) of panels docked on the left, and one stack docked on the right.

You can't have two stacks docked on either side except on Windows.

But each stack can have multiple rows of panels, and each row can have multiple panels.

Perhaps you're not using that full flexibility, @HarleyN?

[HarleyN]

14 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You can have one stack (column) of panels docked on the left, and one stack docked on the right.

You can't have two stacks docked on either side except on Windows.

But each stack can have multiple rows of panels, and each row can have multiple panels.

Perhaps you're not using that full flexibility, @HarleyN?

Yes, I'm aware of stack windows. But it gets cluttered. having more than one column would be ideal for design production.

[lacerto]

(...)

[thomaso]

Yes, the UI flexibilty in Affinity is unfortunately limited compared to e.g. Adobe apps:
Affinity requires activated Separated Mode for entirely free panel arrangement (incl. the two bars) AND doesn't keep all UI items in a frame (as Adobe apps do, one frame per screen).

Advantage of keeping all UI items in 1 frame (per screen):
a.) remembers the custom arrangement for every UI item, even after app relaunch and new opened documents.
b) would allow easier positioning and scaling of the entire set, not of its main/document window only.

Two Affinity examples for additional panel columns:
1. Single monitor, not-separated window mode:

 

2. Two monitors + Separated Mode + Merge Windows:
• Every new document + the "Open..." dialog get opened behind the panels on the computer's boot-screen (below, with menu bar).
• If the "Open..." dialog is opened then the command "Toggle UI" is disabled, so it must be applied before "Open...".
• Documents require manually "Merge Windows" to keep documents together on the second screen:

 

[lacerto]

(...)

[HarleyN]

As one coming over from INDESIGN, I used multiple vertical panels on iOS. With larger screen sizes these days, it just makes sense to make use of screen real estate by having tools more readily available.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Lagarto said:

I made my comment because I do not think that "convention" is a good excuse for not implementing something in macOS

I didn't read that sentence as a literal excuse, even not as an explanation of a possible purpose "by design": Not only the used term "convention" is unspecific compared to "according to the 'Apple Developer Human Interface Guideline' " but also "of course (...) exceptions" was put into perspective. To me that sentence didn't really say something besides "actually I don't know". So it might need more user feedback to make current disadvantages / possible advantages becoming obvious to Serif, too, or to make them fix or improve if logged already.

By the way, neither is the Apple guideline absolutely unambiguous nor does it literally prohibit deviant solutions. I don't know if at all Apple checks the UI of apps offered in their store – then, I suppose, solutions which can result in conflicts like the "Open..." and other Affinity dialogs hidden behind panels wouldn't be possible.

To me the Affinity UI appears contradictory at various spots, for instance it is not clear when (why) Affinity uses windows instead of panels – e.g. Resource Manager or Picture Frame Properties – or allows a custom position of the two bars only in separated window mode. I also don't understand why in separated & merged mode the menu "Window" doesn't list all available tabs (as e.g. the macOS Finder does) but the currently selected only (which, as single item, is always redundant) but instead requires a more cumbersome user interaction via the menu "View" > "Views" > "..." to access other tabs than the already focused. – Last but not least meanwhile it feels like an "Affinity convention" that the logged, crashing bug when using "Save As..." in Separated Window Mode UI still occurs (current beta 874 included.)

[lacerto]

(...)

 

[thomaso]

Lagarto, I probably lack in English with "convention" / "excuse"; to me in German both can have different meanings, in that sentence with different value (positive/negative). Convention: (long time but not common) use, ... (common) habit, ... (binding) contract.  Excuse: pardon ... pretext.

At least since a recent beta custom UI settings are savable:

In my opinion the devs have no chance to satisfy all or most expectations, just caused by a limited team size, related to the low price of Affinity. In particular since some bugs exist for years I have not expected any new feature before most bugs got solved (specially the older) – but obviously Serif thinks different (> Data Merge), probably appreciated by some users + ignored by others, which is normal for many features in an app with this complexity.

[lacerto]

(...)

[milkmove]

is there any chance to see this feature on macOS?