Affinity Publisher 2.2: Delete key no longer working

[_SteveC]

I just updated Publisher 2.x to 2.2 and now the delete key no longer works on my keyboard on Mac desktop. When I select a text box, picture box, graphic, etc. and then hit the delete key, nothing happens. This function was working earlier today before updating Publisher to 2.2. It works as expected in Designer, Photo (note: I have not updated Designer and Photo to 2.2. yet), all Adobe apps, etc. but no longer works in Publisher 2.2. The only way I can delete a text box is to select it, and then click on the trash can in the layer window. 

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is this a bug of 2.2? Any fixes? 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

[jeffofthenorth]

I haven't updated Publisher yet, but I did update Designer and I'm having the same issue – can only delete an element by choosing it in the layers palette then right clicking > delete or clicking the trash icon.

Thanks!

Edited September 20, 2023 by jeffofthenorth

[_SteveC]

14 minutes ago, jeffofthenorth said:

I haven't updated Publisher yet, but I did update Designer and I'm having the same issue – can only delete an element by choosing it in the layers palette then right clicking > delete or clicking the trash icon.

Thanks!

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback, jeffofthenorth! 

[MikeTO]

You can resolve the problem by restoring the default shortcuts. On macOS, choose Affinity Publisher/Designer/Photo 2 > Settings, click Shortcuts, and then click Serif Defaults. On Windows, choose Edit > Preferences, click Shortcuts, and then click Reset.

But to fix just this one shortcut without resetting all your shortcuts, change the shortcut for Edit > Delete to the Delete key.

This problem likely occurred because of an issue in 2.1.1 that was fixed in 2.2.0. In 2.1.1, there wasn't actually a shortcut for Delete, you just had it because it was carried over from the previous version. If you had clicked Serif Defaults or Reset in that version you would have lost the shortcut. The shortcut was restored in 2.2.0 but you have to add it back yourself, or click Serif Defaults / Reset.

Good luck.

[_SteveC]

5 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

You can resolve the problem by restoring the default shortcuts. On macOS, choose Affinity Publisher/Designer/Photo 2 > Settings, click Shortcuts, and then click Serif Defaults. On Windows, choose Edit > Preferences, click Shortcuts, and then click Reset.

But to fix just this one shortcut without resetting all your shortcuts, change the shortcut for Edit > Delete to the Delete key.

This problem likely occurred because of an issue in 2.1.1 that was fixed in 2.2.0. In 2.1.1, there wasn't actually a shortcut for Delete, you just had it because it was carried over from the previous version. If you had clicked Serif Defaults or Reset in that version you would have lost the shortcut. The shortcut was restored in 2.2.0 but you have to add it back yourself, or click Serif Defaults / Reset.

Good luck.

Thanks, MikeTo. I have uninstalled 2.2 and reverted back to 2.1 (and the delete key currently works as expected) but I will upgrade again to 2.2 and try your suggestions. 

Seems unusual that using the delete key as expected is a keyboard shortcut. Thanks again for the information.

 

[jeffofthenorth]

5 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

You can resolve the problem by restoring the default shortcuts. On macOS, choose Affinity Publisher/Designer/Photo 2 > Settings, click Shortcuts, and then click Serif Defaults. On Windows, choose Edit > Preferences, click Shortcuts, and then click Reset.

But to fix just this one shortcut without resetting all your shortcuts, change the shortcut for Edit > Delete to the Delete key.

This problem likely occurred because of an issue in 2.1.1 that was fixed in 2.2.0. In 2.1.1, there wasn't actually a shortcut for Delete, you just had it because it was carried over from the previous version. If you had clicked Serif Defaults or Reset in that version you would have lost the shortcut. The shortcut was restored in 2.2.0 but you have to add it back yourself, or click Serif Defaults / Reset.

Good luck.

Thanks! That did work for me.

[_SteveC]

13 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

You can resolve the problem by restoring the default shortcuts. On macOS, choose Affinity Publisher/Designer/Photo 2 > Settings, click Shortcuts, and then click Serif Defaults. On Windows, choose Edit > Preferences, click Shortcuts, and then click Reset.

But to fix just this one shortcut without resetting all your shortcuts, change the shortcut for Edit > Delete to the Delete key.

This problem likely occurred because of an issue in 2.1.1 that was fixed in 2.2.0. In 2.1.1, there wasn't actually a shortcut for Delete, you just had it because it was carried over from the previous version. If you had clicked Serif Defaults or Reset in that version you would have lost the shortcut. The shortcut was restored in 2.2.0 but you have to add it back yourself, or click Serif Defaults / Reset.

Good luck.

Yep, this worked for me as well. I can't figure out why this common method of deleting something has to be reconfigured in an app's settings, but so be it. Thanks again for your solution. 

