Arrange document views?

[Galen Young]

Really loving the suite of programs so far, but one thing preventing me from (finally!) migrating completely from CS6 is not being able to arrange multiple document windows in a fast and easy way.

Tile, cascade, whatever you want to call it (as these screenshots from Photoshop and Illustrator show), are features I use every day.

I know documents can be floated and resized by hand, but frankly it's a pain and waste of time to do it every single time. Please consider something like this for a future update, thank you!

[Pšenda]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Arrange+document+views+site:https://forum.affinity.serif.com

[PaoloT]

Dealing with document windows is really the Achille's heel of the Affinity suite. As a Mac user, I feel it particularly troubling. It is as if the suite was conceived for working on a single document at a time. How far from a real situation, where at least you have other documents as a reference or with which to exchange elements!

Paolo

 

[DigiDogRob]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:13 PM, PaoloT said:

Dealing with document windows is really the Achille's heel of the Affinity suite...

Paolo

The Mac and Windows apps need the ability to do a tiled view. Even if there aren't options as robust as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Floating windows and then arranging them is, frankly, far too time-consuming. Once windows are floated, resizing windows requires resizing all floated windows, rather than just the app window. In addition, at least on the Mac, when a document window is floated the dropdown selectors in the app window's toolbar are rendered BEHIND the floated window. 

When working on images I often need to display copies of files side by side. In Photoshop and Illustrator, I can tile the files in the app window, and they are anchored (snapped) to the main app window. Resizing the app window automatically adjusts the tiled windows. 

I rarely want (or need) to float document windows, but I do understand some may find it useful. What I often need is tiled, and dare I ask, cascade, views of open document windows. 

Anchored, floated, tiled, and cascaded document views within applications has existed for decades — just like copy, cut, and paste. To be honest, as a software engineer, I cannot help but assume if this functionality is intentionally excluded from Affinity v1 and v2 software due to a core coding issue that requires a significant time investment to correct.

Hopefully someone from Affinity can chime in on this and tell me my assumption is wrong and that they are working on this functionality for a 2.7 release! 

 

[KLE-France]

A "+1" on my part and Pšenda's link is so telling for this request; so many times. So many times.

A read recently elsewhere a commenter (I've forgotten who and where; sorry) who hypothesized that Affinity seems to favor adding new features, that can be promoted and thus serve to sell the software, rather than fix major bugs (I'm looking at you Photo Persona > White Balance Adjustment > Picker -- that STILL DOESN'T CORRECT TINT) and annoyances.

But this one especially could be promoted as a new feature: "With a click of a button, Affinity programs now let you tile or cascade all, or just a selection, of open documents; or repeat one document in several views!"

On 3/7/2025 at 4:24 PM, DigiDogRob said:

I cannot help but assume if this functionality is intentionally excluded from Affinity v1 and v2 software due to a core coding issue that requires a significant time investment to correct.

Yeah, me too. It just seems so odd that I can do this in every program on my computer.

Except Affinity.

Don't get me wrong; I love Affinity Photo, but, yeah, this too is on my "little things" list; not deal breakers, but very annoying just the same.

[PaoloT]

On 3/7/2025 at 4:24 PM, DigiDogRob said:

Floating windows and then arranging them is, frankly, far too time-consuming

I don't know in Windows, but in the Mac there are several apps allowing tiling of windows. I don't have it, but I think the latest OS has something like it natively.

Obviously, this is made ineffective by the way the Affinity apps confine the document windows into an app frame.

Paolo