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  • 3 months later...

I think I figured it out. The layer somehow got switched to a different type of layer. I can't see how to switch it back to "art text" so I just created a new layer and worked with that one. But it would be nice to be able to switch back to "art text" if possible.

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  • 5 months later...

This. Signed up just to complain.

 

To commit the text, I pressed CMD + Enter - like I do in other graphics programs I use daily. 

 

Crazy to me that some of these shared, commonly understood shortcuts are different in AD. 

 

It's infuriating as I can see the potential in AD, which is why I download the betas periodically, wanting to be impressed, but each time run into immediate, nonsensical roadblocks trying to do basic things such as this. 

 

Please, sort it out Serif. Think sensibly about commonalities.

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It has never occurred to me to press cmd-enter after typing text. I can see that it takes you back to arrow tool in Illustrator, but I think most people just cmd-click empty area and press V.

 

AD/AP makes text curves with cmd-enter. I think this is needed so seldom that there is no real need for such shortcut.

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AD/AP makes text curves with cmd-enter. I think this is needed so seldom that there is no real need for such shortcut.

 

The default keyboard shortcut for this on a Mac is actually CMD+Return. (The Enter & Return keys are considered different keys so typing CMD+Enter has no effect with the defaults, at least on standard Mac keyboards with both keys.) If you find that annoying you can delete the shortcut in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts > Draw > Layer or change it to something else.

 

However, I do not think there is any way to assign CMD+Enter or CMD+Return to exit text entry mode because the Escape key is used globally in the Affinity apps to deselect the current item (layer, text, nodes, etc.) & I believe is 'wired' into the app's logic for that purpose.

 

From a historic standpoint, this sort of makes sense because the ASCII escape character (decimal 27, "ESC") is one of the first 32 ASCII codes originally intended to be used only as non-printing control characters. ESC was used to allow sending other control characters as literals, thus "escaping" them from their non-printing nature. It has a similar meaning in C language strings, URL encodings, & in CLI (Terminal) applications to precede a command character to treat it as a literal. In OS X, the special shortcut CMD-ALT-ESC is reserved for force quitting an unresponsive app, sort of the ultimate "escape" command.

 

CMD+Enter isn't commonly used as an escape or exit substitute except in graphics apps that follow certain -- shall we say unique? -- conventions established by Adobe.

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CMD+Enter isn't commonly used as an escape or exit substitute except in graphics apps that follow certain -- shall we say unique? -- conventions established by Adobe.

 

No, let's not say unique? Before Sketch, can you name any genuinely (professional) mainstream graphic apps which weren't made by Adobe? Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign all use this command. As does Sketch, sensibly. If current/previous Adobe customers are Affinity's core market (clearly they are), this is naive at best.

 

This behaviour is so engrained I must have used it a hundred thousand times if not more, and I will certainly not be alone in this. It is so thoroughly embedded in my muscle memory that I consider this alone to be a barrier to entry.

 

Using ESC makes far less sense, despite it working in places. ESC to me means: no, cancel, leave, stop. Not commit.

 

 

AD/AP makes text curves with cmd-enter. I think this is needed so seldom that there is no real need for such shortcut.

 

Agreed - this simply does not need to be a shortcut, especially such a poorly advised one. I want to right-click to 'Create Outlines' or 'Convert to Art Text' if you prefer.

I expect you're wrong that most people CMD click elsewhere - why would I use the mouse when my hands are already on the keyboard.

 

 

Evidently I'm a sucker since I bought the software anyway, perhaps that's all that counts on the balance sheet. But I do hope someone pays attention to this, because after puzzling for a few minutes, googling, discovering this, I dropped my AD experiment immediately and posted here in exasperation; let alone previously frustrated and failed attempts.

 

Make it easy for me to adjust unless there's a really good reason.

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AD/AP makes text curves with cmd-enter. I think this is needed so seldom that there is no real need for such shortcut.

 

Cmd+Return on a Mac (or Ctrl+Return/Enter on Windows) doesn't only affect text. It turns any selected object into curves, and I use it all the time on shapes drawn with the shape tools in AD on Windows beta. :)

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Cmd+Return on a Mac (or Ctrl+Return/Enter on Windows) doesn't only affect text. It turns any selected object into curves, and I use it all the time on shapes drawn with the shape tools in AD on Windows beta. :)

I do too. It even works when a mix of shapes & text objects are selected to convert them all to curves in one step.