[DWright]

This issue has been raised with our developers

[_SteveC]

9 hours ago, DWright said:

This issue has been raised with our developers

Thank you!

[makeithappengraphics]

same problem..no delete

and editing the shortcut delete to delete key does not work 

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by makeithappengraphics

[Komatös]

Works for me with default shortcut settings.

 

[MikeTO]

11 hours ago, makeithappengraphics said:

same problem..no delete

and editing the shortcut delete to delete key does not work 

Try clicking Reset in Shortcuts (Windows) or Serif Defaults (Mac) and see if that works for you.

Good luck

[musikinsnetz]

I had the same problem in both Designer and Publisher after updating to 2.2: couldn’t delete nodes in Node tool and couldn’t delete items/layers. Both these things worked only from the context menu where it still actually showed the Backspace key as shortcut.

I first made it work again by specifically adding the keyboard shortcut ⌫ to the Menu Item “Edit --> Delete” … but

… now the problem keeps reappearing in a Designer document. Working on this document somehow makes Designer stuck sometimes when adding new linked resources (it has many pixel layers from a time in which I didn’t know about the option to link files, now I’m adding new images or replacing old ones through linked resources). After getting stuck, the Backspace key stops working when I try to delete items or layers from the document. I have to end and reopen Designer for it to work again.

[musikinsnetz]

1 hour ago, musikinsnetz said:

… now the problem keeps reappearing in a Designer document. Working on this document somehow makes Designer stuck sometimes when adding new linked resources (it has many pixel layers from a time in which I didn’t know about the option to link files, now I’m adding new images or replacing old ones through linked resources). After getting stuck, the Backspace key stops working when I try to delete items or layers from the document. I have to end and reopen Designer for it to work again.

I have to correct myself: After writing this post, Designer let me delete items/layers via the backspace key again – without having to restart the app. So it might be, the whole thing was completely unrelated. However, before, when the problem appeared, everything else worked again after the short freeze except for the backspace key. I’ll keep an eye on this and post more detailed info if anything comes up.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "(After upgrading) Backspace is not functional until assigned on Mac" (REF: AF-287) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.1.2052".
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.

[Kagaku]

@Serif Info Bot I'm getting a similar problem with not being able to delete, but only in the text box.

I enter a carriage return to get a new line....then when I press delete to move the text back up a line it does nothing....Running 2.5.7

All other delete functions seem to be working properly. I am up to date with lates Mac OS

On another matter I am also seeing massive inconsistencies in how text is displaying in a text box, even though the exact same parameters are used in. I have set boundaries around the text box, so the text does not run up to the edge of the text box, but when I cut and paste any new text into the box the formatting goes haywire.....but on checking all the parameters the parameters are unchanged and are exactly the same. A work around is when I copy new text into the box I have to paste the new text into the text that is already there....then I have to carefully delete the old text out. As you can imagine that is not a very efficient way to do it and it is slowly driving me mad. I have tried background grid, but that does not seem to make any difference.

Edited January 17 by Kagaku
to add @serif info Bot

[MikeTO]

Hi @Kagaku With regards to copying and pasting text between text frames and the text looking different, what is different? If it is just the size the you have likely applied content scaling to one of the frames, or different amounts of content scaling to both. Select the frames one at a time and look at the bottom-right corner. There will be two handles - the inner handle is a regular size handle for scaling the frame, but the outer is the Content Scaling handle which scales the contents of the frame at the same time. If the Content Scaling handle is solid blue, you have used it and applied content scaling. Double-click the Content Scaling handle to reset it to 100%.

[Kagaku]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

Hi @Kagaku With regards to copying and pasting text between text frames and the text looking different, what is different? If it is just the size the you have likely applied content scaling to one of the frames, or different amounts of content scaling to both. Select the frames one at a time and look at the bottom-right corner. There will be two handles - the inner handle is a regular size handle for scaling the frame, but the outer is the Content Scaling handle which scales the contents of the frame at the same time. If the Content Scaling handle is solid blue, you have used it and applied content scaling. Double-click the Content Scaling handle to reset it to 100%.

Hi MikeTO, could the problem be that the paste operation is transferring over hidden information about the prior box (the box scale etc)....even though I have selected Paste with no format? Because sometimes I am getting issues and other times the paste works OK. (attached is an image showing (in this specific case)  the text box indent distance has changed The red and black texts are from two different text boxes, but all the indent values entered in the control panel are identical between the two text boxes - as I mentioned in some cases I also get some text boxes where the line spaces changes).

Also, the delete error still exists even after a restarted the program. I cannot go back up a line after pressing carriage return

Edited January 17 by Kagaku
Add image

[MikeTO]

Check the Text Frame panel and see if one of the text frames has insets defined. That would account for the additional indenting because it indents from the frame's inset.

