Without Separated Mode, I won't even begin to review version 2.

[oxjox]

This is just a basic user interface element that I'm 100% unable to do without. Thankfully we're not forced to upgrade and we get a generous trial period. Really, the only reason I'm interested in upgrading is to use an app that doesn't take a minute or more to launch like V1 has been doing for quite some time.  

Is Separated Mode going to come to Version 2 soon? If so, I'd like to take advantage of the discounted release price and pay now to use it later. I presume V1 is EOL'd and won't get upgrades. 

I saw another comment point towards Float View. This of course is different and does not achieve the same UX. 

[HombiE]

2 hours ago, oxjox said:

This is just a basic user interface element that I'm 100% unable to do without. Thankfully we're not forced to upgrade and we get a generous trial period. Really, the only reason I'm interested in upgrading is to use an app that doesn't take a minute or more to launch like V1 has been doing for quite some time.  

Is Separated Mode going to come to Version 2 soon? If so, I'd like to take advantage of the discounted release price and pay now to use it later. I presume V1 is EOL'd and won't get upgrades. 

I saw another comment point towards Float View. This of course is different and does not achieve the same UX. 

Unfortunately, serif has never responded to this question. after I bought the universal license directly and found that there was no separate mode...Because my usual working habits are completely disrupted, now I lack the will to use v2.

[thomasp]

2 hours ago, oxjox said:

Really, the only reason I'm interested in upgrading is to use an app that doesn't take a minute or more to launch like V1 has been doing for quite some time. 

Perhaps its worth to investigate why this is happening? Might be code signing or some other phone-home functionality. Personally I'd try installing a firewall that can block outgoing connections and restrict Affinity and OS code signing daemons from accessing the net temporarily. Also appstore daemons - if you happen to use the app store version of Affinity.

This one in particular: https://github.com/objective-see/LuLu

 

[loukash]

6 hours ago, oxjox said:

Is Separated Mode going to come to Version 2 soon?

I don't think so. It was a Mac only feature, and Serif is quite obviously attempting to make the user experience – and the underlying code – as identical as possible on both platforms.
Whether the "user experience" is actually getting better is a different topic though…

[Dazmondo77]

You don't know what you've got, til it's gone ----- I had a few gripes and moans in the past about separated modes quirks, mainly shortcuts not working for certain things and the inability to switch off auto-docking to tabs, but always hoped for improvements - it's the way graphic design app's have always worked on the mac which I guess a lot of us have always taken for granted. I remember when I first got the option to switch on Application windows in PS, (which was horrible) I had a 3 second mess around and switched back to proper mode, I can't ever remember seeing another Adobe user use application windows, apart from when doing a bit of freelancing at a place that also used PC's, but it turns out application windows is the standard for PC users. I'm currently working on an Affinity1 job which needs to go to a V1 user, but have to say Separation mode is not perfect maybe 95% there, but still has that standard Mac welcoming, free, feel, such a shame we now have the dogs dinner float mode ---- PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE Serif bring back separated mode 😞 

[loukash]

30 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

I remember when I first got the option to switch on Application windows in PS, (which was horrible) I had a 3 second mess around and switched back to proper mode

Same here with ID & AI…

31 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Separation mode is not perfect

For me the "dealbreaker" was that it didn't respect the floating panels and tools when clicking the green resize/zoom window button. On a 15" MacBook display, every pixel counts. Having to resize each window manually was a p.i.t.a. Attempting to work around it using Keyboard Maestro macros was a p.i.t.a. because Affinity doesn't use standard MacOS UI elements so that it's hard to apply UI scripting. (See some of my older posts in the forum somewhere.) So eventually I gave in and "accepted" the application window, using the Separated mode only occasionally when needing to see two views side by side. In that sense, that's why I'm alright with the Float View in v2.
But I do understand those who miss it.

[Tia Lapis]

Hmm never like separation mode in any program. As others noted it wastes to much space.

[DesignSurge]

I work with two 27" screens and like to make full use of the workspace, so like some others I activated separated mode pretty much straight off when using the V1 apps, though it was quite flawed in reality. But being a mac user since the late 80's (and a bit stuck in my ways) it is the natural way of working with graphics apps for me. Since realising that separated mode is no longer available in V2 I took the approach that if I want to move forward with Affinity I just need to get used to the application window approach.

