How to Add Columns to text Frames in Designer?

[Willy Pimentel]

How do I add Columns to text Frames in Designer?

[MikeTO]

I don't believe you can create multiple columns in a text frame in Designer, just in Publisher. However, if you copy a text frame with multiple columns to the clipboard and paste it into Designer, it will work. You won't be able to change the number of columns inside of Designer, although there is a Remove Columns button in the Context Bar so you can revert it to 1 column at any time.

[Willy Pimentel]

I don't understand Why this feature is not included in Designer.  

[MikeTO]

I assume because people using Designer aren't creating 500 page books so if you need two columns on a page you can just draw a second text frame.

I know it seems silly, it obviously could work so why not, but if Serif were to put all the features into a single app then they'd have to sell it for the price of the entire suite or they'd make less money. And then people who just needed photo editing features would complain that they were subsidizing the development of footnotes, or vice versa.

[Willy Pimentel]

I agree with that idea.  BUt I have Publisher.    

If I have bought the program, them those features should appear there simply because i mainly know how to use Designer and not publisher.   

if i bought it, it should be part of it....

[MikeTO]

2 minutes ago, Willy Pimentel said:

I agree with that idea.  BUt I have Publisher.    

If I have bought the program, them those features should appear there simply because i mainly know how to use Designer and not publisher.   

if i bought it, it should be part of it....

Yes and no. In this case I agree it wouldn't do any harm, but I'm a publishing guy and my photo processing needs could be met with MS Paint. Kidding. But I'd hate it if all the Photo features were crammed into Publisher, it would clutter up the interface. Publisher already has a lot of non-publishing stuff that I wish wasn't there.

So I agree it's an inconvenience but at least you have a workaround - just copy it from Publisher.

[loukash]

42 minutes ago, Willy Pimentel said:

I don't understand Why this feature is not included in Designer.

It's 1) a marketing decision, and 2) it avoids unnecessary bloat, especially for casual users.

Because strictly technically, the Affinity Suite is in fact just one file format with three different file extensions to mark the default app to open it, and theoretically just one app split into a "holy trinity". But selling it as just one app would unnecessarily bloat it. Sometimes you need to focus, and Featuritis™ doesn't necessarily help here. In spite of that, this is obviously why the Studio Link was eventually added to Publisher which just by itself doesn't necessarily need other personae.

But in fact, Designer on its own is the most universal of all three: apart from advanced vector tools, it can also do a bit of typography and layout, and it can also do some basic bitmap editing. For hobbyists, Designer is a good place to start at a good price.

[industrialstudios]

I struggle with the notion that basic text formatting (or however you want to call it) would significantly add to the size and speed of designer.

[loukash]

It's definitely not about size because the functionality is already there, just hidden.
It's a bit about speed in the sense that Designer's focus is vector object design, not typography.

If you need advanced typography features, the Affinity concept is that you can always add Publisher to your app collection as your Advanced Typography "Plugin" for Designer. (Heck, back in the day I paid more than the double price of an Affinity app for a single InDesign plugin that enabled multiple page sizes within a document.)

Of course, Serif could have also released an "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" (as the Germans say), a fat bloated app with dozens of tools and panels and hundreds of menu items, that can do everything in one window, and sell it for 200 bucks.
Good luck marketing it.
Good luck using it.

Focus is a virtue.

[thomaso]

On 11/11/2022 at 5:00 PM, Willy Pimentel said:

If I have bought the program, them those features should appear there

They do … if you open your .afdesign in APub and use the AD persona. 'Studio Link' is the benefit for those who bought more than one of three.

[Andriu]

On 11/11/2022 at 4:11 PM, MikeTO said:

I don't believe you can create multiple columns in a text frame in Designer, just in Publisher. However, if you copy a text frame with multiple columns to the clipboard and paste it into Designer, it will work. You won't be able to change the number of columns inside of Designer, although there is a Remove Columns button in the Context Bar so you can revert it to 1 column at any time.

 They go to the trouble of putting a button to delete columns of text in Designer, but they don't put that button to create them... could it be more absurd? 🤪 

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Andriu said:

 They go to the trouble of putting a button to delete columns of text in Designer, but they don't put that button to create them... could it be more absurd? 🤪 

I'm not familiar with that button. Can you provide a screenshot?

[loukash]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm not familiar with that button

If you select a multicolumn text frame while in ADe, the context toolbar will display a Remove Columns button and a Gutter Width input field.

That's actually a Good Thing™. I never noticed it yet, even though it's already present in v1! But that was probably because in v1 on Mac there also is a "happy accident bug" where you can activate (and then save as a part of your Studio preset) the full Text Frame panel in ADe and APh via a "forgotten" Text Frame context toolbar button. Sadly, this "bug" has been "partially fixed" in v2 where the button is still present in a very specific context, but it doesn't do anything.  

6 hours ago, Andriu said:

could it be more absurd? 🤪 

It's a feature, not a bug. So be happy about it.  

