Save options for Affinity Designer iPad

[jeffreydevey]

I am confused by the removal of "Save" and "Save As" from the menu options within the open document. Saving work often should be part of every user's workflow, and having to exit the document to do that is cumbersome. Does Affinity Designer have an autosave feature on the iPad to recover unsaved data in the event of the app crashing? Perhaps the reason behind the decision to move the menu options can be clarified.

[ashf]

Yeah, I think the Save command need to be in the workspace as well.

But I believe the Save As is still in the workspace?

[walt.farrell]

18 hours ago, ashf said:

But I believe the Save As is still in the workspace?

"Save a Copy" is still within the document menu.

Edit: No, it's not. Sorry.

[jeffreydevey]

15 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

"Save a Copy" is still within the document menu.

"Save a Copy" is not ideal and has its own drawbacks. I don't want to fill my storage unnecessarily with dozens of copies of each project, and it is especially cumbersome when the user has to manually rename each copy.

I have a feeling this decision was made to solve an issue where iPad files stored in the cloud are not updated when saved from the menu within the open document. However, I'm just assuming this. It would be nice if decisions like this were accompanied by communication from the Affinity team on why the decisions were made. If my assumption about the reason behind this decision is correct, I can suggest better solutions to the problem it was intended to solve. The current solution merely replaces one problem with another for the user.

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, jeffreydevey said:

I don't want to fill my storage unnecessarily with dozens of copies of each project, and it is especially cumbersome when the user has to manually rename each copy.

My point to @ashf (poorly expressed) is that the Document menu within a document has never had Save As. It has had Save, and Save a Copy. 

But now that I look at 2.0.2 again, Save a Copy seems to be gone, too. Perhaps I last looked in 2.0.1. Sorry.

--- 

Serif are trying to improve the process, as the process that had Save and Save a Copy available within the document was not working as users intended, nor as the users believed it was, and keeping the "live" copy in synch with the versions saved from within the app was problematic.

It may change further.

But for now, you Save from Live Docs, and you know that the Live Docs version (in the sandbox) matches the version saved on disk where you can access it. This should provide fewer surprises.

 

[jeffreydevey]

59 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

My point to @ashf (poorly expressed) is that the Document menu within a document has never had Save As. It has had Save, and Save a Copy. 

But now that I look at 2.0.2 again, Save a Copy seems to be gone, too. Perhaps I last looked in 2.0.1. Sorry.

Oh, I see. No worries. 🙂

 

59 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Serif are trying to improve the process, as the process that had Save and Save a Copy available within the document was not working as users intended, nor as the users believed it was, and keeping the "live" copy in synch with the versions saved from within the app was problematic.

It may change further.

But for now, you Save from Live Docs, and you know that the Live Docs version (in the sandbox) matches the version saved on disk where you can access it. This should provide fewer surprises.

I've experienced the "surprises" you're referring to the hard way. I agree, this was extremely frustrating when it happened to me, but I think there are better solutions if this is the problem Affinity is trying to solve. For example:

• A popup dialog box upon selecting "Save" from within the open document menu, informing the user their changes may not be synchronized to disk when using that method (with a "More info" link to provide the user with more detail about that issue, and a "Do not show again" checkbox option).
• Upon closing a Live Doc, including the options "Save changes and close", and "Close without saving", respectively. Additionally, there could be a "Note: Changes saved from within the open document menu may not be synchronized to disk. (More info)" line of dialog.
• An option in the Interface Preferences to include "Save/Save As" options in the open document menu, again, with a note that "changes saved this way may not be synchronized (More info)", etc.

I believe the better solution to the issue is to communicate the issue to the user without hindering a streamlined and efficient workflow.

[jeffreydevey]

I've just encountered further problems created by the removal of the "Save" command from within the open document menu. After exiting the document to save and reopening the document, the app reverts to Designer Persona regardless of which persona the document was in upon exiting. Any non-default panel options selected prior to exiting also revert to their defaults. Brush categories, color slider preferences, Main View/Split View modes, etc. all have to be manually reset to the user's previous working state after each and every save. Please, PLEASE try to provide a better solution.

[Stephen222]

I often take an art board that has my standard layout on it and make changes. and I the. Save as a different name so I have copies of all my publications. If I am reading this right I can no longer do that and will overwrite my previous publications.

 

[Stephen222]

I just found for designer 2. If you exit the art board back to live docs (Which shows all the designs you have opened.) the hamburger menu, top right, has save and save as 👍

[ogdredweary]

I came here to say the same thing for Publisher 2. It’s bizarre to me that I need to close a document before I have the option to save it when before I could save it from within the document as expected, especially when the app often crashes while working in a document, closing a document, and even mid-saving of a document. The files I’m working with are more than 1000 pages, making the prospect of working on the iPad completely infeasible with the reality of both frequent crashes and a tortuous save process.

[Ash]

Unfortunately we had an issue with Save within the document burger menu which had the potential to cause some serious issues. We took it out in 2.0.2 as saving from live docs was the safe solution. We plan to put it back once we figure it out.

Generally I will say that auto save is very robust on iPad because of the way the file system works on iPadOS - in preferences you can chance the auto save interval to as frequently as 30 seconds.

[ogdredweary]

2 hours ago, Ash said:

Unfortunately we had an issue with Save within the document burger menu which had the potential to cause some serious issues. We took it out in 2.0.2 as saving from live docs was the safe solution. We plan to put it back once we figure it out.

Generally I will say that auto save is very robust on iPad because of the way the file system works on iPadOS - in preferences you can chance the auto save interval to as frequently as 30 seconds.

More often than not, my experience closing the document in order to save has resulted in the entire app crashing during the save process. I can’t bring myself to trust that my work on the iPad app won’t evaporate in an instant with an ill-fated crash before the save can be initiated or completed.

Also…I wasn’t even aware the iPad app has auto save because none of my work thus far has ever been saved automatically—if I don’t save manually, all my work is lost. 

[Jonobugs]

On 11/23/2022 at 6:13 PM, Ash said:

Unfortunately we had an issue with Save within the document burger menu which had the potential to cause some serious issues. We took it out in 2.0.2 as saving from live docs was the safe solution. We plan to put it back once we figure it out.

Generally I will say that auto save is very robust on iPad because of the way the file system works on iPadOS - in preferences you can chance the auto save interval to as frequently as 30 seconds.

Yeah...sorry, not so robust. At least not on my iPad. I'm working with a document and I'm trying to place linked images but it's constantly crashing. After the first crash I lost all my unsaved progress so I decided to save after placing a page of images. Every time it crashes and I go back, I have to re-do everything because it's not saving. Having to exit the document before I save is a major hassle and I'm holding my breath hoping it won't crash. The reason why I came here was to find out how to save the document without being in the menu because that one extra step makes me nervous about losing stuff. I just thought that it was a hidden command or something but I was kind of surprised to find out that the save function is just not in the open document.

[PROdult]

On 11/23/2022 at 9:13 AM, Ash said:

We plan to put it back once we figure it out.

Might you be trailing in the wake of Darwin’s reflections in Kent? He withdrew for nearly two decades before unveiling On the Origin of Species - emerging only when his ideas were fully formed.

806 days of waiting is quite a stretch.