Personally I am finding it OK in V2, once I had undocked tools and pulled out all the pallets and positioned them on my second screen I can move my workspace around as I want, so not that different to the way I am used to working. It's only really the top tool bar that is stuck in the main application window.

The float to window feature could prove to be more useful if it gets some improvement, but the old separated mode was quite poorly implemented so maybe not such a big loss after all.

[fde101]

Separated mode makes a huge amount of sense on a large multi-monitor setup.  I would expect people with setups like that to suffer the most from missing this and it really is an important omission for those users.  This is nothing to belittle or overlook - for some users this is a critical problem.

Separated mode is more marginal on a single large display.  In that case it will interrupt some users' workflow but the more meaningful losses involved will be less than with multiple displays.

Separated mode doesn't really make a lot of sense with a smaller display, such as on a laptop.  The current method is probably about as good as can be expected for that particular working arrangement.

 

All being said, there are WAY too many threads on this topic now.  Can one of the moderators maybe try to merge a few of them, or pick one to pin and lock some of the others to try to funnel the conversation back into one place rather than having it uselessly split up like this?

[Tia Lapis]

36 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Separated mode makes a huge amount of sense on a large multi-monitor setup.  I would expect people with setups like that to suffer the most from missing this and it really is an important omission for those users.  This is nothing to belittle or overlook - for some users this is a critical problem.

Separated mode is more marginal on a single large display.  In that case it will interrupt some users' workflow but the more meaningful losses involved will be less than with multiple displays.

Separated mode doesn't really make a lot of sense with a smaller display, such as on a laptop.  The current method is probably about as good as can be expected for that particular working arrangement.

That makes sense. I never gone multi screen but got a nice ultrawide screen instead. So that explains why I never felt the need for this separation.

[thomasp]

Well on the other hand - I have a single Ultrawide screen here connected to the Mac. I only use separated mode. 😃

To me it's mainly a band aid because the default mode with an application background window isn't behaving to my liking in Affinity: it's too easy to snap and maximize floating document windows which is a pain when you usually have a bunch of windows open and want them side by side or move them around a lot. For me it's a reason I never really got into the Windows version of Affinity despite also having a license for it.

Works fine in Photoshop though - I've never used that without the application background window anywhere. Turns out I don't actually want to see the desktop peeking through.

[Dazmondo77]

3 hours ago, loukash said:

Same here with ID & AI…

I only tried PS and decided it was too un-maclike, no point in messing with other adobe apps.

I'm pretty happy with V2 on the whole, but just feel Float mode is a massive step back from Separation mode, and really really miss the ability to do the Application windows, quick view shortcut to fill the screen with all your open affinity docs as thumbnails, super super handy for instantly tracking down a file when you have a silly amount of affinity windows open, but only works in separation mode, and the annoying dock to tabs behaviour seems even more sensitive and even seems to dock the tools to the active window 

[PaoloT]

5 hours ago, fde101 said:

Separated mode is more marginal on a single large display

I have a 27" display, and it makes a lot of sense for me. I work with multiple programs, each one with its windows open next to the others, or in the background, ready to go in the foreground with a single click.

Isn't the nature itself of the Affinity suite? Multiple programs, whose separate components are contributing to the same publication?

Paolo

 

[HeyTheresTony]

Well this stinks. I came to figure out how to activated it and, well, there's no way. I can hear the trombones playing as I type this. Wah, wah. 

[loukash]

12 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

I work with multiple programs, each one with its windows open next to the others, or in the background, ready to go in the foreground with a single click.

I'm making use of MacOS Spaces. All design apps live in Space 2, Teh Interwebz in Space 3, etc.

P.S. Speaking of which: Affinity is not necessarily great in adapting to Spaces…  

Edited November 21, 2022 by loukash

[Dampsquid]

3 hours ago, PaoloT said:

I have a 27" display, and it makes a lot of sense for me. I work with multiple programs, each one with its windows open next to the others, or in the background, ready to go in the foreground with a single click.

Isn't the nature itself of the Affinity suite? Multiple programs, whose separate components are contributing to the same publication?

Paolo

 

Well, I for one, hated separated mode. I do use one large monitor, not two.  I'd really like to have two documents open side by side sharing a common menu, palette etc.  without seeing the mess of crap that is my desktop. 

(Side note: I used to have two monitors - moved to one big widescreen ages ago, for me it's a much better use of screen real estate.)

