Unable to select any of the tools/panels using Sonoma beta (split)

[Lenette]

Mac - Publisher unable to select any of the tools (on the left or right). Works fine in Photo and Designer

[Hangman]

Hi @Lenette and welcome to the forums,

Could you upload a screenshot of your complete Publisher screen?

[Lenette]

@Hangman 

Only the select arrow is selectable.

[Alfred]

You can only choose tools that are applicable to the selected layer(s) in the current document, so you need to create or open a document.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Alfred
Added missing “are”. (Thanks, @thomaso!)

[Lenette]

@Alfred It's no difference with or without a document open.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Lenette

[Alfred]

I’m confused, @Lenette! Your previous screenshot shows all the tools greyed out, but in the latest one they’re in full glorious Technicolor.

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Lenette said:

It's no difference with or without a document open.

Maybe you could create a screen recording, if you're having a problem, so we can see what the problem is?

 

[thomaso]

@Alfred weren't they greyed out because no document was opened?

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, thomaso said:

@Alfred weren't they greyed out because no document was opened?

That’s what I thought, Thomas, but Lenette said “It's no difference with or without a document open.”

[thomaso]

Lenette did not mention an issue with colours but with tool selection. So I would understand the feedback as referring to this selection problem, not to icon colours … not to mention "Technicolor" 🦄

[Pšenda]

4 minutes ago, Alfred said:

That’s what I thought, Thomas, but Lenette said “It's no difference with or without a document open.”

The problem is probably not in the grayness and thus also in the unavailability of the tools (the first screenshot was therefore confusing), but apparently in the fact that only the Move Tool (alias select arrow) can be selected.

38 minutes ago, Lenette said:

Only the select arrow is selectable.

 

[Lenette]

Sorry everyone, I've been on a Zoom calls. I can select the arrow (select) but when I mouse to the tools and click, nothing happens.

[Ron P.]

6 minutes ago, Lenette said:

Sorry everyone, I've been on a Zoom calls. I can select the arrow (select) but when I mouse to the tools and click, nothing happens.

In your screenshot, you don't have a Layer selected. Do you have this problem with a layer selected in the Layers Panel?

[Old Bruce]

51 minutes ago, Lenette said:

I can select the arrow (select) but when I mouse to the tools and click, nothing happens.

Can you select the tools using Keyboard Shortcuts. M for the Shapes tool, T for the Text tools, P for the Pen tool etc?

Are you using an Apple Mouse or some other Mouse or trackpad or a Graphics Tablet? Do you have any 3rd party Utilities for running Macros or Keyboard shortcuts? Or any 3rd party Utilities which may be between the Mac OS and the Publisher software.

[Lenette]

@Old Bruce 

iMac (the same thing occurs on my MacBookPro - both products are fairly new)
Apple M1
macOS Sonoma 14.0 - Beta
Apple Mouse & Keyboard
No 3rd party or etc that I am aware of
V2 Beta on iMac vs V2 on MacBookPro

Keyboard shortcuts open and close T, actually that will let me select changes after a few open/close but the arrow won't switch to another tab (layers, paragraphs, etc.)

 

[Hangman]

macOS Sonoma 14.0 - Beta could be the issue as it’s not currently supported by Affintiy apps though it seems odd this would only affect Publisher…

[Return]

3 minutes ago, Lenette said:

macOS Sonoma 14.0 - Beta

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q=sonoma&quick=1&type=forums_topic&item=176896

 

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

You can only choose tools that applicable to the selected layer(s)

2 hours ago, Ron P. said:

you don't have a Layer selected.

Can you explain this requirement for having a layer selected? – How do you select a tool to create a new object in an empty document?
Edit: especially in APub, as in Lenettes screenshot?

Edited July 13, 2023 by thomaso

[Hangman]

Hi @Lenette,

I would try a factory reset by launching Publisher while holding the Ctrl key...

When the 'Clear User Data' window appears, in addition to the first three items that are already selected, select the 'Reset Tool Presets' option under the 'All Affinity Apps' section and then hit the 'Clear' button to let Publisher launch and see whether or not that makes any difference and if you can now select other tools in the tools palette when you have your document open.

[R C-R]

@Lenette, you are running both the Affinity Publisher 2 Beta version & the macOS Sonoma 14.0 Beta, which APub does not yet support. So basically, with 2 betas in play that is lamost certainly why things are not working well, if at all.

If you want to use the software & avoid numerous issues, you almost certainly will have to use the last currently supported version of the macOS ... & it would be a good idea to use the release (not beta) of the Affinity apps with it.

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

Can you explain this requirement for having a layer selected? – How do you select a tool to create a new object in an empty document?
Edit: especially in APub, as in Lenettes screenshot?

Good point! I was thinking about the tools in general, including those that are used to alter selected layers/objects, rather than the object creation tools in particular.

[thomaso]

14 minutes ago, Alfred said:

tools in general, including those that are used to alter selected layers/objects

But aren't those tools generally a small minority? In my APubs photo persona only 1 of 45 tools in the panel refuses to get selected, while this one reacts quite friendly:

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "[macOS Sonoma] Unable to change Panel or Persona" (REF: AFB-7965) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1925".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.