Publisher: Text inset adjustments by .01" per arrow press. Missing from V.2? Why?

[Mike W077]

We are a newspaper publisher in the US. Our layout is based on inches. We moved to Affinity Publisher three years ago.

In Affinity Publisher 1.X, when we use the up and down arrows while the cursor is in the text box inset dialog box, the increment moves up by .01" which is the control we want. In Publisher 2.0, the increment is in .1" when pressing "Option" or otherwise whole inches only. Why did this change?  Obviously, this won't work well with narrow columnar text. We are a newspaper and use a lot of text boxes and set the inset by clicking the little up-down arrow icons beside the inset boxes all the time. How do we get the increment to increase .01" at a time like in 1.X version of Publisher? 

[PaulEC]

Have you tried using Command instead of Option?

[walt.farrell]

On Windows, for both V1 and V2, in those fields when the document is in inches:

• Arrow up/down is .01 inch
• Ctrl+Arrow up/down is .001 inch

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

On Windows, for both V1 and V2, in those fields when the document is in inches:

• Arrow up/down is .01 inch
• Ctrl+Arrow up/down is .001 inch

For me on my Mac it is like the OP mentioned -- in V2 the increment is 0.1 while in V1 it is 0.01 inch.

EDIT: To be clear about this, I (& I think the OP as well) am talking about the up/down buttons in the Insets field, not the cursor up/down keyboard keys.

[MikeTO]

I tested all the combinations (up/down arrow keys, mouse scroll wheel, and spinner controls) on macOS for the inset and gutter width fields. I confirmed the one regression Mike W077 reported and two issues that have been there since v1. The good news is that the effects of the arrow keys, scroll wheel, and spinner were all consistent.

Text Frame panel> Insets:

• No modifier = change by 1 mm, 1p, 1pt, or 0.01 in (v1) / 1 in (v2) - this must have been changed by accident

Text Frame panel> Gutter Width:

• No modifier = change by 1 mm, 1p, 1 pt, or 0.01 in.

Context Bar > Gutter Width:

• No modifier = change by 1 mm, 1p, 1pt, or 1 in which is inconsistent with the panel. But no change from v1.

In all cases, Option changed by 1/10th and Shift changed by 10x. For picas, the modifiers should change by 1/12th or 12x.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I tested all the combinations (up/down arrow keys, mouse scroll wheel, and spinner controls) on macOS for the inset and gutter width fields.

What do you mean by "spinner controls"?

Also, were you testing any of it using the up/down buttons to the right of the number field?

[loukash]

Some of these fields directly depend on the respective Decimal Places settings in Preferences > User Interface. Given that I have all units set to 6 places, some fields will increment by 0.000001…

It's a programming flaw or a bug.

[Pauls]

I think it should be in .01 increments - I've logged the issue

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, loukash said:

Some of these fields directly depend on the respective Decimal Places settings in Preferences > User Interface. Given that I have all units set to 6 places, some fields will increment by 0.000001…

At least for me, the Decimal Places settings only affect the displayed decimal place values, not the increments of numeric fields like for Insets or anything else with up/down buttons.

Which fields increment by 0.000001 for you?

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

At least for me, the Decimal Places settings only affect the displayed decimal place values, not the increments of numeric fields like for Insets or anything else with up/down buttons.

Same for me. It's one of the first things I checked before responding in this topic.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It's one of the first things I checked before responding in this topic.

I did that too.

[MikeTO]

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

What do you mean by "spinner controls"?

Also, were you testing any of it using the up/down buttons to the right of the number field?

Spinners or steppers are the common names for the pair of up/down buttons to the right of a text field. Apple named them "little arrows" when they added them to System 8 but that name didn't stick and they now call them stepper controls. Microsoft calls them spin controls.

[loukash]

34 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Which fields increment by 0.000001 for you?

• all document units fields in the Text Frame panel
• all document units fields in the Table panel
• all document units fields in the Paragraph panel
• correspondingly all document units fields in the Text Styles window

Thinking of earlier bugs in Affinity and the fact that some of you aren't seeing this, I suspect a connection to the global decimal separator, possibly also the Affinity language preference. Which in my case is a bit "ambivalent" in order to work around the decades old MacOS bugs with the Swiss language settings: Although the default Swiss decimal separator should be a period, I have to use a comma because otherwise some other apps' math would collapse. (I don't remember which apps, possibly it was FileMaker.)

