Document Setup

[Eddy-2]

Designer 2.3.0, Windows 10

No problem, just an observation...

I have a Print preset, 2000 x 2000 pixels.
I open the Document Setup window and change the height to 1000px (width and height unlinked).
The height immediately changes to 1000px.

If I do something similar but change the width to 1000px rather than the height, nothing happens.
Only when I zoom in or out does the width change.

No problem, just confusing.

[GarryP]

I don’t understand where/how you are observing this issue.

You say you are in the Document Setup Dialog, and there is a problem which is rectified only when you zoom in/out, but the Document Setup Dialog doesn’t allow for zooming.

I can’t tell whether the problem is in the Document Setup Dialog – maybe with values not changing properly? – or after you have closed that Dialog and the display is wrong, or both, or something else.

Can you give a more precise workflow for reproducing the problem?

[Eddy-2]

Workflow as follows, Garry:

File menu > New from last preset
Document = 2000 px x 2000 px
Click Document setup
Select Enter the width of the new document
Change the value from 2000 px to 1000 px
Click OK
Nothing happens to the document
Select keyboard Ctrl and using the mouse scroll wheel, scroll in or out
The document resizes  to 1000 px x 2000 px, as expected

If I do something similar and change the height of the document in the Document Setup window, as soon as I select OK, the document resizes as expected.

As I said, it isn't a problem, just unexpected behaviour.

[GarryP]

Thanks for the extra information.

I haven’t upgraded to 2.3 yet but I tried your workflow, as far as I could (my preset set-up may be different to yours), and it seems to work fine for me in 2.2.1 (on Windows 10).

Hopefully someone who has upgraded will come along and try it.

If the document size on the canvas isn’t the same as what the user sets it to be then I would say that was a decently-sized problem. An easily-fixed problem, but a problem nonetheless.

[Eddy-2]

Thanks Garry.

I've tried something similar in Publisher 2.3.0 and it behaves as expected.

[Ron P.]

I've tried this numerous times using 2.3, followed your recipe, and can not replicate this problem. I've also tried it with several of the presets I've created, and it works as it should. I've also looked for some other settings that might aid or cause it, and so far nothing found.

[Eddy-2]

Thanks Ron.

Although it's not a problem now I know how to get round it, I'll delve a little further out of curiosity.

[R C-R]

12 hours ago, Eddy-2 said:

Workflow as follows, Garry:

File menu > New from last preset

On my Mac, there is no "New from last preset" item anywhere in any of AD's menus. Is this a Windows only thing or is the OP talking about one of the Presets in the New document dialog in the Presets section?

[MikeTO]

36 minutes ago, R C-R said:

On my Mac, there is no "New from last preset" item anywhere in any of AD's menus. Is this a Windows only thing or is the OP talking about one of the Presets in the New document dialog in the Presets section?

I believe the Eddy just meant that he didn't change anything from last time.

@Eddy-2 I've duplicated the screen redraw issue on macOS. Here's a screen recording to clear up what is being discussed.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

Windows:

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Windows:

Ah, I think you've told me about this before. It's on macOS, too, but you have to hold down Option to access it. Affinity makes so little use of the Option key, for example, Close All and New Book could have been implemented with Option.

I just checked all the menus in Publisher and the only other ones that use Option for variant commands are a few commands in Layer > Geometry and Select > Select Same.

[walt.farrell]

8 hours ago, MikeTO said:

It's on macOS, too, but you have to hold down Option to access it.

Strange that it would be a standard option on Windows, but require the Option key on Mac. 

[Eddy-2]

13 hours ago, MikeTO said:

@Eddy-2 I've duplicated the screen redraw issue on macOS. Here's a screen recording to clear up what is being discussed.

Thanks Mike.

[MikeTO]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Strange that it would be a standard option on Windows, but require the Option key on Mac. 

This UX approach presents cross-platform app designers with a dilemma - do it the Mac way (press Option for variants) or the Windows way (show every command). Apple came up with this to reduce the length of menus which improves usability and to hide lesser-used options from beginners at the expense of discoverability. However, you can open a menu and toggle Option to see what a command changes to. I recommend doing that with any new Mac App, and with Finder if you're new to macOS. Option only changes individual commands, it doesn't add or remove menu items.

Microsoft took a different approach with its dynamic menus, hiding advanced commands entirely unless you deselected "Always Show Full Menus" in the app's preferences. Microsoft's approach was worse than Apple's because you didn't know what you were missing until you went into preferences so you couldn't access a hidden command easily, but I believe Microsoft abandoned it after Office 2003 or somewhere around then.

Apple's approach lives on and most Mac apps use it. The notable exceptions are Microsoft and Adobe. Lightroom uses it for a few macOS commands such as Close vs. Close All.

For Affinity, I think it should either embrace it for things like Close All and New Book or abandon it for the commands that already use it.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

For Affinity, I think it should either embrace it for things like Close All and New Book or abandon it for the commands that already use it.

Since (I think) there are no Affinity menus in which including each command would make the menus overly long, my preference would be to see each of them visible without having to use Option.

This would also make it possible to assign more custom keyboard shortcuts, like for File > New From Last Preset, so something like CMD+Option+N could be used for something else.