Free MacOS Automator Service plugin: “Activate All Affinity Studio Panels”

[loukash]

A MacOS Automator service plugin/workflow, programmed by yours truly:

“Activate All Affinity Studio Panels”

FAQ:

What does it do?

• It contains a nifty AppleScript code that goes through the menu View > Studio, checks for all panels without a ✓ check mark and activates them all at their respective last position (if any). That's all.

Why does it do that?

• Because otherwise you'd have to repeatedly open the menu and the submenu again and again, activate each panel one by one. Which is – pardon my French – a major p.i.t.a. As in, literally, a pain in the arm. Been there done that.

How do I use it?

• Upon installation in ~/Library/Services (see included ReadMe) or in /Library/Services if you want to activate it for all users, you can run it from the Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher menu > Services > Activate All Affinity Studio Panels.
• You can assign a custom keyboard shortcut via System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. Heck, you can even disable it from there if it annoys you. (But why should it? Hey, it's a Good Thing™!)
• It will only do its Good Thing™ while one of your Affinity apps is running frontmost. Should you accidentally launch it while using another app, it will only inform you that it can't do anything.

Can it do any harm?

• I don't think so. But if you're paranoid, open the *.workflow document with the Automator app and see for yourself. It's open source.

What does it cost?

• It's free as in beer. That is… feel free to contact me if you'd like to buy me a beer. I won't say no!

Where can I get it?

• loukash.com/download

What's there?

• You'll be able to download a file named "Activate_All_Affinity_Studio_Panels_v1.0.zip".
• Inside the ZIP archive, there are two files:
  • Activate All Affinity Studio Panels ReadMe.pdf – which you should read, obviously…
  • Activate All Affinity Studio Panels.workflow
  That's all.
• My website runs on Wordpress, so it will automatically attempt to set a few cookies. Feel free to reject them.

Enjoy!

[loukash]

Just to add:
Once you have activated all your panels, you may want to save them as a "starting point" Studio Preset.
From then on, it could be that you won't need this plugin ever again.

In other words, the idea for this plugin originates from the pre-v1.9.x era, before studio presets were introduced.
Still, it will be definitely useful the first time you want to eplore all your panel options, or if should you accidentaly lose your studio presets e.g. by resetting the defaults.

[phrank]

thanks for sharing