Saving versions of work.

[Humbucker]

Is there any way to save versions of work in a workflow? In other words, if I'm working on a project, and at some point identify some stage of my work as a point to return to for reference, is there a way to save this spot so I can return to it with a click, then be able to return to my current state of work without losing any history data?

Often I make several finished rough drafts in my workflows, but have no way to save versions or organize these points in my working history for reference without demolishing my working history.

[walt.farrell]

You could, of course, use Save As (and possibly enable File > Save History with Document) and save a versioned file that way. E.g., project.afdesign, project-v2.afdesign, project-v3.afdesign, etc. This is probably safest, and works with all 3 Affinity applications. And it has the advantage of allowing you to look at and compare both versions. However, it does not provide the 1-click methodology that you have asked for.

Other than that:

• The History panel gives you the 1-click methodology you want, but is not great for management. It is difficult to identify where you want to jump back to, and does not allow you to make easy comparisons for complex changes.  But it also works in all 3 applications.
• The Snapshots panel is only available in Desiger and Photo (and their Personas in Publisher). It allows you to save a snapshot of the current state of your project, with most status intact. You can then get a 2-click function to revert to an older version, or to come back to the latest (or any other) version. However, this will make your main file much bigger, I think. And it is not good for making comparisons, as you can't look at both simultaneously. In Publisher, you would need to switch to the Designer or Photo Persona to use the Snapshots panel.

Overall, I would go with using Save As to make multiple copies.

[henryanthony]

Some of the work I do represents many hours of effort so I tend to save project versions to an external SSD. A few key strokes are worth the effort to guard against disaster. Paid off last year around this time when my HDD crashed.

[Humbucker]

Walt & Henry,

 

Thank you both for responding! I can use both of your suggestions, and will give them both a go to see what works best in my situation.

 

Here's how I've been doing it.

 

I group the draft I want to keep, and name it something like Version 1, then I duplicate it, and keep Version 1 right on top of all my layers. Next I ungroup the copied version and keep working until I get to Version 2 and repeat the process. Pretty soon I have several versions I can compare by switching on and off in the layers panel.

 

I guess necessity is the mother of all invention. lol!

 

Thanks again!

 

 

 

 

[thomaso]

If you work in APhoto you also may try the feature "Snapshot" which is meant to enable you to jump between certain layout states.

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/DesignAids/snapshot.html?title=Using snapshots

Though the Snapshot Panel is accessible in the Photo Persona of APub, too, and, in a quick test (V1), it seemed to be possible to create snapshots – it appears that restoring an existing snapshot does not restore the changes I did after creating two snapshots: moving objects on two pages / editing text in one frame. So I am not sure whether it is limited to work in APhoto only or even to specific layer types. As far I see the Help (V1) does not mention such a limitation.