Preferences window is incredibly hostile

[nikgervae]

I just installed the app, and wanted to check out the Preferences, so I hit cmd+, and the Preferences window opened (I already had a blank new document open). The Preferences window had the red/yellow/green window buttons on the upper left. When I was done looking around, I hit cmd+W, as you do to close the front window on a mac, and the my master page got deleted! The Preferences window remained onscreen, mocking me. The main app window was sitting behind it. I hit cmd+W again, wondering what might happen: The document window closed.

Even more curious, and with the Preferences window still onscreen, I created a new document, which appeared *behind* the Preferences window. Huh??? A new window should always open in front of other windows. I tried clicking the document window. Nothing happened; the Preferences window insists in being in front. None of my built-in macos apps do this, and most of my 3rd party macos apps don't do this. The Preferences window should not float over other windows, but it also certainly shouldn't pass keystrokes back to windows behind it.

This is really super hostile and I am having serious doubts about my purchase of the app, and I haven't even started designing anything yet.

 

1. Are you using the latest release version? yes
2. Can you reproduce it? every time
3. Does it happen for a new document? n/a
4. If you cannot provide a sample document then please give an accurate description of the problem for example it should include most of the following:

•    What is your operating system and version (Windows 10, OSX Mojave, iOS 12 etc)? macos monterey 12.4
•    Is hardware acceleration (in Preferences > Performance) ON or OFF ? It is on.
•    What happened for you (and what you expected to happen) See above
•    Provide a recipe for creating the problem (step-by-step what you did). See above
•    Screenshots (very handy) or a screen capture/video. Won't realy help
•    Any unusual hardware (like tablets or external monitors or drives that may affect things) or relevant other applications like font managers or display managers. No
•    Did this same thing used to work and if so have you changed anything recently? (software or hardware) I just got the app

[Dan C]

Hi @nikgervae,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

42 minutes ago, nikgervae said:

I hit cmd+W, as you do to close the front window on a mac, and the my master page got deleted! The Preferences window remained onscreen, mocking me. The main app window was sitting behind it. I hit cmd+W again, wondering what might happen: The document window closed.

I can confirm that the 'Preferences' dialog is not designed to close when using CMD + W, as this will always close the currently opened/active document within the app.

The shortcut to close the Preferences dialog, or other such dialogs in Affinity (like the New Document dialog) is ESC. This is done such that the Affinity apps are consistent across macOS and Windows.

However this is logged as an improvement with our developers to be considered for a future update on macOS, as I do understand muscle memory can cause annoyances here.

45 minutes ago, nikgervae said:

Even more curious, and with the Preferences window still onscreen, I created a new document, which appeared *behind* the Preferences window.

(...)

 I tried clicking the document window. Nothing happened; the Preferences window insists in being in front.

This is a known bug which is logged with our development team and should hopefully be fixed within our next update, my apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this in the meantime.

I hope this clears things up!

[nikgervae]

I don't want consistency with Windows—I want consistency with the other apps on my computer! Cmd+W on the mac is supposed to close the front window. Always and without exception. It's far more than a mere annoyance. If I can't trust this application to follow the most basic UI guidelines of the OS, then I seriously doubt I can make productive use of it.

[Dan C]

I'm sorry to hear you feel this way, as mentioned this is logged with our developers as an improvement suggestion for a future update so I will be sure to 'bump' this for you now.

I'd certainly recommend testing the design & functionality of the application itself before making your final decision, but I certainly understand your request and offer my apologies for any annoyances caused due to this.