Searching for blocks and changing their sizes

[laurent32]

Hi all,

Maybe a dumb question… I might be a little tired these days…

Here is an example (the real doc has many many blocks)…

In this case, I want to select all the grey boxes that are 15mm long and make them 20mm long…

If I use select, I can select them all but then how can I change their length in one go ?

My third grey block in line one seem to be annoying me… I can't use the transformer tab…

Thanks for your help…

Here is the test file :

test.afpub

[laurent32]

I think I found the way to do it :

is that it ?

[GarryP]

I’m pretty sure that you cannot do this ‘en masse’.

You can select all of the grey boxes together, as long as they use the same fill colour (and you might also have other stuff selected which has the same fill colour), via menu “Select → Select Same.

However, you cannot change the absolute sizes of the selected layers at the same time in the Transform Panel as size modification with multiple selected layers is done on a relative basis. (Same goes for Transform Objects Separately, as far as I know.)

I’d be happy to be proven wrong though as this sort of thing has been requested a few times.

See here for one related discussion: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/152453-resize-multiple-objects-to-same-size/

Edited December 14, 2023 by GarryP
Added more details.

[Murfee]

8 minutes ago, laurent32 said:

I think I found the way to do it :

is that it ?

Hi Laurent that is correct, first select one rectangle that is 15mm width, then use select same width>equal

Now click Transorm Objects Separately, now you can change the width en mass  

 

[GarryP]

Ah, sorry, I missed the bit in the original post that said that all of the selected boxes would be the same size, yes, that should work, but only when they are the same size.

[laurent32]

Thanks you both @GarryP & @Murfee for answering.

While we're at it, I discovered that when I copy a grey block and paste it, I get an annoying space before or after the block (a space that I did not copy at first) and also if I copy the block with some text before or after it, and then I paste the whole thing, the block is not pasted… 2 tricky behaviors… are you aware of those ? I would call that a bug…

[Dan C]

1 hour ago, laurent32 said:

I discovered that when I copy a grey block and paste it, I get an annoying space before or after the block (a space that I did not copy at first) and also if I copy the block with some text before or after it, and then I paste the whole thing, the block is not pasted… 2 tricky behaviors… are you aware of those ? I would call that a bug…

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

Are you able to provide a screen recording of this behaviour for me, so that I can investigate this further?  

[laurent32]

hi @Dan C

here you go for the file :

test.afpub

here you go for the video :

 

 

[GarryP]

I believe the behaviour you’re seeing is because you’re using Pinned (Inline) layers.

If you select “before<space><block>” then you are really selecting only “before<space>” but if you select “before<space><block><space>” then you are selecting “before<space><block><space>”.

This might come about if the “<block>” is ‘anchored/pinned’ to the left of the text that comes after it –  e.g. in this case, the second “<space>” – so that the “<block>” is not selected when you select “before<space><block>” because the “<block>” is not ‘part of’ that selection even though it looks like it is.

I don’t know if this is how it should work but it looks ‘a bit off’ to me since not everything which looks selected is actually selected.

[Dan C]

Thanks for providing that for me!

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

I believe the behaviour you’re seeing is because you’re using Pinned (Inline) layers.

(...)

I don’t know if this is how it should work but it looks ‘a bit off’ to me since not everything which looks selected is actually selected.

I can confirm this issue is due to the inline objects, however I can also verify that it's a bug - as in 2.0.4 you did not need to have a character selected after the inline object in order for Copy/Paste/Cut to work correctly - therefore this has been logged with our development team.

I hope this helps 

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

this issue is due to the inline objects,

@laurent32, as workaround you might like the font "Redacted". It creates just blocks. It is a monospace font and ignores spaces, you can define the block lengths by adding/removing characters or with horizontal scale values. As character style it appears to be easier to handle than your pinned rectangle solution. For instance:

https://pendingdraft.net/2015/01/redacted-font/

https://github.com/christiannaths/Redacted-Font

[laurent32]

Nice idea @thomaso, thanks !

[laurent32]

I wonder right now if one can search text for some specific horizontal scale values…

I'll have to look after that…

[GarryP]

A quick, but very basic, alternative could be to create a Character Text Style with a grey Background Colour and use it to format some spaces (or non-breaking spaces).

You don’t have much control over the size of the block relative to the text, or accurate block lengths, or other things, but it’s quick and doesn’t need a specific font.

[thomaso]

20 hours ago, laurent32 said:

I wonder right now if one can search text for some specific horizontal scale values…

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

You don’t have much control over the size of the block relative to the text,

With the Find And Replace panel you can search for certain scale values … and also can replace them. This also works with @GarryP's hint to use any font with spaces only.