If it's not that, I might need to see the document to figure it out.

Good luck

[Kagaku]

22 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Check the Text Frame panel and see if one of the text frames has insets defined. That would account for the additional indenting because it indents from the frame's inset.

If it's not that, I might need to see the document to figure it out.

Good luck

The indents were identical at 0.15 inches for the two files (so it looks like there might be some hidden indenting value that is overwriting the values entered). I also noticed the windows version of Publisher does not allow a 0.15 inch indent and it will automatically increased the value to 0.2 inch. I have only just downloaded the windows version, and will have to do some more work on the Windows version to fully test the program, but already it seems to be far more reliable (reproducible) than the Mac version.

[Yep...Success. I just transferred the Mac file over, and when I reset the indent in the transferred Mac file to a 0.2 inch inset (this was in the "original" (not copied and pasted text box)), the indents between the copied and original text boxes suddenly match.

 So, the problem is in the Mac the program allows the user to enter more decimal places in the inset box, but after copying and pasting the text box the program will then revert the inset value to the windows minimum 0.2 inch value.

But that then creates a problem because the value that is shown in the Mac panel is still the 0.15 inch that the user originally entered. Thus the sudden unexplained offsets, and misalignments in the text, and the poor Mac users are left scratching their heads. My guess is the program was created on a windows platform and then transferred over to the Mac, and this issue was not picked up during the transfer.

Concerning the delete key issue....I found that I cannot use delete to reverse a carriage-return in copied text boxes, but in new text boxes the delete key seems to work better . This again suggests there is some hidden information being carried over during the copy/paste process when copying text boxes multiple times. Actually I need to correct that. In some copy text boxes I "only" need to press delete about three times before a carriage return is reversed,  whereas in other text boxes I have to press delete dozens of times. This problem appears to be common to the Mac and PC. Is there any plans to fix this?

[MikeTO]

5 minutes ago, Kagaku said:

I also noticed the windows version of Publisher does not allow a 0.15 inch indent and it will automatically increased the value to 0.2 inch.

This may due to using different settings for Mac and Windows. Go to Settings > User Interface and check the number of digits for inches. Affinity can maintain more precision than is shown in the user interface.

[Kagaku]

...currently set to three decimal places I'm using Mac version 2.5.7 (this suggests the transition up from 0.15 to 0.2 inch is more likely to be linked to the program being initially optimized for the windows, and then modified for the Mac)

...in the current version of Affinity (2.5.7) the line spacing is also an issue, all entered values are identical but I'm getting slightly different line spacing between the text boxes

Edited January 19 by Kagaku
Answering prior message

[Kagaku]

I'm transitioning over to the windows version for now (as the Mac version for me is just not working).....I have 85 chapters with about 20 text boxes to work through and all need to be reset and then manually checked one by one. This will take at least a week of work, and I was on a deadline to get it done by tomorrow. So not happy.

[MikeTO]

@Kagaku Could you please share a test document here for review? This isn't an issue that has been previously reported and it's difficult to figure out the cause without seeing a document.

[Kagaku]

Apologies, I received instructions from the authors to not to share the project....I was just thinking. Could this also be an issue. The project I am working on is more than 90 chapters long. Because I am working on a book, this means the text boxes are being copied and then pasted and shared across multiple different saved files.In this case 90 saved files. So, this could also be an issue? It is not just one saved file...

As a quick update,...concerning the line spacing, the text box settings in the Mac version had transitioned back up to 0.1 inch. I reset back to 0.15 inch and then spacing suddenly worked. (Text box settings are additive to the paragraph settings). 

Also, on the Mac the problem is not always showing. Sometimes I get everything to work OK, I'm copying and pasting away and things seem to be 100% perfect. Then (with no changes as far a I am aware in the copying and pasting process) suddenly the formatting shifts, (the alignment becomes inconsistent, and I am just wasting time.....this was especially noticeable when I was using a 0.15 inch indent but the text displayed on the page suddenly became a 0.2 inch indent, but all the settings on my side were identical and still showed 0.15 inch. this is why I am thinking there might be a decimal place error occurring in the 2.5.7 version).

All I know is in each case, the different problems all seem to be linked to a simple reset back to "one decimal place setting" (even though I do have three decimal set in settings).

If this has not been reported before, could this be a simple memory buffer problem my side? Just now Copying and Pasting in my Mac version is, for the moment, 100% unreliable, but the PC version does seem to be working OK....

I think we may have to wait to see if there are any other reports surrounding this issue. 

Concerning the delete issue, where you press carriage return, but cannot use delete to go back up a line. Has this problem been reported before? Again the project I am working on has over 90 chapters with the files copied and pasted multiple times. In a new text box the delete key does seems to work OKish, but in copied files I have to press delete multiple times.