[Andriu]

On 1/12/2024 at 12:41 PM, walt.farrell said:

I'm not familiar with that button. Can you provide a screenshot?

In Designer you cannot create columns of text, but you can in Publisher. The point is that you can delete those same columns created in Publisher (the same document) in Designer, but not create them. If someone took the time to do that stupid thing, why didn't they put the option to create columns in Designer from the beginning.

[loukash]

2 hours ago, Andriu said:

why didn't they put the option to create columns in Designer from the beginning

• application focus
• marketing

As a staff member mentioned just recently on the forums, if Serif would have wanted to ram all possible features into just one bloated app, they could have also just give away the other two apps for free. (Which is more or less what they already almost do if you buy the universal license, especially while they're having a sale every once in a while. )

[Andriu]

19 hours ago, loukash said:

• application focus
• marketing

As a staff member mentioned just recently on the forums, if Serif would have wanted to ram all possible features into just one bloated app, they could have also just give away the other two apps for free. (Which is more or less what they already almost do if you buy the universal license, especially while they're having a sale every once in a while. )

It's not about whether that tool has been included or not, let them do what they want, it's their software, it's about them having gone to the trouble of designing an option to remove columns of text when the program does not have the option to adding them, which no matter how useful it may be for someone, is still ridiculous in terms of UX-UI design (and in general terms as well) 🤣

But hey, it must be the only vector design program that does not allow you to create text columns but allows you to remove them (of course the original idea is) 🤣🤣🤣

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, Andriu said:

it's about them having gone to the trouble of designing an option to remove columns of text when the program does not have the option to adding them, which no matter how useful it may be for someone, is still ridiculous in terms of UX-UI design (and in general terms as well) 🤣

"Ridiculous" … or just "unexpected", "unusual", "unique", "special", … ?

Compare "in general terms as well":
• You can turn some object/layer types (text, rectangle, …) to curves by clicking a button <–> but not vice versa.
• You turn vector to pixels with the Affinity interface <–> but not vice versa.
• You can "Save" a document with an app's UI <–> but it doesn't offer an option to "unsave" (delete, remove).
• Airplanes may have a ejector seat <–> but no such 1-click option to fill a pilot.
• You have multiple options to add weight to your body <–> but no according option to get rid of it.
… etc.

[R C-R]

On 2/7/2024 at 3:49 AM, Andriu said:

The point is that you can delete those same columns created in Publisher (the same document) in Designer, but not create them. If someone took the time to do that stupid thing, why didn't they put the option to create columns in Designer from the beginning.

There are several things that only one or two of the Affinity apps can create but can be deleted or otherwise modified in the ones that cannot create them. For instance, you can only create master pages in Affinity Publisher but you can edit them in all 3 apps. You can't create artboards in Affinity Photo but in Affinity Photo you can delete ones created in Affinity Designer or the Designer persona of Affinity Publisher. Only in Affinity Photo can you develop a RAW file but you can delete the developed image in all 3 apps. Only in Affinity Designer 2 can you create Warp Groups but you can delete them in all 3.

[PaulEC]

On 2/8/2024 at 7:27 AM, Andriu said:

It's not about whether that tool has been included or not, let them do what they want, it's their software, it's about them having gone to the trouble of designing an option to remove columns of text when the program does not have the option to adding them, which no matter how useful it may be for someone, is still ridiculous in terms of UX-UI design (and in general terms as well) 🤣

Great, so just get rid of the option and everyone will be happy! (Except, possibly, the people who do find it useful and think that usability is more important than principles of UI design.)

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

Great, so just get rid of the option and everyone will be happy! (Except, possibly, the people who do find it useful and think that usability is more important than principles of UI design.)

But isn't good usability (IOW, usefulness) one of the guiding principles of UI design? If so, then there is nothing wrong with including an option to remove items, whether or not they can be created in the app in question ... right?

[PaulEC]

RIGHT! – Sorry, I was trying to be ironic. but it seems that some people think that principles of design are more important than usability in software! 

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

RIGHT! – Sorry, I was trying to be ironic. but it seems that some people think that principles of design are more important than usability in software! 

What I mean is IMO usability is one of the most important principles of software design. They are not two separate things, just two aspects of the same thing.

[v_kyr]

On 2/7/2024 at 10:49 AM, Andriu said:

In Designer you cannot create columns of text, but you can in Publisher. The point is that you can delete those same columns created in Publisher (the same document) in Designer, but not create them. If someone took the time to do that stupid thing, why didn't they put the option to create columns in Designer from the beginning.

Well, reminds me somehow to visual tab stops in ADe v1 for frame text ...

... which were showable in Apub v1 for frame text, but not in ADe/APh v1. And on a closer inspection I then once saw that the capability was there but not directly obviously activatable.

That's all probably marketing wise stripped down (disabled), so people have to use & buy the other apps of the Affinity suite too, in order to be able to make real use of any shareable option then.