Cannot get a rectangle to change colour

[youngbaz]

First of all ... I'm very new to Affinity Designer, having only just, would you believe, moved over from PagePlus 6.0 and, occasionally one of the later incarnations.

I've been trying for seems like hours to change the colour of a background rectangle in a poster that I'm using for a choir for which I'm concert manager.   Dooohhhh!

I think it must be locked or something because:

• I've tried copying the layer, pasting it on the board off the print area and it still won't change
• I've added a couple of test rectangles, again off the 'canvas' and I can change their colour as easy as pie - just as the instructions say.

The item for which I've been trying to change the colour is labelled: 'Background Yellow' in the Layers Panel.

What am I doing wrong or what do I need to add or change to let me recolour that rectangle.

While I'm at it - but this is far less important/urgent... I've got some little circular indentations in each corner of the 'frame' rectangles of the poster.  But I cannot now see how to do that or how to change their size.  Can anyone advise on that - I found it once but can't get back there.  Talk about steep learning curves for a complete amateur.

Any help hugely appreciated!

 

Barry

Braintree Male Voice Choir Poster - for Affinity Forum.afpub

[MEB]

Hi @youngbaz,
Welcome to affinity Forums
This object was initially a round rectangle (Round rectangle Tool) with the corners set to "Concave" which was then converted to curves (menu Layer > Convert to Curves) and then converted to a text frame clicking with the Frame Text Tool inside of it, so it's now a text frame object.
To change its colour you need to go to menu Window > Text > Text Frame to display the text frame properties. Change the Fill colour there.

Another way to change its colour is to convert it back to curves (menu Layer > Convert to Curves) to convert it to a regular path/curve then change its fill colour as you do for any regular vector object.

[youngbaz]

MEB

 

Wow - that was so quick!  And it worked!  I thought it was a 'straight' rectangle, not text frame, so maybe that was why it appeared to be locked.

 

I'm back in love with Serif and my blood pressure is (almost!) back to normal.

This might be a bit cheeky  ... but do you have any ideas on my question about the little circular indentations in the corners?

Many thanks again.

 

Barry

Christmas Choir Flyer - Witham - Revised Hunnaball Logo - Blue Background - Amy removed.afpub

[Komatös]

  @youngbaz

Another option would be to convert the layer back into a curve.
Then you can simply pick up a color from color fields and drag it onto the layer,

[GarryP]

16 minutes ago, youngbaz said:

but do you have any ideas on my question about the little circular indentations in the corners?

The answer to that was in MEB’s reply (my emphasis):

32 minutes ago, MEB said:

This object was initially a round rectangle (Round rectangle Tool) with the corners set to "Concave" which was then converted to curves (menu Layer > Convert to Curves)

What happened was that the corners were converted to curves when the rectangle was converted to curves, so they are no longer editable as ‘smart’ corners.

Changing their size may be tricky as they are just curves but the Node Tool – in Transform Mode – might be of some use – see attached video.

If that doesn’t explain it enough then just say so and we can go into more detail.

Edited November 13, 2023 by GarryP
Added clarification.

[MEB]

20 minutes ago, youngbaz said:

MEB

This might be a bit cheeky  ... but do you have any ideas on my question about the little circular indentations in the corners?

Many thanks again.

 

Barry

Hide all the objects except the yellow one just to make things easier, turn snapping on ("Snap to object bounding boxes" must be ticked in the Snap options), then without the yellow object selected use the Round Rectangle Tool to draw another one over it, ensuring the snap helps to align it with the existing yellow object to ensure you get the same dimensions, finally with the Round Rectangle Tool still selected, set the Corner to "Concave" and adjust the radius percentage in the context toolbar. to match the existing yellow object.

[youngbaz]

MEB & Garry P

I think MEB's response about the indented corners must have arrived a couple of minutes later as I didn't see  it when I read his response to my question on colour.

But, yes, I now understand.  It was the choice of 'round corners' for the rectangle that I had forgotten.

Thanks also Komatos - very clear explanation.

To quote one of my heroes - Groucho - 'I wouldn't want to join any club that would have ME as a member!'  But I'm sure glad that I made an exception with this forum.  Talk about fast, relevant and to the point!  Thanks all - but it's gonna be a steep learning curve for an octogenarian newbie I'm afraid.

[Komatös]

You are welcome!