 

I can only speak for myself, but I never expected the Affinity apps to work exactly like Adobe ones. In fact, I am happy that they do not, because there are a lot of things about how Adobe apps work that I have always found awkward, unintuitive, or inefficient. Admittedly, it took some time & effort to get comfortable with how the Affinity apps work, but the more I use them the more I like how they work.

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ESC to me means: no, cancel, leave, stop. Not commit.

 

It doesn't mean "Commit" for Affinity, either. Editing text is simply not an action that needs to be committed for us. Indeed, one of the things I dislike about Adobe apps is how simple actions become all modal, and need to be either cancelled or committed before you can go back to doing normal things like saving the document. Having to do that interrupts my flow. I don't see the benefit. If you made an edit you regret, undo it. I don't see the point of this tentative state where you've made the edit but have the option to abandon it, when the Command History is right there and will let you wind back as far as you like.

 

ESC does in fact mean "Cancel", "Leave" or "Stop" for Affinity. With the Text tools, pressing it once ends the text editing mode so you can use shortcuts, and pressing it a second time clears the object selection. I think of both as steps in "backing out" or "stop editing this object", so ESC fits nicely.

 

I'm sorry if this messes with your muscle memory, but Affinity is not a clone of Adobe. We have our own vision which we think is better. I hope you persist, because you will get used to it over time.

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It even works when a mix of shapes & text objects are selected to convert them all to curves in one step.

 

Indeed it does. I actually meant to type "selected objects" (plural).

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Indeed, one of the things I dislike about Adobe apps is how simple actions become all modal, and need to be either cancelled or committed before you can go back to doing normal things like saving the document. Having to do that interrupts my flow.

I could not agree more with this!

 

Adobe's apps still do a lot things the same way they did in the 1990's, not because they are the most efficient way to do them, but because they were once the only practical way they could be done while running on the OS's of that era. Adobe could rewrite their apps to get rid of all the excess legacy baggage, which would make them much more memory efficient & much less the of system resource hogs they are now. But to date, Adobe have shown little interest in doing that -- why would they when users just accept the status quo is the way things should work?

 

Affinity can be a real eye opener in that respect, but only for users who are willing to try something different.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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  • 2 months later...

There seems to be a glitch in Affinity photo (at least in the beta version). :(  I have tried to recolor my text many times by re selecting it; with the text tool, however to no avail, I cannot recolor it even by going into the layers and effects. What I finally found that worked is as follows:

 

Select the layer of text you are trying to change the color of and go into the the effects section, scroll down till you find color overlay; select it and in the menu of the box that comes up, untick all the boxes on the left and then select where it says color overlay and select the color you want, then retick all effects you want and walla your color will be changed.

 

I hope this helps anyone who is or does encounter the same problem! :D   

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  • 1 month later...

ON Windows 10 Affinity 1.5.1.54 I can't find any way to edit text once I've created it. For instance, I notice I made a spelling error, the only thing I can do is delete the whole layer and start over. I've tried everything suggested in this thread.

 

Seriously, not being able to edit text once it is created is unacceptable.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Doctorobvious, you should be able to select either of the Text tools, then click on the text you want to edit to get a text caret. Drag over existing text with either of the Text tools to select parts of the text.

 

 

No, that’s exactly the problem.  Clicking on the text once it’s entered does not always show a text caret.  Sometimes that's true but often, it adds a new text layer because the text layer I was working with, has been changed to a pixel layer somehow.  

 

So here's my questions:

How do I avoid turning a text layer into a pixel layer in the first place?

If and when it turns into a pixel layer, how do I go back so it’s an editable text layer?

 

Can someone please answer those 2 questions and not debate different features?

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tstoutmn,

 

My guess is that you have accidentally used the keyboard shortcut for Convert to Curves (CMD+Return on a Mac) with the text layer selected. (It looks like pixels in Affinity Photo but if you check the Layers panel, you should see that the text is now a group layer & its children are all curves that can be edited with the Node tool.)

 

To avoid this, you can change the keyboard shortcut to something else or remove it in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts. Select Photo Persona on the first popup & Layer on the second & scroll down until you see the Convert to Curves entry near the end of the list. Select the shortcut on the right & either type in something else or click on the small X to delete it.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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When I looked at the layer that was created, it said "pixel" in the layer title area.  But in any case, I followed your suggestion and we'll see how it works.  

 

One odd thing, I was asked to save my preference as an "AffinityShortcut".  Since the Affinity App is not in a folder, I created a folder in the Application folder called Affinity.  So I hope that's good enough.