4 hours ago, Pauls said:

I've logged the issue

@Pauls, my setup on MacOS El Capitan where the increments by 0.000001 happen is:

• Affinity language: En US
• MacOS primary language: En (unspecified flavor, but generally it's US)
• MacOS region: Switzerland (customized)
• Format language: German
• Number separators: thousands: none, decimal: comma
• Currency separators: thousands: apostrophe, decimal: period (Swiss standard)

On Catalina it's similar although the MacOS language and format settings provide less options, but in Affinity v2 it's the same issue nonetheless.

[Pauls]

I've added a note about the number of decimal places affecting the default increments

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, loukash said:

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

Which fields increment by 0.000001 for you?

• all document units fields in the Text Frame panel
• all document units fields in the Table panel
• all document units fields in the Paragraph panel
• correspondingly all document units fields in the Text Styles window

None of them do for me. It doesn't matter what I set the Decimal Places for Unit Types to in Preferences >User Interface. I guess this has something to do with the global decimal separator?

[Mike W077]

On 2/1/2023 at 2:22 PM, R C-R said:

For me on my Mac it is like the OP mentioned -- in V2 the increment is 0.1 while in V1 it is 0.01 inch.

EDIT: To be clear about this, I (& I think the OP as well) am talking about the up/down buttons in the Insets field, not the cursor up/down keyboard keys.

Yes, that's right. Because we use so many text boxes with insets, it really makes V.2 nearly unusable for us. When we drop the tet box into a space, we often have to adjust the insets slightly, by 1/100ths, to get the text to fit properly. Why was this changed? Is it a European thing at the expense of American usage? 

[Mike W077]

On 2/2/2023 at 8:04 AM, Pauls said:

I've added a note about the number of decimal places affecting the default increments

Thank you. We really can't use the upgrade until this is fixed, and since Designer 2.X files can't be placed in Publisher 1.X, both 2.X programs are not useable for us at this time. Bummer, I was looking forward to implementing versions 2.X into our workflow.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Mike W077 said:

Because we use so many text boxes with insets, it really makes V.2 nearly unusable for us.

Can't you just enter the numeric value in the field manually?

[Mike W077]

On 2/1/2023 at 1:42 PM, walt.farrell said:

On Windows, for both V1 and V2, in those fields when the document is in inches:

• Arrow up/down is .01 inch
• Ctrl+Arrow up/down is .001 inch

I'm envious. Definitely not for the Mac versions. Everything is set for inches, but the "spinner" controls (Just learned that term here) only work by whole inches or, with Option-click up spinner arrow, in tenths — .1 instead of .01. Tried every key combination I could think of. No joy. Bummer, because we need that fine control. 

[Mike W077]

On 2/1/2023 at 5:31 PM, MikeTO said:

I tested all the combinations (up/down arrow keys, mouse scroll wheel, and spinner controls) on macOS for the inset and gutter width fields. I confirmed the one regression Mike W077 reported and two issues that have been there since v1. The good news is that the effects of the arrow keys, scroll wheel, and spinner were all consistent.

Text Frame panel> Insets:

• No modifier = change by 1 mm, 1p, 1pt, or 0.01 in (v1) / 1 in (v2) - this must have been changed by accident

Text Frame panel> Gutter Width:

• No modifier = change by 1 mm, 1p, 1 pt, or 0.01 in.

Context Bar > Gutter Width:

• No modifier = change by 1 mm, 1p, 1pt, or 1 in which is inconsistent with the panel. But no change from v1.

In all cases, Option changed by 1/10th and Shift changed by 10x. For picas, the modifiers should change by 1/12th or 12x.

 

Thank you.

[Mike W077]

On 2/2/2023 at 1:49 AM, loukash said:

Some of these fields directly depend on the respective Decimal Places settings in Preferences > User Interface. Given that I have all units set to 6 places, some fields will increment by 0.000001…

It's a programming flaw or a bug.

I checked and rechecked that too. I think that is the display number places, not the adjustment increments. 😞

[Mike W077]

On 2/1/2023 at 1:30 PM, PaulEC said:

Have you tried using Command instead of Option?

Yes, tried all the options I could think of. No joy. Either 1" or .1", not .01" at a time. 

[JEP]

I also have the same problem and really need the fine inset control that V1 had. I'm also am on a Mac and as mentioned, can only get 0.1 cm inset with Ctrl+Arrow up/down

Can AFFINITY please fix this???

[JEP]

To be clear, as mentioned above, in Mac OS: in V2 the increment is 0.1, while in V1 it is 0.01 inch.We really need that fine adjustment!

This is really needed--I hope someone at AFFINITY is listening.

[Mike W077]

On 2/3/2023 at 2:07 PM, R C-R said:

Can't you just enter the numeric value in the field manually?

Sure, but it adds steps, including changing from mouse to keyboard, when simple mouse clicks used to work.