Affinity Designer Alignment Behavior

[Bobby Henderson]

In Affinity Designer the Alignment palette on the task bar has "Align To" options to keep certain objects added to the selection locked in place so other objects can align to that key object. There are five alignment options, including "First Selected" and "Last Selected." The "Selection Bounds" option is the default, which I don't like at all because it causes all of the objects in the selection to move. I prefer the "Last Selected" option, which keeps the last selected object locked in place. That setting will stay "sticky" after I apply it to a selection, but only while that document is open (and I don't change the Align To options to something else). I can't seem to make "Last Selected" the default "Align To" option.

The "Align To" issue is more annoying when it comes to the Alignment commands in the Layer>Alignment fly-out menu. Those commands only seem to observe "Selection Bounds" behavior. They don't carry over any optional Align To settings from the Alignment palette. Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere in Preferences or somewhere else?

I created a series of custom keyboard shortcuts for the six alignment commands. In the rival CorelDRAW application I can fly thru alignment tasks very fast due to its keyboard shortcuts and its default "Last Selected" alignment behavior. Using those keyboard shortcuts is far faster than going back and forth to click buttons in an Alignment palette. The shortcuts I created in Affinity Designer are similar, but involve using the Shift key in combination with the L-R-T-B-E-C keys.

Being stuck with "Selection Bounds" behavior I always have to use the align top, bottom, left and right commands. Anything needing to be vertically or horizontally centered requires unnecessary extra alignment clicks to prevent all of the objects in the selection from moving. In some cases that doesn't even work. I get forced to go back to the icons in the Alignment palette. That wastes time.

Is there a solution to this issue or do I need to make a feature request? Thanks in advance for any help.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Bobby Henderson

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Bobby Henderson said:

The "Align To" issue is more annoying when it comes to the Alignment commands in the Layer>Alignment fly-out menu. Those commands only seem to observe "Selection Bounds" behavior. They don't carry over any optional Align To settings from the Alignment palette. Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere in Preferences or somewhere else?

The alignment menu commands default to using the selection bounds, but they will observe a key object.

To mark the key object, opt/alt-click one of the selected objects after initially selecting it. That can be done after all of the selection is made, or at any moment during the selecting process. The key object is displayed with a thicker than normal outline.

Normally, the key object can be marked in the document view or the Layers panel, but there is a current bug in the macOS apps which prevents marking in the document view when "Allow selection to consider items in a Group" is enabled.

[Bobby Henderson]

I did not know about the Alt/Option key trick. That helps a great deal. It's fairly similar to the method Adobe Illustrator uses for assigning a key object for alignment. In that application you just select the objects you want aligned; while they're selected you simply click on the object you want highlighted as the key object.

[WKansepa]

@Bobby Hendersonyou can also have great fun if you select all the objects that you need to align and click on the 'Show Alignment Handles' button found on the Context Toolbar. The function is truly remarkable. 

My only wish is for Affinity to expand the functionality by adding the ability to distribute objects. Currently the distribution buttons are way too hidden...