Items Selection Nightmare :(

[Grum]

4 hours ago, MEB said:

It should be fixed in the next update

Fingers crossed. To illustrate how serious this issue is, I was recently asked to create an text-heavy infographic natively in PowerPoint, a request most designers dread. I'm dismayed to say that PowerPoint was a joy to use compared to the current iteration of Affinity Designer.

[Floor]

This might already be included in this report/fix, but just to be sure:

when pressing Command and clicking on a text layer (Move Tool activated), the second click will change to the Text Tool. That makes the selecting workflow a bit cumbersome, because I have to change back to the Move Tool each time.

1. Activate Move Tool
2. Cmd-click on text layer A (-> layer A selected)
3. Cmd-click on another text layer B (-> layer B selected + Text Tool activated + curser inside text)

I'd like to keep the Move Tool active, in order to select/move another layer. Now I have to press Escape to get out of the text field and press V to switch to the Move Tool again.

I'd expect a double click on a text layer to activate the Text Tool, but a single click (with or without Command) should only select the layer.

 

(The Option-click workaround only works if the text layers are all in the same group. If they're not in the same group Option-click will select a group instead of a single layer.)

[Tazintosh]

Hurray!!!! Bug's NOT fixed in v2.1.1

[norbinw]

Yeah, the usual Serif letdown :))) Was so happy to update, just for the bitter taste of "F.U." from them. Oh well, maybe in V2.2. You guys want more features when they can't deliver a proper bug fix. I feel really dumb reporting stuff here. Only 1 problem was solved from all my posts, since I use Affinity suite. That also after 2 years of waiting. Whatever I write, is a known bug, yet not fix, ever.

[A_B_C]

Confirmed, this issue is not fixed in version 2.1.1. And it is indeed a huge problem when you work with text frames placed above other shapes. In other words: always. 🫤

It simply does not make sense that the “active” area for selecting objects is derived from the vertical metrics of the used font, rather than from the boundaries of the text frame. I cannot remember I would have seen a setup like this anywhere else.

 

It’s indeed a nightmare. Please, please fix this as soon as possible. 🫤

 

 

[deepblue]

Hello, this confirms the problem with the text frames when working with text frames placed on top of other shapes. Unfortunately, the problem has not yet been fixed in the current update.

Maybe one of the moderators can kick off the problem again.

[Tazintosh]

For the record: initial bug report is November 16, 2022.

[norbinw]

It doesn't matter when you first reported the bug. I reported the export hang bug waaaaaay back in 2020 and it barely just got fixed. I reported the TIFF NO BLEED bug back then too, still not fixed, and that is an important one for all who print stuff.. I just feel sorry and pity Admins, as they have absolutely no control over the situation.

2.2 will come in 3-4 months and maybe we will see a fix. If not, there is always hope for V3

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, norbinw said:

2.2 will come in 3-4 months and maybe we will see a fix. If not, there is always hope for V3

Most likely, after 2.2 we will get 2.3, 2.4, ... 2.n before we get V3, just as with V1 we got up to 1.10 before we got to V2.

[norbinw]

I just want these serious bugs to be fixed.. That's all. We report them on time, give details, admins log them, yet somehow they always manage to screw it up. We give valuable info back to them, other companies have to pay testers for, and still they fail. 

[Serif Info Bot]

The issue "Layer order affects object selection" (REF: AFP-5621) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1900".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[Serif Info Bot]

The issue "Selection hit area on text is too large" (REF: AFB-7735) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1900".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[norbinw]

Cool. Hope it doesn't take long.. you should release hotfixes not "major" version updates.

[GRAFKOM]

On 7/13/2023 at 11:21 AM, Serif Info Bot said:

The issue "Selection hit area on text is too large" (REF: AFB-7735) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1900".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

Unfortunately, it's not fully fixed. If using Artistic Text and enter lines below the typed word, an invisible area appears that selects the text - without clicking on the text.

That's how it was before the fix. I note that in Affinity 1 it works correctly, i.e. even though empty lines are inserted with Enter, it is not possible to select the text by clicking below the entered text. The problem is presented in the video from the latest Beta. Please correct it.

