Enable transparency tool to affect child objects in Designer mode

[bobbybosler]

See this topic. I had assumed that the fact that the transparency tool didn't apply to shape-masked objects was a bug, but apparently it's how designer works. I think it is somewhat counter-intuitive that the transparency tool does not affect the contents of a shape mask. I would like to suggest that it does.

I guess InDesign allows for such a thing, and it would be great to have that ability in Designer (without having to use pixel masks). I would make numerous workflows much more efficient and would make maintenance easier as well.

[loukash]

3 hours ago, bobbybosler said:

I think it is somewhat counter-intuitive that the transparency tool does not affect the contents of a shape mask. I would like to suggest that it does.

-1
As pointed out in the other thread, that's how it's supposed to work.
The Transparency tool affects the object it's been applied to.

Besides, what you call a "shape mask" as per your screenshot in the other thread, is not a mask, it's a vector crop.
A mask is created when you drag an object over other object's thumbnail; there will be an additional blank separator line visible in the Layers panel.
Dragging over the layer name will nest an object into another which is then a vector crop. Vector crop (parent) doesn't even need any fill or stroke attributes to crop a child. That's by design.
Vive la différence.

• If you want transparency on the nested image, apply it to the image layer
• If you want transparency on the parent shape, apply it to the shape layer; the child layers are not supposed to be affected
• If you want transparency on both at the same time, group them and apply transparency to the group
  or, as pointed out in the other thread, apply it to the shape and use the shape as a vector mask

InDesign works differently because it lacks the layer flexibility of Affinity. (Having worked with ID for 16 years, I know the differences…)

[Bit Disappointed]

Problem is here no one except the very experienced will know or understand that a group is needed for this. You are left in the dark. It is an ancient practice that customers must go through such a lesson in the software's functionality to understand what is A and B. It is simply clumsy usability.

Software should be designed to inform, or ask what to do in this instance. Group content or proceed. Inform in status bar. Or something else. Not just silence.