 

I'll give it a go and see if works, thanks!

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  • 2 months later...

It doesn't mean "Commit" for Affinity, either. Editing text is simply not an action that needs to be committed for us. Indeed, one of the things I dislike about Adobe apps is how simple actions become all modal, and need to be either cancelled or committed before you can go back to doing normal things like saving the document. Having to do that interrupts my flow. I don't see the benefit. If you made an edit you regret, undo it. I don't see the point of this tentative state where you've made the edit but have the option to abandon it, when the Command History is right there and will let you wind back as far as you like.

 

ESC does in fact mean "Cancel", "Leave" or "Stop" for Affinity. With the Text tools, pressing it once ends the text editing mode so you can use shortcuts, and pressing it a second time clears the object selection. I think of both as steps in "backing out" or "stop editing this object", so ESC fits nicely.

 

I'm sorry if this messes with your muscle memory, but Affinity is not a clone of Adobe. We have our own vision which we think is better. I hope you persist, because you will get used to it over time.

 

@DaveHarris I like the philosophy you took here, but then I'm confused that why doesn't Affinity Designer implement the same philosophy in other areas. One example would be the "Arrange" toolbar item (which is named incorrectly - it should be "Align"). After doing the arrangement (align-centers, etc), why do I need to press "OK" everytime? If I focus out, the arrangement is discarded. All the arrangement options are grouped inside that one dropdown, so it takes a minimum of 3 clicks to do any arrangements. In Illustrator, it takes 1 click. It's objectively better there, and I'd exhort you to please improve the UX in the area of Arrange/Align/Distribute.

 

I bought Designer when the first public beta for Windows ended. I'd liked the product, but couldn't spend as much time as I wished on the software. Now, I'm trying to use the tool, and there are some extremely brilliant things (such as personas), but there are some equally frustrating things such as lack of features, some of which have been on roadmap as far back as 2014. I understand feature parity is not a priority for you guys, but from a new user's perspective, it's very hard to do some simple things such as 'transform each', or even 'align to a key object'. One life-saver in that respect is that I can design stuff in Illustrator, and just copy-paste the design into Designer, and it "Just Works".

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@khs_

 

The "Arrange" toolbar item is just the default. You can replace it with some or all of the individual align/distribute buttons if you want to customize the toolbar.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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  • 8 months later...

Yet another "weird" choice considering how many people are certainly coming from Photoshop. Cmd-Enter is an autopilot command for me when switching from text editing to default selection mode. I *never* would have guessed this is the reason my text is no longer editable after the first time I create it. Bizarre choice!

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6 minutes ago, bmoeskau said:

Yet another "weird" choice considering how many people are certainly coming from Photoshop.

Serif has never suggested that Affinity Photo's default keyboard shortcuts are the same as in Photoshop. However, they are easily customizable, so if you do not want CMD-Enter to convert anything to curves (it does not apply just to text) you can either assign no keyboard shortcut to that function or change it to something else.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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On 12/24/2017 at 5:27 PM, R C-R said:

Serif has never suggested that Affinity Photo's default keyboard shortcuts are the same as in Photoshop. However, they are easily customizable, so if you do not want CMD-Enter to convert anything to curves (it does not apply just to text) you can either assign no keyboard shortcut to that function or change it to something else.

 

It's pretty clear that people fleeing Adobe-subscription-land are a huge demographic for these products. As such, I would think making it as frictionless as possible to switch would be a priority (especially with commands as common as exiting text edit mode). Just my two cents, obviously it is what it is.

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43 minutes ago, bmoeskau said:

It's pretty clear that people fleeing Adobe-subscription-land are a huge demographic for these products. As such, I would think making it as frictionless as possible to switch would be a priority (especially with commands as common as exiting text edit mode).

There is usually no need to use a keyboard command to exit text edit mode in the Affinity apps. In either app, for Frame text you can just move the pointer outside of the frame text & double click to revert to the Move tool. This also works in Affinity Designer for Artistic text & should once again in Affinity Photo once a bug gets fixed in the next update. Also, if you want to create a new text block (of either kind) just click once where you want it & drag out as you would any text block. Once you get used to it, it is very quick & easy, & leaves your keyboard hand free for choosing other tools or whatever.

 

Regardless, as I said, you can change the keyboard shortcut for converting to curves to something else if you want to avoid accidentally doing that to text objects.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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