Newbie Questions:

[2989]

Sorry if they are painfully obvious to some of you….  I have been looking for the answers myself but just do not see them.  Thank you in advance for your help.

(Working on an iMac in both  Designer & Photo)

Questions:

Is there a way to make the tool icons Bigger ? I find them too small and difficult to view.

Is there a way to lock the Rulers at the top and left side ?  I don’t want it to scroll Negative ruler numbers. And I want to snap my art board to the top right at 0/0. I don’t see a way to do this. What am I missing ??

If I draw a rectangle logo, I know it shows me the measurement as I a drawing it out but how do I find the measurement of it later?  Is there a measuring tool that I am missing ?? (This is another reason I want to lock the rulers as I could place it at 0/0 for the size. At the very least the negative numbers should be in red.

I don’t use many shortcuts …. Gasp, but I am learning.  One shortcut that I really Would use is to the Studio dropdown.  Is there a shortcut ??  Also on the same subject, is there a way to choose more than 1 Studio selection at a time? Instead of it closing out after each one and then having to go back in and select studio, then select the item…. Etc. Etc.

I know I can do a Preset which I have set up but it does not open automatically when I open Designer.  Is there a way for my Preset to open automatically as a default??

If any of these are not available  a) They should be, as they are quite Basic requirements  b)Please add them to your Feature request list.

[telemax]

5 minutes ago, 2989 said:

If I draw a rectangle logo, I know it shows me the measurement as I a drawing it out but how do I find the measurement of it later?  Is there a measuring tool that I am missing ?? (This is another reason I want to lock the rulers as I could place it at 0/0 for the size. At the very least the negative numbers should be in red.

On the Transform Panel.

[2989]

Ahh yes.  It is the W & H.  So the X and y are where they are positioned on the page or artboard ??

[telemax]

The upper left corner of the Document/Artboard is the zero X and Y value for the objects axis/origin, located in the Document/Artboard.

[MikeTO]

2 hours ago, 2989 said:

Is there a way to make the tool icons Bigger ? I find them too small and difficult to view.

No although you can change the font UI size in Preferences > User Interface. I use a 13" MacBook Pro screen and I recently tried increasing my screen resolution from the default 1280x800 to 1440x900 so I could squeeze in more studio panels at once but then the user interface was too small so I switched back. You may wish to consider changing your screen resolution.

2 hours ago, 2989 said:

Is there a way to lock the Rulers at the top and left side ?  I don’t want it to scroll Negative ruler numbers. And I want to snap my art board to the top right at 0/0. I don’t see a way to do this. What am I missing ??

I'm confused, why do the rulers not start at the top left at 0,0? AFAIK there is no way to lock them there but the only way to change them is to drag out from the ruler origin so if you don't want to do that, don't do it, and if you do it by mistake just choose undo.

2 hours ago, 2989 said:

I don’t use many shortcuts …. Gasp, but I am learning.  One shortcut that I really Would use is to the Studio dropdown.  Is there a shortcut ??  Also on the same subject, is there a way to choose more than 1 Studio selection at a time? Instead of it closing out after each one and then having to go back in and select studio, then select the item…. Etc. Etc.

If you have Window > Separated Mode enabled you can position the studio panels wherever you like and have as many open as you like. On a small screen like mine it's better to keep that off so that the panels are docked without wasting any space. With separated mode off, you can have some studio panels in the left column and some in the right column - tabs are used to switch between them so although only one is visible at a time in the left or right column, you can tab between them. I believe the Windows version may allow two right studio columns.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I'm confused, why do the rulers not start at the top left at 0,0? AFAIK there is no way to lock them there but the only way to change them is to drag out from the ruler origin so if you don't want to do that, don't do it, and if you do it by mistake just choose undo.

You can also reset the origin to 0,0 by double-clicking on the units text (px, in, mm, etc.) at the top left of the ruler.

There is no shortcut to open the fly-out Studio submenu on the View menu, if that is what you mean. I don't think there is any way to open a fly-out submenu in any Mac app using a keyboard shortcut, but you can assign keyboard shortcuts to any of the individual panels in the Studio submenu to toggle opening & closing any of them directly, without having to open the View menu.

In addition to Studio presets, you can double-click on the name in the header of any open Studio panel or panel group to collapse it to just the header(s), Often this is enough to eliminate the need to constantly open & close the panels. Single clicking on any of the names in the collapsed header instantly opens it to full size again.

5 hours ago, 2989 said:

So the X and y are where they are positioned on the page or artboard ??

