Suggestions

[Ove Steen]

Here are a few suggestions to make Affinity Publisher better:

 

User interface has light gray letters on a black backgroud, which is very timing for eyes more than 70 years old. Please make it possible to select a user interface with black letters on white background.

I am convinced that Affinity holds an incredible wealth of possiblities of great use to those who work with it daily in a professional context.

For the rest of us happy amateurs who, like me, have been working with similar applications for more than 30 years, a much more intuitive approach is lacking and a more user-friendly help function.

Example:

I would like to draw an arrow between two objects in a Publisher document. I rarely do that.  So I forgot how to do it. A relevant tool is not immidiately visible. I type “arrow” in “Help”. It just tells me to go to “Affinity Publisher Help – Get answers fast” (!) There I can type “arrow” once more with no result . Or I can browse the entire register of headers in the help menu, trying to guess where the answer might be hidden.

I try to guess: should I use the Pen tool? – I type “Pen tool” in “Help”. – Same poor result.

Couldn’t it be made a Little smarter.

Every question to “Help” should directly give the following:

- Which tool to use

- What this tool can do

- Where to find the tool

- How to use it

[GarryP]

13 minutes ago, Ove Steen said:

I type “arrow” in “Help”. It just tells me to go to “Affinity Publisher Help – Get answers fast” (!)

The Help search functionality works fine for me, see attached video where I search for arrow and pen tool.
If you can show us a video of you doing your searching then we can probably advise further.

[walt.farrell]

There is a reported issue in the forums with Help on macOS Sonoma, I think.

[MikeTO]

Yes, there is a known issue in v2.2 on macOS with searching help, it provides the same single result no matter what term you enter. It's better to use the web version (https://affinity.help).

I agree that a simple Line tool would be nice. The Pen tool does the job but if I just want to draw several straight lines it's slightly easier with a Line tool. I wouldn't care whether the resulting object was a path with a straight line between them that could be edited via the Node tool like any other path, I just want the straightforward mechanics of drawing lines without having to press Esc between lines and avoid accidentally pulling out a handle.

[GarryP]

7 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

The Pen tool does the job but if I just want to draw several straight lines it's slightly easier with a Line tool.

7 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

I just want the straightforward mechanics of drawing lines without having to press Esc between lines and avoid accidentally pulling out a handle.

Have you tried using the Line Mode of the Pen Tool?

[MikeTO]

15 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Have you tried using the Line Mode of the Pen Tool?

Haha, no. What me, read the manual? 🙂 

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

What me, read the manual? 🙂 

Real men don't read manuals.

Friends don't let friends read manuals.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Real men don't read manuals.

Even men who write manuals?

[Ove Steen]

"There is a reported issue in the forums with Help on macOS Sonoma, I think."

Yes, I can not search the way GarryP shows.

[Ove Steen]

Affinity Pub has a lot of features, that I did not have with InDesign, some of them are visible, some of them can be hard to find. My 73 years old eyes are getting tiree and confused looking at small light gray letters on a black background.

I hope you will agree that the attached file shows a more user friendly interface. 

Affinity have a tendency to make simple actions more complicated than necessary compared to other applications. – By the way:  I have worked with text, DTP and pictures. including PageMaker/InDesign on Mac more than 30 years in connection with my work and privately.

I agree that an old fashioned line tool with possibility to add arrows would be a nice gift in the next update.

Some person responsible from the Affinity team, please ask: do you understand this what I am saying? Do you agree?

Ove Steen Smidt, Denmark

[Old Bruce]

19 minutes ago, Ove Steen said:

I agree that an old fashioned line tool with possibility to add arrows would be a nice gift in the next update.

Any vector object/layer/thing can have arrowheads added to the stroke. Use the Stroke panel.

[smadell]

A Light UI is available for Publisher.

[loukash]

2 hours ago, Ove Steen said:

I hope you will agree that the attached file shows a more user friendly interface. 

That has way more to do with Apple's formerly highly focused UI design than with anything that Adobe has accomplished in that regard. Sadly, that focus is long gone on Apple's side. 3rd party UI designers just follow that uh… "lead" into the indifferent UI mess we encounter now almost everywhere.

2 hours ago, Ove Steen said:

My 73 years old eyes are getting tiree and confused looking at small light gray letters on a black background.

I hear you. But having bought a new MacBook Air 15" just a few months ago, I have noticed that the old matte non-retina displays in my old MacBooks were quite a significant part of the problem, as the "modern" UI design is apparently optimized for retina displays. With the new retina MacBook, I can actually quite enjoy the dark UI now. As shown above in @smadell's screenshot, you also have several sliders and options to adjust the UI to your liking.

[Ove Steen]

Thanks a lot for letting me know that I can change the colour of the interface. I believe that it will be a great help in the future!😀