Reset Default Text Styles doesn’t work

[sbe]

Hello! I often have the problem that when I create a new document, some strange old text styles remain stored in the new document as default.

How does this always happen? I cannot remember saved that particular styles as default.

And the problem is, I can't get the textstyle reset to Affinity default?? Or is this the wrong option for default Style settings:

Even if I restart afpub, the wrong textstyle remains…

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, sbe said:

I often have the problem that when I create a new document, some strange old text styles remain stored in the new document as default.

How are you creating the document? Is it all from scrach (File > New) and then you start typing after the document is created? Or are you copying text from some other application and pasting it in? Or using File > Place?

If it's all typed in by you, then you should have the default set of text styles that Publisher provides, and no others. If you're getting it from some other application then it will come with its original text styles.

2 hours ago, sbe said:

Or is this the wrong option for default Style settings:

That option gives you the factory default text styles.

If you have a favorite set of text styles that is all you want to use, then use the Panel Preferences menu (aka Hamburger menu) in the Text Styles panel, which has an action to make your current text styles the defaults for future documents.

[thomaso]

What we see in the video is not a property of a text style but of the text frame, set to "Bottom Align".

If you haven't saved custom Defaults this should get reset if you click the button "Revert Defaults" in the toolbar. It also gets reset for further created frames. Note that Affinity usually remembers the last used settings of various types of objects and properties in this Defaults. This way you can keep on working for instance when drawing new curves or creating text frames and maintaining the current style.

If this button doesn't work then you might have saved this frame property as general app Defaults. To reset them to factory settings use menu Edit > Defaults > Factory Reset + relaunch the app. Another way to factory settings is when launching Affinity via its icon/entry in a macOS finder window: hold the CTRL key while choosing "Open" from the popup menu. This will open a dialog with various reset options.

[sbe]

@walt.farrell

yes, it’s a complete new document (file→new), creating a text frame from scratch and entering text by keyboard.

 

@thomaso

 

Oh no, I don't want to reset everything again. I just had to do that recently and then I had to re-configure my whole workspace and keyboard shortcuts. That is super annoying.

The revert defaults button didn’t help. The Textstyle is already pre-defined in the base textstyle.

I just tried to only reset these settings (object styles & text styles) at startup, but didn’t helped:

[thomaso]

13 minutes ago, sbe said:

The Textstyle is already pre-defined in the base textstyle.

Again: in my understanding "Bottom Align" is not a Text Style but a Frame property.
These two text frames have the same text style assigned but different frame align settings. (this icon is also highlighted in your video)

Concerning "Centre align" you should be able to re-define its Alignment setting by double-clicking on "Base" in your text styles panel.

[thomaso]

18 minutes ago, sbe said:

I don't want to reset everything again. I just had to do that recently and then I had to re-configure my whole workspace and keyboard shortcuts. That is super annoying.

By the way: you can save your workspace/panel-arrangement and shortcuts in custom preference files via the according options (workspace: menu View > Studio presets / shortcuts: app prefs > shortcuts).

Also you can use a workaround to manually backup the entire APub preferences folders. Their name / file path depend on your situation:

Quote

Affinity Store version:
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Photo/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Designer/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Publisher/user/
 
Mac App Store version:
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitypublisher/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
 
Mac App Store version ( Big Sur ) :
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Photo/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Designer/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Publisher/Data/Library/Application Support/user/

 

[thomaso]

In case you don't get success with redefining / resetting: Can you upload an .afpub, containing an affected text frame with some text? An investigation on any different computer could narrow down the culprit for this occurrence.

Or, vice versa, how does this .afpub open for you + what do you get if you create a new text frame there? Does it open different and/or with more styles than these three? If yes, what if you choose "Delete Unused Styles" from the text styles panel burger menu?

v193 text style sticking issue.afpub

[sbe]

@thomaso

Thanks for your help! 

When I open your document, everything seems fine! 👍

Please find attached a total new A4-Document with a new Textframe (created in afpub 1.9.3)

Regarding your previous post: If I reset everything, will my saved workspace remain available in the studio preset menu? 

white-centered-bottom-aligned-text-2.afpub

[thomaso]

I don't have problems with your .afpub, it behaves as expected. Since its Base style ("Grundlagen") is defined this way (white, centered etc) + all other styles either base on "Grundlagen" or on a style which bases on it, it feels normal to me how any text in a new text frame and how all other styles appear.

I created a new text frame with my app Default (Arial, left, black, 12pt, etc.) and did update "Grundlagen" with its definition. New frames use this 'new' "Grundlagen" style and appear fine. If my earlier document appears to you according to its screenshot you should be able to reproduce this "fix" in your app, too.

[thomaso]

27 minutes ago, sbe said:

Regarding your previous post: If I reset everything, will my saved workspace remain available in the studio preset menu? 

The very first Affinity versions excepted I was always avoiding a complete app reset (avoiding mainly because of custom panel settings before they became savable as presets). I assume, a reset will empty the pref folders + fill it with default data. That's why I mentioned before the workaround with a pref folder backup, it enables you after a reset to move your custom pref files back into the (reset) pref folders to use yours instead of the new data. If any of such custom pref files causes issues you still can delete or move them away again and force this way factory prefs working instead.

[sbe]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

I created a new text frame with my app Default (Arial, left, black, 12pt, etc.) and did update "Grundlagen" with its definition. New frames use this 'new' "Grundlagen" style and appear fine. If my earlier document appears to you according to its screenshot you should be able to reproduce this "fix" in your app, too.

THIS helped! Now I have all my default Text Styles back  Thank you @thomaso

And yesss, I totally forgot about this option, you can set the default style:

 

 

But somehow I don't have a clue about this whole sync defaults / revert defaults thing. For me this behavior is totally confusing (don’t watch it, it's just to show how confusing this "feature" is to me  

 

 

I will make tomorrow times a backup and reset everything completely and then never again using this defaults button. The button causes more confusion than it helps...

👉 Pleeeease Serif, release for us soon the long awaited text style eyedropper tool! 😌

 

 

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, sbe said:

I don't have a clue about this whole sync defaults / revert defaults thing. For me this behavior is totally confusing (don’t watch it, it's just to show how confusing this "feature" is to me  

I will make tomorrow times a backup and reset everything completely and then never again using this defaults button. 

These "Defaults" are indeed irritating, beginning with the button label "Revert Defaults" instead of "Revert to Defaults". The entire defaults feature was discussed in various threads. Nevertheless, it can be useful in case you know how to handle its confusion. The hints in this post of @anon2 helped me to start my understanding (and possibly also posts before & after might shed some more light on this for you).

But, honestly, I still can get confused by this Defaults feature. It still seems to work not reliable and different in various sessions. In particular the "Synchronize" button sometimes seems not to pick usual properties of a selected object – or is it only the "Revert" button which doesn't apply then? Hard to tell. And not fully documented in the help.

[sbe]

On 6/3/2020 at 12:36 PM, thomaso said:

In case these defaults should – by concept & code purposely – get applied only to *NEW* objects, then I wonder about the idea (~ sense) of the Sync button at all. Because then it is very easy to just copy/paste or cmd-drag an object to get a NEW object in this style, – without the need of an extra interface like the sync button.

Haha, I just read through your thread on this...you nailed it. I get it now, but this behavior is soo confusing and far away from intuitive… I think you have the same workflow, I wouldn't need the function for that either, I'd just duplicate the object too 😅 And if the new object has a different shape, I would go via "Edit → Copy" / "Edit → Paste Style". But this is just a workaround for me and not a real replacement for a "Style Eydropper" Tool