Can't seem to get to first base

[MickM]

I've just tried Affinity Designer for the essentially first time - I'm on a Mac running Big Sur. I want to create engineering drawings, and as such have zero interest in the omni-present all-black themes that seem to pervade all the drawing software tools these days. I was able to change the UI theme to light instead of dark, however the background is now a gray color and I can't seem to be able to make it white. Additionally, I thought I'd just try out the drawing tools by e.g. drawing some rectangles and circles etc. however all the tools are grayed out and I can't use them. 

I'm kind of frustrated that this classic try it out and kick the tires approach is such a fail. Maybe it's a Big Sur compatibility thing, but so far my first impressions are not good :-(. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, but the fact that I can't even get to first base (in my opinion) also tells me Affinity is doing something wrong too...

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, MickM said:

Additionally, I thought I'd just try out the drawing tools by e.g. drawing some rectangles and circles etc. however all the tools are grayed out and I can't use them. 

Here is a dumb question... Do you have a document open? File > New.

[walt.farrell]

And for the background being gray, open Designer's Preferences, and on the User Interface tab adjust the Background Gray Level to the right.

(But, probably, Old Bruce's suggestion of File > New will take care of that for you, without adjusting the Gray Level.)

[MickM]

Apparently not a dumb question at all! So granted I feel like a total dork at this point, but I still reckon not having a blank document available at the start by default is not customary for a Mac application. 

[MickM]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

And for the background being gray, open Designer's Preferences, and on the User Interface tab adjust the Background Gray Level to the right.

(But, probably, Old Bruce's suggestion of File > New will take care of that for you, without adjusting the Gray Level.)

Yea - I certainly did that, but apparently it helps to have a document open first. I need to go wash some egg of my face now...

[jmwellborn]

8 minutes ago, MickM said:

I've just tried Affinity Designer for the essentially first time - I'm on a Mac running Big Sur. I want to create engineering drawings, and as such have zero interest in the omni-present all-black themes that seem to pervade all the drawing software tools these days. I was able to change the UI theme to light instead of dark, however the background is now a gray color and I can't seem to be able to make it white. Additionally, I thought I'd just try out the drawing tools by e.g. drawing some rectangles and circles etc. however all the tools are grayed out and I can't use them. 

I'm kind of frustrated that this classic try it out and kick the tires approach is such a fail. Maybe it's a Big Sur compatibility thing, but so far my first impressions are not good :-(. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, but the fact that I can't even get to first base (in my opinion) also tells me Affinity is doing something wrong too...

Welcome, MickM!   If you will go to Designer>Preferences>User Interface, you should be able to drag the Background Grey Level slider all the way to the right and then your background will be white.   Also, the tools will be grayed out until you either start a new document FILE>NEW, or FILE>Open.   Then your tools and icons on the Context Toolbar will be colored and operational.   Hope this will help.

Oops.  @Old Bruce and @walt.farrell beat me to it!   And don't worry @MickM there isn't any egg on your face . . .  I wonder how many millions of us looked at that totally gray expanse and thought, "Now what?" at the very beginning.    Bet you will love Designer as you dig into its possibilities!!

 

[MickM]

Yea - we can close this topic now. The only feedback I'd like to push up the food chain is for the app to open up with a default document (like pretty much every other app does) so dopes like me can get started. If the developers don't want to do this then instead of a gray/black background put a watermark that says "Open a New Document" or something...

[walt.farrell]

When the application started you should have had a Welcome screen with various offers, and links to the forums, and two buttons on the lower right for (a) closing the dialog and (b) creating a new document. If you want a new document you just click that button.

 

[carl123]

10 hours ago, MickM said:

The only feedback I'd like to push up the food chain is for the app to open up with a default document (like pretty much every other app does)

What if you just wanted to continue work on an existing document, not start a new one?

PS if you want a default document to open on app start-up you could probably change the launch icon to include an Affinity template file (.aftemplate) pre-configured as you want it to be (size, dpi etc).

Pretty sure you could do this on Windows so should be doable on a Mac(?)

[MickM]

9 hours ago, carl123 said:

What if you just wanted to continue work on an existing document, not start a new one

PS if you want a default document to open on app start-up you could probably change the launch icon to include an Affinity template file (.aftemplate) pre-configured as you want it to be (size, dpi etc).

Pretty sure you could do this on Windows so should be doable on a Mac(?)

Thanks for your comments. I guess if I wanted to open an existing document then, just like with any other app, I'd simply do the same thing I've always done i.e. just open that document. Your other suggestion is probably doable, I was just looking for a more "standard behavior" in the way AD opened. When I initially brought up AD (and apparently didn't have something open by default, named "Untitled" or whatever) I recall seeing a rectangular field, with a gray background, that I mistook for an actual document with that background color and was confused as to why I couldn't do anything. I know you guys are completely used to the interface already, but it was my first time (in eons) opening AD and I was kind of confused. I don't recall seeing the splashy intro screen - maybe I had permanently dismissed that and forgot about it sometime ago in the past. 

Thanks everybody for your your responses - I'm actually somewhat impressed with the speed and helpfulness here in these forums.