[Dave Harris]

12 hours ago, GRAFKOM said:

Unfortunately, it's not fully fixed. If using Artistic Text and enter lines below the typed word, an invisible area appears that selects the text - without clicking on the text.

That's how it was before the fix. I note that in Affinity 1 it works correctly, i.e. even though empty lines are inserted with Enter, it is not possible to select the text by clicking below the entered text. The problem is presented in the video from the latest Beta. Please correct it.

That's now by design. The text caret and text highlight can be in the blank lines, so you need to be able to use the mouse in those lines too. It could a problem in 1.x that you couldn't.

Why do you need to create blank lines that don't draw?

[GRAFKOM]

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Dave Harris said:

That's now by design. The text caret and text highlight can be in the blank lines, so you need to be able to use the mouse in those lines too. It could a problem in 1.x that you couldn't.

Why do you need to create blank lines that don't draw?

I don't need to create blank lines. They can be created accidentally after pressing Enter at the end of a line. These lines are invisible. If I wanted to select them, of course I could double click on the text and then I would have access to those lines. My video example was just a very simple example showing the problem. In more complex projects, where there are other objects, backgrounds, etc. under the text, there is a problem with selecting these objects. Once again - version 1 of Affinity did not have this problem and I believe that version 1 worked correctly.

 

And for example working in Affinity 1

[Grum]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:21 AM, Serif Info Bot said:

The issue "Selection hit area on text is too large" (REF: AFB-7735) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1900".

I've just tried the latest beta to edit what had become a nightmare Designer document - finally I can select the correct text box at the first attempt so all is good! Thanks for fixing, you have at least one happy customer ;)

[Dave Harris]

We've tweaked this again for the next beta.

To explain a bit further... the problem with 1.x arose most with iPad. There's a touch-based UI where you can drag either end of the selection highlight. In 1.x it is fairly easy to drag the end of the selection highlight into blank text outside of the text box, and then you couldn't drag it back again. On desktop you can use the cursor keys, but on iPad screen real estate is so limited that the on-screen keyboard doesn't make the cursor keys available. While the problem is less on desktop, it would be good to find a common solution which didn't force the use of the keyboard on any platform. I had thought that if you were creating the blank lines by accident, then you would just delete them the first time they caused a problem.

In the next beta the behaviour will depend on whether the text is already selected. If it's not selected, you'll have to click in the visible box to select it. Once it is selected, you can click on the blank lines too. Hopefully this will fix the iPad issue when you are working with the text, without making it harder to select other objects when you aren't.

[Serif Info Bot]

The issue "Selection hit area on text is too large" (REF: AFB-7735) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1915".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[Tazintosh]

Hi,

I'm running 2.2.0.
My everyday work remains a nightmare as I titled 10 months ago.
Please open the following file and tell me if —ever— it's possible to select the "sand" (stock photo) image layer, —without— clicking it directly on the layers panel.
I cannot achieve it, and those kind of behaviours are driving me crazy
I don't know what have been messed up, but I've never wasted so much time trying to select my layers (of whatever kind), than this v2.

 

Selection Nightmare.afdesign

Edited September 21 by Tazintosh
Reduced file size

[MentalFlight]

4 hours ago, Tazintosh said:

Please open the following file and tell me if —ever— it's possible to select the "sand" (stock photo) image layer, —without— clicking it directly on the layers panel.

It is possible, if the D-shaped curve has a FILLING COLOUR, e.g. white. Without filling no chance.

I feel with you, this kind of bugs are driving me crazy too and some of them are there for ages … 

[lepr]

5 hours ago, Tazintosh said:

I'm running 2.2.0.
My everyday work remains a nightmare as I titled 10 months ago.
Please open the following file and tell me if —ever— it's possible to select the "sand" (stock photo) image layer, —without— clicking it directly on the layers panel.
I cannot achieve it, and those kind of behaviours are driving me crazy
I don't know what have been messed up, but I've never wasted so much time trying to select my layers (of whatever kind), than this v2.

 

Selection Nightmare.afdesign 8.83 MB · 2 downloads

 

The particular problem with that example document exists in v1 also.

When a clipping Curve with no fill is not closed, we cannot select its nested content in the document view.

If you either close the Curve or give it a fill, then its nested content can be selected in the document view.

In my opinion, the problem should be considered a bug.