[Oasin]

If you ever ask Serif something like: whether a feature's planned or not, when ther's gonna be a roadmap, no, they won't reply. Only bugs and licensing issues are taken care of. Not sure of the reason... is there any obstacle within the group to decision making, or is it just the Serif way - not giving promise of any sort.

[PaoloT]

12 hours ago, Dampsquid said:

I'd really like to have two documents open side by side sharing a common menu, palette etc.  without seeing the mess of crap that is my desktop. 

Without separate mode, you can't have two documents from different apps side by side. The application frame's background is there to block anything that is behind.

If you want to hide the mess on the desktop, when you want focus, just hit Cmd-Opt-H, and have all the other apps disappear.

Paolo

 

[loukash]

19 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

you can't have two documents from different apps side by side

The green MacOS window button has a system wide context menu where you can enable split view in full screen mode or align application windows correspondingly in standard mode

[fde101]

8 hours ago, Oasin said:

If you ever ask Serif something like: whether a feature's planned or not, when ther's gonna be a roadmap, no, they won't reply. Only bugs and licensing issues are taken care of. Not sure of the reason... is there any obstacle within the group to decision making, or is it just the Serif way - not giving promise of any sort.

This has already been explained multiple times on the forum and it should not be hard to find the details by searching.

The short version is that they were much more open about these things when the project started, and even had a published roadmap of sorts, but plans change when programs are being developed, and people made exactly the mistake you made here by misinterpreting it as a "promise" and complaining quite noisily when things did change and their expectations were not met.

As a result, Serif changed their policies, removed the roadmap from the forum, and stopped providing such a roadmap, having determined that they would rather put up with the complaints that they no longer discuss future plans, than put up with the complaints that the plans change.

Now when people complain loudly and annoyingly that their expectations are not being met, they have only themselves to blame, since they no longer have anything more than ambiguous marketing lingo to point to which might otherwise be misconstrued to back up their tantrums.

[deeds]

4 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Now when people complain loudly and annoyingly that their expectations are not being met, they have only themselves to blame, since they no longer have anything more than ambiguous marketing lingo to point to which might otherwise be misconstrued to back up their tantrums.

Buyer Beware? 

[Oasin]

22 hours ago, fde101 said:

This has already been explained multiple times on the forum

Pardon me for ignorance of the "sad history", I wasn't told about all that and have not seen any announcement like "we will not respond to feature reqs".

I understand they would rather face the anger than having to bear the accusation for "not fulfilling". But isn't it far to the other extreme that they would not reply to any feature reqs at all, which seems to be the situation right now? There are posts crying for features that many would find essential, and no "moderator reply" to any of them. We won't know if the post is even read. When you post you expect you're read, otherwise it's like talking to air, which is frustrating and may turn any humble person into a "loud and annoying complainer". Then when someone complains he'll be told he has only himself to blame cause he's got sin from the sad history. I believe things don't have to be like this.

[fde101]

8 hours ago, Oasin said:

But isn't it far to the other extreme that they would not reply to any feature reqs at all, which seems to be the situation right now?

 

On 6/28/2017 at 7:26 AM, Ben said:

As far as responding to every thread - that also takes time.  Time away from developing.  In the past two years the volume of posts has increased massively.  At the start we responded to nearly every thread.  That is now becoming too time consuming.  So, as a developer I now mainly respond to threads where my input/advice is really needed, or when handling bugs where I need to take charge.  We of course have other staff on the forum, who contribute and give answers, but depending on the subject sometimes a developer needs to answer - it is those threads where we now dedicate most of our time.

[Dampsquid]

On 11/22/2022 at 4:42 AM, PaoloT said:

Without separate mode, you can't have two documents from different apps side by side. The application frame's background is there to block anything that is behind.

If you want to hide the mess on the desktop, when you want focus, just hit Cmd-Opt-H, and have all the other apps disappear.

Paolo

 

I didn't explain very well.... I want two docs open together in one Affinity app, side by side with common menu, palettes etc.  Sort of like the image here, but without the right image being in a Finder window of it's own...

I know how to use / resize / hide windows in Mac OS itself, that's not the problem.  By the way the app 'Desktop Curtain' is perfect for hiding clutter when you're either presenting a screen or really want xero distraction.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Dampsquid said:

. I want two docs open together in one Affinity app, side by side with common menu, palettes etc.  Sort of like the image here,

That's certainly possible in Windows, and the new implementation for Mac is similar to the Windows one, so that should be possible.