In various UI windows: Title bar buttons (red yellow green) close Documents irroneously

[thomaso]

The Affinity UI shows several windows with the mac-like traffic-light buttons in the upper left corner. In macOS you can close such a window with the red button or the keys CMD + W.

Affinity does visually withdraw the focus from its main / a document window if such a dialog gets opened: the 3 buttons in the main window get greyed out while the newly opened window shows them coloured – but unfortunately the focus is not fully set to this window.

The bug: If such a window shall be closed via CMD W then either the Save dialog pops up, or if no modified document is opened, the current document respectively the main window gets closed.

Additionally:
• these windows do have an additional button in their lower right corner. Most often it is a "Close" button, which is actually obsolet if the 3 round title bar buttons exist.
• these UI windows aren't fully in front of the interface, but can be covered by floating panels, which I expect to be hierarchically below those windows with the 3 buttons. (I remember this covering issue was reported & logged several app versions ago.)

[Lee D]

I'm not sure if this would be classed as a bug or by design, I'll see if I can get clarification of the developers to be sure. If it is a bug I'll create a report for it.

[thomaso]

Just a note: In macOS apps, like Finder or Preview, only 1 of several opened windows shows the 3 buttons in colours. This is the currently active window and there is only 1 active window at a time (key window). On all other windows of an app these buttons are greyed-out, like on the main / document window in Affinity. In macOS the command CMD+W affects only this 1 active window, CMD-W never closes a window which is in background / has its buttons greyed-out, as it happens in Affinity.

The oddity in Affinity is the fact, that this windows* do not react at all / at any time to CMD+W, although they show the 3 buttons. Instead always and only the main window reacts to CMD+W.  *("Preferences" / "New…" / the 2 x 4 Managers / the Apple Colour Picker)

[eluengo]

Is an interface concept error, more than a bug (and probably related to how MS Windows does)... is inconsistent that a window that has a group of OK-Cancel buttons has also any of the window buttons/semaphore (red, yellow or green) active or ever existent.

Correct would be, either with semaphore buttons (eventually + confirmation of secureness of action) or without semaphore and OK-Cancel buttons group, bottom-right (also eventually + confirmation of secureness of action). And Cmd-W should only affect the topmost window and only if the semaphore exists or is active.

Comparing with old user interface rules, modern Mac rules/habits are so flexible that sometimes designers get confused (if not mad) and permit some inconsistencies. Also sometimes designers are forced to this attitude because of compatibility necessary in multiplatform app designs.

It's only an opinion

🖖

[Revanian]

Related to this, in Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher the hover action over the main window controls (close, minimize, zoom) do not trigger/display the function icons with the tip of the pointer. The control button icons do appear when hovering but the pointer needs to be fully over the buttons, unlike all other macOS windows. Running Monterey 12.4.

 

 

[Revanian]

After further testing, this issue seems to be caused by opening or closing a file. Afterwards if I zoom the window and zoom back the hover icons will display properly (until the next file is opened or closed). Version 1.10.5 of all Affinity apps.

[thomaso]

15 hours ago, Revanian said:

this issue seems to be caused by opening or closing a file. Afterwards if I zoom the window and zoom back the hover icons will display properly

I'd say your experienced issue is not at all related to this topic about a macOS keyboard short-cut which affects in Affinity a wrong and background window.

Your hover issue appears rather similar to a visual UI issue without causing such a malfunction like closing a window, which is logged + tagged as afd-4161.

I can't reproduce your hover issue here but maybe you do get this one mentioned in these reports? If yes, you might want to add your note under this moderator's comment because it limits the issue to macOS 10.14 Mojave – which would exclude your 12.14 Monterey.

[Revanian]

38 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I'd say your experienced issue is not at all related to this topic about a macOS keyboard short-cut which affects in Affinity a wrong and background window.

Your hover issue appears rather similar to a visual UI issue without causing such a malfunction like closing a window, which is logged + tagged as afd-4161.

I can't reproduce your hover issue here but maybe you do get this one mentioned in these reports? If yes, you might want to add your note under this moderator's comment because it limits the issue to macOS 10.14 Mojave – which would exclude your 12.14 Monterey.

Much appreciated for finding this topic, I have posted a reply.

[MEB]

Hi @Revanian,
Thanks for reporting this. We are already aware of the issue and have it logged to be looked at.