Feature request : Quick Favorites Menu looks like Blender

[charactersword]

Blender's quick favorites menu speeds up our workflow.

Affinity Designer and Photo's some menus are different position.
This is a little confusing. The quick favorites menu also solves this.

For instance, the Flip Horizontal is Layer> Transform> Flip Horizontal in Affinity Designer.
However, the Flip Horizontal in Affinity Photo is Arrange> Flip Horizontal, not Layer tab.

[Komatös]

Hi, @characterswordand welcome to the forums.

FYI. Flip Horizontal in Affinity Photo and Designer are two different pairs of shoes. In APhoto it flips the whole page. In ADesigner it flips objects and object groups.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Komatös said:

FYI. Flip Horizontal in Affinity Photo and Designer are two different pairs of shoes. In APhoto it flips the whole page. In ADesigner it flips objects and object groups.

Sorry, but no. Arrange > Flip Horizontal flips the currently selected layer(s) in Photo, just as Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal does in Designer.

Flipping the entire document (in Photo) is done with Document > Flip Horizontal.

[Old Bruce]

There are many problems with the Menus in the Affinity suite. Try and find Document Setup in the three applications. No such thing in the File Menu for Photo because there isn't one for Photo. Now look for Resource Manager in the Affinity suite, there it is in the View menu but not so in Publisher. What a strange omission... Oh, here it is in a different menu, Document, for Publisher only.

And why do Publisher and Photo have Document menu but Designer doesn't. The View Menu is messed up bad over the three applications. How am I to develop muscle memory with this dog's breakfast.

[Grayhem]

Keeping on topic, it would be great to have a 'Quick Favourites' panel for the users most used functions. I have a manager that I am wanting to teach how to use affinity publisher, and he doesn't need to know everything for the workflow that he has. However, many functions are spread in so many areas that it would be SOO helpful to be able to group the commands and functions that he will need into a panel that I could set up for him.

 

Yes....something like blenders quick favourites - called up by pressing 'q' - would be great. But maybe with a 'dockable' panel that could hold these favourite commands

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, Grayhem said:

I have a manager that I am wanting to teach how to use affinity publisher, and he doesn't need to know everything for the workflow that he has. However, many functions are spread in so many areas that it would be SOO helpful to be able to group the commands and functions that he will need into a panel that I could set up for him.

Would this really be a wise thing to do for a beginner?

In my experience, giving a beginner a limited set of options tends to make them think – after a while – that those options are all that is available. And, as such, they assume that the software is limited to only those functionalities which they have been taught to use.

If someone only uses the software via some kind of ‘quick menu’ they don’t see what else is available and they don’t see the full capabilities of the software – which can also be a bad thing if that person has a hand in deciding whether the software should be available to others in the organisation.

I don’t have a problem with having some kind of ‘quick menu’ as such, for people who want one, I just don’t think that beginners should be taught how to use the software by using one.

Imagine teaching someone to drive in a bumper car (dodgem) in a fairground.
How much will they learn about driving and what will happen if they then go to drive on the road and you’re not there to stop them?

[Grayhem]

17 hours ago, GarryP said:

Would this really be a wise thing to do for a beginner?

GarryP - I totally get it and agree with you. And in most cases I would totally go down your line of thinking. But the person in mind I know very well and he already uses Pageplus x9 for one specific task and has done for many years. He only needs this kind of software to do this one thing and his job is such that it is VERY unlikely that he will ever use publisher for anything more and he is not the kind of guy to want or need to branch into unnecessary areas. I want to make the transition for him as easy as possible.

Normally, training a newcomer to publisher would be with the view to helping them learn as much as possible. This is just a different scenario. 

However, I do see a benefit in having this sort of feature [ quick favs ] for seasoned users also. I consider myself an intermediate user and I would appreciate it.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I liked your bumper car analogy!

[GarryP]

That sounds fair enough to me.

If they will only ever need/use a certain subset of the functionalities, and no other considerations need to be taken into account, then a 'restricted-use' UI might be a good way to go in this case.

I’m not sure how this sort of thing could be achieved in the Affinity applications but I think it might be well-received by some if done well.

(I'm guessing that a lot of thought may need to be put into how different functionalities with different 'launch methods' could be 'tied' to a single 'launch control'.)

[Grayhem]

In the old days of Pageplus X[whatever] you could customise the toolbars - you could drag any of the available commands and functions as buttons to the toolbars wherever you wanted them.
There is a limited set of buttons available within Publisher to customise the toolbar with - but not all commands as Pageplus had.

You could literally put ANYTHING into the toolbar, wherever it could fit. Customised workflows were very easy.
So... make available all the commands like pageplus..... and possibly allow a favourites toolbar to keep thing neat and tidy?

??

[GarryP]

I can’t remember how PagePlus worked when I last used it decades ago but I’m guessing that the way ‘commands’ were controlled in PagePlus could be different to how ‘things’ are controlled in the Affinity applications.

That’s probably an implementation issue that we users simply can’t know about, and there could be good reasons why certain 'things' can’t be added to the Toolbar.

I guess all we can do is wait and see if anything happens.

[Grayhem]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

I guess all we can do is wait and see if anything happens.

Indeed. I share an office with software developers so I understand that implementation of new features is never a walk in the park