They show the x & y positions of whichever of the 9 anchors you have selected on the right of the panel (top left, top center edge, center, etc.). However, if Enable Transform Origin is enabled, they show the x & y coordinates of the origin (the circle with the cross in it) instead.

[Dan C]

Hi @2989 

I believe your other questions have been answered above, please do let us know if you require any further clarification here!

On 9/8/2021 at 4:03 PM, 2989 said:

I know I can do a Preset which I have set up but it does not open automatically when I open Designer.  Is there a way for my Preset to open automatically as a default??

Unfortunately it's not possible to set a Studio Preset to be 'default' forced when opening the app, my apologies. You can however assign a Keyboard Shortcut to your 'default' Studio Preset (CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + [1-9] is the default shortcut for the 9 presets you can assign to these numbers), which you can then use in any document to always start from the same view.
EDIT - 'CMD' removed from above, these shortcuts are only available on Windows currently, due to a known issue on Mac which is logged with our devs.

I hope this helps!

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

Unfortunately it's not possible to set a Studio Preset to be 'default' forced when opening the app, my apologies.

But isn't the last used Studio Preset "sticky" -- IOW each time the app is started, doesn't it use the same preset it was set to use when the app was last closed?

Also, if someone only wants to use a single preset & deletes any others that might have been saved via the Preset manager, doesn't that make it the only one the app will open with -- in effect the default?

[Old Bruce]

I think the problem is that when I move things around I will get that layout the next time I start up, not the pristine unaltered Basic that I have set up. But I have never seen the original default unless I do a clear user data startup.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

You can however assign a Keyboard Shortcut to your 'default' Studio Preset (CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + [1-9] is the default shortcut for the 9 presets you can assign to these numbers)...

Something I have noticed about that on my Mac in the current 1.10.1 version of AD is sometimes when I open Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts set to the Designer & View choices, my saved Studio Presets do not appear in the list, just "Studio Presets ➤ Add Preset" & "Studio Presets ➤ Manage Studio Presets."

To get the saved presets to show, I need to toggle from the View to some other choice & then back to View again.

I have not noticed (or checked) if this happens in APub or AP.

Anybody else seeing the same thing?

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I think the problem is that when I move things around I will get that layout the next time I start up, not the pristine unaltered Basic that I have set up.

Yes, it seems that whatever Studio layout was in effect when the app last closed is what the app will use the next time it is started. So basically, the last used layout is sticky, whether it is a preset or not.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

But I have never seen the original default unless I do a clear user data startup

My first saved Preset is the default view. That way it's always available without needing to do a Reset and losing the others.

[2989]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

But isn't the last used Studio Preset "sticky" -- IOW each time the app is started, doesn't it use the same preset it was set to use when the app was last closed?

Also, if someone only wants to use a single preset & deletes any others that might have been saved via the Preset manager, doesn't that make it the only one the app will open with -- in effect the default?

My last preset does not seem to be 'Sticky' and I have to go to View>studio preset> and locate the name of my last preset....  This seems so long wondered for such an advanced program...  And of all the shortcuts this program has, this is the one I could use the most.....  There is not even the option (that I have found) to add my own short cut by, example : Typing s3.

Another question on this subject - once I have my pre-set up and I maybe decide I now would also like 'rulers' to be added to this my favourite preset, Is there a way to save this new change to my current preset. (Just like when we make a change to a document and save it.  The only way I have found is to add the new preset with the addition of rulers under a different name (I date them) then have to go back and delete my old preset.  Is there a better way? I Just to save that preset with the new information.  This seems quite basic.

 

[2989]

Thank You to all that have replied !

 

MikeTO you asked *

 

Is there a way to lock the Rulers at the top and left side ?  I don’t want it to scroll Negative ruler numbers. And I want to snap my art board to the top right at 0/0. I don’t see a way to do this. What am I missing ??

*I'm confused, why do the rulers not start at the top left at 0,0? AFAIK there is no way to lock them there but the only way to change them is to drag out from the ruler origin so if you don't want to do that, don't do it, and if you do it by mistake just choose undo.

My rulers to start out at 0/0 but if I scroll with my Mac Mouse, or if I am working on my P C my mouse has a scroll wheel the artboards (or info on my page starts moving into 200- numbers). 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, 2989 said:

My rulers to start out at 0/0 but if I scroll with my Mac Mouse, or if I am working on my P C my mouse has a scroll wheel the artboards (or info on my page starts moving into 200- numbers). 

Are you sure it is the ruler origin that is changing? It sounds to me like the view zoom level might be changing. At least that is what happens on my Mac.

