Feature Suggestions for "Document - New". Was: How to move (multiple) items to a new category?

[Helmar]

I have added new document templates containing Facebook items (pics, posts, ads, pages, profile etc) and their respective dimensions to the "Web" category. Now I have created a "Facebook" category. How do I move those items across? Affinity only allows single-select, and there is no DnD, nor a right-click "copy" or "move". What gives?

[v_kyr]

Always also tell more concrete for which Affinity app & version and also on which OS you are, if you post Q's.

[Helmar]

2 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Always also tell more concrete for which Affinity app & version and also on which OS you are, if you post Q's.

v2 (here Designer) on MacOS Ventura.

[v_kyr]

11 minutes ago, Helmar said:

Now I have created a "Facebook" category. How do I move those items across? Affinity only allows single-select, and there is no DnD, nor a right-click "copy" or "move".

If you use parts from those Facebook items (pics, posts, ads, pages, profile etc) very often, you can also make an FB related Assets category out of them. So you can also always make use of those items in any created doc by dragging/copying over the needed item(s) into new docs via your FB related Assets categories.

[Helmar]

I just updated to v2.2. I can now drag and drop, but that only works if there is no search term. The narrowed down list of items becomes unresponsive to drag and drop. Bug? Missing feature?

[Helmar]

 

 

Video attached. And, there is no way to collapse open categories. Missing feature?

[Helmar]

Feature suggestions:

1. Make those templates / categories import/exportable, and create a central repository, from which people can install them. So much easier than an individual effort to set them all up separately.
2. Make the categories collapseable
3. Change the order of the categories
4. Hide categories.

[Return]

You are most likely discussing presets.
You can create templates and store them wherever on your hd and add the folder to the templates tab in the new window.
These can be drag/dropped to the UI from finder/explorer or opened from the new window and the program will open a new document based on that template.
Or store layout items as artboards to the assetspanel for later use within the program

[Helmar]

1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

If you use parts from those Facebook items (pics, posts, ads, pages, profile etc) very often, you can also make an FB related Assets category out of them. So you can also always make use of those items in any created doc by dragging/copying over the needed item(s) into new docs via your FB related Assets categories.

Thank you, but you probably misunderstood my original concern. I was talking about templates for pics, posts, ads etc, not the actual items. I know about Asset categories, which - if Affinity is reading this - were actually nicely ignored and not carried over from v1 to v2 (a nice PITA) - but this is about a new document template.

[Helmar]

1 hour ago, Return said:

You are most likely discussing presets.
You can create templates and store them wherever on your hd and add the folder to the templates tab in the new window.
These can be drag/dropped to the UI from finder/explorer or opened from the new window and the program will open a new document based on that template.
Or store layout items as artboards to the assetspanel for later use within the program

Thank you. There are always several ways to accomplish any given goal. Here, however, as there are so many other presets in the "New" window, my suggestion was to improve and expand its current feature-set, hence my "list" of suggestions, realising how limited it is at present.

[v_kyr]

10 minutes ago, Helmar said:

Thank you, but you probably misunderstood my original concern. I was talking about templates for pics, posts, ads etc, not the actual items. ...

I know as you've initially said so ...

2 hours ago, Helmar said:

I have added new document templates containing ...

... but as I personally don't work with or create own doc templates (...instead I reuse already once made docs and are sharing the resources from those then), I leaved that template related stuff to be better answered by somebody else, someone who also makes/does a lot of use of custom templates (I don't).  Instead I just pointed to another way to generally reuse items via assets then.

[R C-R]

@Helmar, just so there is no confusion, in Affinity there are template (*.aftemplate) files which should not be confused with the document presets shown in the New tab of the New Document window.

As for your 3rd suggestion, this already can be done by dragging to the left or right on a category name. That pops up a short list of all the categories so you can then drag vertically to reorder the selected one.

Finally, feature requests should be posted to the appropriate https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/52-feedback-suggestions/ forum, not here in Questions.

[Helmar]

11 minutes ago, R C-R said:

@Helmar, just so there is no confusion, in Affinity there are template (*.aftemplate) files which should not be confused with the document presets shown in the New tab of the New Document window.

As for your 3rd suggestion, this already can be done by dragging to the left or right on a category name. That pops up a short list of all the categories so you can then drag vertically to reorder the selected one.

Finally, feature requests should be posted to the appropriate https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/52-feedback-suggestions/ forum, not here in Questions.

Ok ok, presets then. Same suggestions apply. L/R dragging noted. Reorders presets. Doesn't hide those you don't want to see or aren't applicable, though. Will now copy and head over to the suggestions box. Thanks for the pointer.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Helmar said:

Doesn't hide those you don't want to see or aren't applicable, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by not applicable since any preset can be used to create a new document. Can you explain a bit more about that?

Also note that while you can't hide a preset you can delete any you do not want to see by right-clicking on it & choosing Delete from the menu that pops up. Les drastic is to mark the ones you want to see as favorites & click the heart shaped "Show Favorites" button. (I would like it if that was 'sticky' between app launches but at least it is an option.

There is also the Link categories option which puts the linked ones in a single repository that all installed Affinity apps can use, so it may be something you want to explore to minimize the need to install preset categories individually for each of yours.

[Return]

Presets are not importable or exportable(only by going into the system files of the programs.
Templates can be exported/saved and used over and over again without overwriting them unless one wants to.
Templates don't have to be full fledged layouts, brochures, flyers or the like.
Just a simple template document with dimensions/grid/guide setup will do.
And can also be stored as backup and used in all 3 programs if pointed at the same folder(s)

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, Return said:

Presets are not importable or exportable(only by going into the system files of the programs.

But V2 preset categories can be linked so all three Affinity apps (if installed) have the same access to them, so the only need for import/export would be to use them on a different computer.

(To be clear, I am not saying import/export would not be a good addition to the apps.)

[Return]

16 minutes ago, R C-R said:

But V2 preset categories can be linked so all three Affinity apps

That's also the culprit I think if a file get's corrupted it will affect all three and imo all added stuff to the programs whether assets, styles, etc. may influence the usage of the programs as these need to load into memory.
I don't use any of the presetting possibilities and drag/drop from my DAM, store in the document where possible and delete after use.
 

16 minutes ago, R C-R said:

so the only need for import/export would be to use them on a different computer.

 

Like said I can drag/drop from my DAM to the UI just the template I want and have a document based on that template without even touching the folders or presets from within the program.
I can have comments in both the aftemplate file as an extra layer or add comments and notes in my DAM and create thumbnails to fit these templates.
And yes, backing up or transporting over LAN or through cloudservice to another pc is easy.
(Not having to copy/pasting propcol or xml files, or the need for hunting in my systemfolders)