Dragging objects jumps unwanted to page our out of picture frame

[mads]

Hi

im not sure if this is a bug or more a character of feature tuning.

im having issues with items jumping prematurely to other page while dragging and scaling (see attached video), for image material you may use a picture frame to minimize this issue but ONLY if you use the extra overlaying scale/position/rotation UI, which seems to be a quickfix hence the object already comes with standard scaling/rotating/position UI features (UI hooks in the corners of the object)

i really hope affinity would update/rethink the dragging feature so it only jumps to another page/canvas when the mouse cursor is within another page/canvas (not a hotspot of the object), for these types of software solutions it's all about quick and logic workflow as well as easy migration from similar solutions, especially when the standard UI of scaling/position/rotating seems to work perfectly outside this edge case scenario.

i have attached a small video to show the issue i am having

[Gabe]

This is expected. We calculate where an object is(page wise) based on its centre point.

[mads]

thank you for the quick reply, i kindly ask if Affinity would perhaps reconsider this approach, it is a major workflow issue, as a professional i do not expect my software to change navigation scheme like this, even thou there's a solution in place for 'picture frames' it does not solve the same issue for ex. text elements, it might not seems as a big issue on the surface, but if you are a professional working on larger documents with many moving parts, the frustration over this type of unwanted behavior and forced use of a secondary navigation scheme quickly adds up, especially when other DTP tools got it right and already have set a standard, i think it's only fair that professionals expect at least the same level of UX from Affinity Publisher Version 2.

if there's anything i can do to help getting this proposal to the surface please let me know

[Gabe]

You could submit any feedback / improvements in this forum https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/122-feedback-for-the-affinity-v2-suite-of-products/

[MikeTO]

Hi @mads I like the way it works now and wouldn't want to see it changed.

IMO the way you're placing a picture on the page is an unusual way to place a full-page photo. Instead, I suggest drawing a rectangular picture frame the size of your page or bleed and then placing the picture inside of the frame. You could then scale and move the picture within the frame and the picture will never move to the next page because the centre point of the frame would determine which page it is on, not the centre point of the picture.

[mads]

hi Mike, i would argue that it's not consistent with other professional DTP tools nor good practice from a UX point of view, if you look at my video around 0:55, i use a frame and double click into the frame, from there i move the photo in a traditional sense, but as soon as the photo's center point moves into another page, it jumps out of the frame and into that page, there is no way i could anticipate this sudden and illogical behavior neither does the software properly guide me to a solution, which indicates holes in the UX design, at the bare minimum i would expect, that elements within a frame would give me more control and not suddenly jump to other pages like this, why i am suggesting this might be a bug, this behavior is frustrating and illogical to the user, if instead the element was limited to jump to another page only when the mouse cursor entered another page the user would have a better chance of understanding the behavior and feel in control. "hidden" navigation features like this is bad UX.

[MikeTO]

23 minutes ago, mads said:

hi Mike, i would argue that it's not consistent with other professional DTP tools nor good practice from a UX point of view, if you look at my video around 0:55, i use a frame and double click into the frame, from there i move the photo in a traditional sense, but as soon as the photo's center point moves into another page, it jumps out of the frame and into that page, there is no way i could anticipate this sudden and illogical behavior neither does the software properly guide me to a solution, which indicates holes in the UX design, at the bare minimum i would expect, that elements within a frame would give me more control and not suddenly jump to other pages like this, why i am suggesting this might be a bug, this behavior is frustrating and illogical to the user, if instead the element was limited to jump to another page only when the mouse cursor entered another page the user would have a better chance of understanding the behavior and feel in control. "hidden" navigation features like this is bad UX.

I sort of see your point now, I hadn't watched the full video, my apologies.

• When the frame is the selected layer, you can move a picture within its frame
• When the picture is the selected layer, you can move a picture within its frame but if you release the mouse when the centre point is closer to another page, Affinity will move the picture to that page, removing it from its frame.

This is consistent with how Affinity works for all grouped layers and a picture frame is really just a cropping group. For example, if you group three shapes and drag one of the shapes closer to another page, Affinity will remove the shape from the group and move the shape to that page. This makes sense because a group can't span two pages and why else would you be dragging a shape from page to page unless you really wanted to move it.

In your case, you didn't really want to move the picture even though you moved it a lot.

[dantecross]

An additional problem with this is that it makes it very hard to use 'mask to below', as you can only use images  that are small enough not to go off the page, or you have to use the vector crop tool to shrink the image you want to use as a mask down, then (if you don't want a bunch of extra pointless masks on your image) undo all of that once its in the right position and apply it as a mask. Then once its in place, if you want to move it again you have to re-crop it or else it jumps to the next page and unmasks.

Honestly there should at least be a button/checkbox/something to make sure that an image doesn't leave a page or to decide how it chooses the page. The middle of an image is simply a bad location to decide if an image shoudl be on a page. there are just too many situations where you need the edge of a picture, or a third of a large picture

Edited November 20, 2022 by dantecross
more information

[Joschi]

Quote

On 11/20/2022 at 9:48 PM, dantecross said:

An additional problem with this is that it makes it very hard to use 'mask to below', as you can only use images  that are small enough not to go off the page, or you have to use the vector crop tool to shrink the image you want to use as a mask down, then (if you don't want a bunch of extra pointless masks on your image) undo all of that once its in the right position and apply it as a mask. Then once its in place, if you want to move it again you have to re-crop it or else it jumps to the next page and unmasks.

Honestly there should at least be a button/checkbox/something to make sure that an image doesn't leave a page or to decide how it chooses the page. The middle of an image is simply a bad location to decide if an image shoudl be on a page. there are just too many situations where you need the edge of a picture, or a third of a large picture

Can confirm this. This is also a really annoying obstacle for me. Especially if you want to create different design variants or mock-ups on several pages, this is a real hindrance (even more so, if you don't want to work with picture frames every time, as the masks sometimes take on more complex shapes).

[Gabe]

This has now changed and it's cursor based. You can see it in action in the latest beta build. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-beta-program/