1 hour ago, 2989 said:

My last preset does not seem to be 'Sticky' and I have to go to View>studio preset> and locate the name of my last preset.... 

As for the stickiness of the last used Studio layout, all I can tell you is (as has already been mentioned) whether it was a preset or a manual change, it should be sticky. If nothing else works for you, maybe try deleting all but one Studio preset, enabling that one, & then quit & relaunch the app.

[Dan C]

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

But isn't the last used Studio Preset "sticky" -- IOW each time the app is started, doesn't it use the same preset it was set to use when the app was last closed?

15 hours ago, 2989 said:

My last preset does not seem to be 'Sticky'

As discussed above, the Preset is not 'sticky' nor can be set to be defaulted to when opening the app - instead, the app will open using exactly the same layout that was present when it was closed, whether this was a Preset or not.

Once you have a keyboard shortcut assigned to the Preset, you can simply enact this when opening the app to ensure your 'default' layout is used.

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

Something I have noticed about that on my Mac in the current 1.10.1 version of AD is sometimes when I open Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts set to the Designer & View choices, my saved Studio Presets do not appear in the list, just "Studio Presets ➤ Add Preset" & "Studio Presets ➤ Manage Studio Presets."

To get the saved presets to show, I need to toggle from the View to some other choice & then back to View again.

Unfortunately I'm not seeing this here on Mac or Windows in Designer - though if this is replicable on your machine then we'd appreciate it being reported to our QA/devs in the bugs section so they can investigate further 

15 hours ago, 2989 said:

once I have my pre-set up and I maybe decide I now would also like 'rulers' to be added to this my favourite preset, Is there a way to save this new change to my current preset

As far as I understand it 'Rulers' are not saved with Studio Presets and are controlled independently.

15 hours ago, 2989 said:

Is there a better way? I Just to save that preset with the new information.  This seems quite basic.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear as though there's anyway to 'overwrite' a pre-existing Preset, so I will log this as an improvement with our developers now!

[i5963c]

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

As discussed above, the Preset is not 'sticky' nor can be set to be defaulted to when opening the app - instead, the app will open using exactly the same layout that was present when it was closed, whether this was a Preset or not.

Once you have a keyboard shortcut assigned to the Preset, you can simply enact this when opening the app to ensure your 'default' layout is used.

Unfortunately I'm not seeing this here on Mac or Windows in Designer - though if this is replicable on your machine then we'd appreciate it being reported to our QA/devs in the bugs section so they can investigate further 

As far as I understand it 'Rulers' are not saved with Studio Presets and are controlled independently.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear as though there's anyway to 'overwrite' a pre-existing Preset, so I will log this as an improvement with our developers now!

On Windows at least (no clue about how it works on Mac), you can simply 'overwrite' an existing preset. Just select the 'Add Preset...' menu option in the View menu, and use the same name. Next, the application shows a popup window with the question whether you want to replace the previous preset. Select 'Yes' and the 'old' preset will be overwritten with the new panel layout.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

Unfortunately I'm not seeing this here on Mac or Windows in Designer - though if this is replicable on your machine then we'd appreciate it being reported to our QA/devs in the bugs section so they can investigate further 

I started getting application hangs when I was testing this, usually when I finally got one of my presets to show up in the preferences list (where they showed no shortcut applied to either of them) & I tried to add a shortcut. No crashes so no crash report, but I had to force quit the app to recover.

So I suspect there is something amiss with my AD installation or its preference files, but I have not yet tried resetting or changing anything to see if that fixes it.

If I discover anything relevant I will post that to the bugs forum or here if I can fix it.

[Dan C]

14 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I started getting application hangs when I was testing this, usually when I finally got one of my presets to show up in the preferences list (where they showed no shortcut applied to either of them) & I tried to add a shortcut. No crashes so no crash report, but I had to force quit the app to recover.

So I suspect there is something amiss with my AD installation or its preference files, but I have not yet tried resetting or changing anything to see if that fixes it.

Thanks for confirming that!
Having spoken with our Dev/QA team, I can confirm these options were actually removed from a previous version of Mac Designer - so they shouldn't be showing at all. I've restarted my Mac and tried to replicate the options appearing after switching the shortcut categories, but the options still fail to show. Could you possibly provide a screen recording of the behaviour you're seeing so that I can provide this to our developers?

These options were removed due to a known issue that occurred when applying custom shortcuts to these presets, and this issue caused the app to hang - which sounds exactly like the behaviour you're describing. I'll be sure to reopen these reports using the information you've provided

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, i5963c said:

On Windows at least (no clue about how it works on Mac), you can simply 'overwrite' an existing preset. Just select the 'Add Preset...' menu option in the View menu, and use the same name. Next, the application shows a popup window with the question whether you want to replace the previous preset. Select 'Yes' and the 'old' preset will be overwritten with the new panel layout.

That works on my Mac as well. 

On 9/9/2021 at 8:44 AM, Dan C said:

You can however assign a Keyboard Shortcut to your 'default' Studio Preset (CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + [1-9] is the default shortcut for the 9 presets you can assign to these numbers), which you can then use in any document to always start from the same view.

If I understand what you mean correctly, on a Mac at least CMD + Shift + 3 or 4 won't work because they conflict with the defaults for taking screenshots.

[Dan C]

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If I understand what you mean correctly, on a Mac at least CMD + Shift + 3 or 4 won't work because they conflict with the defaults for taking screenshots.

You've correctly understood my post, but unfortunately the information I provided wasn't correct and that's my mistake - apologies!

These shortcuts are Windows only and therefore I shouldn't have added the 'CMD' part - I'll edit the above post now to reflect this

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Dan C said:

Could you possibly provide a screen recording of the behaviour you're seeing so that I can provide this to our developers?

After checking to confirm the overwrite behavior @i5963c mentioned, I am no longer getting a hang when I try to set a keyboard shortcut for any of my (currently 3) Studio presets. However, I can't actually get any shortcut I try to set for any of them to stick -- when I close the panel, there is no shortcut shown in the View > Studio Preset submenu & trying to use whatever I set just gives me a system beep.

Also, no matter what shortcut I set for any of the presets in the preference panel I get a warning triangle, & the tooltip for it shows that all 3 of my presets are set to that same shortcut, whatever it is.

EDIT: Oops! Spoke too soon. I just tried setting a shortcut for one of the presets & AD is hung again. I can't even Force Quit it!

More to follow later ....

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

More to follow later ....

FWIW, for about 20 seconds or so after AD hung, I could not get the Apple menu to open to access the Force Quit option without a long lag before the menu would open. This suggests I have some sort of system problem I need to sort out before continuing to try to diagnose or correct whatever is causing the AD hangs.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

Having spoken with our Dev/QA team, I can confirm these options were actually removed from a previous version of Mac Designer - so they shouldn't be showing at all.

I missed that last part, which at least explains why I can't set any shortcuts for my Studio Presets & possibly why AD (& AP & APub, too, now that I have tried it a few times in those apps) often crashes when I try to set or modify the shortcut for one of them.

But it does not explain why they (usually) show for me. For that to happen, sometimes I have to switch from one preset to another (either from the View > Studio Preset submenu or in the Studio Preset Manager) & then toggle the preference from the View list to another setting & back again. But they definitely do show up eventually, as these screenshots show:

 

 

 

Anyway, I am not going to test this any more for now because I cannot image constantly crashing the apps is good for their overall stability.

[i5963c]

I previously discovered already that the standard shortcuts (Ctrl+Shift+N, with N = 1 -> 9) for presets in Windows didn't work. But, at least, I've never had crashes or hangs when I tried to use them...

I have only 1 custom preset (for each persona in each of the 3 Affinity apps). All these presets are labeled 'Preferred Workspace' (see screenshot below).

Thus, so far, Ctrl+Shift+1 did never revert to my 'personal' panel layouts.

I was triggered by the comments in this post, to look again into this problem of 'dead' Ctrl+Shift+N shortcuts. When I try to change the shortcut entries, I notice that it is simply impossible to manually define a shortcut with the 'Ctrl+Shift+N' syntax (although such shortcuts are by default predefined out-of-the-box). Entering the number key is simply not possible! While trying to do so, NumLock is active, so this shouldn't be a problem!

I then tried to assign a shortcut combination with an alphabetic character ('Ctrl+Shift+W' in my case, to activate my preferred workspace for each persona).

And: now, I can indeed use a shortcut to revert to my personal workspaces! The system default shortcut (i.e. Ctrl+Shift+1) never worked, but Ctrl+Shift+W does!

 

I finally verified whether it was possible to manually define a shortcut with the 'Ctrl+Shift+N' syntax for any other arbitrary action (i.e. not related to Studio Presets) and, also for these other actions, this key combination is not allowed. So, it looks as if there is something strange is happening with the 'Ctrl+Shift+N' shortcut format.

But, at least, I've found a working solution for my specific use case😀...