Why didn't anyone tell me that you can undock the tools?

[nickbatz]

I hold everyone here responsible for my not knowing that. Come on, I've been using the program for over 2-1/2 years, what's wrong with you people?

Kicking off 2024 with a discovery that's going to make a big difference when I'm working with my Wacom tablet!

[ronnyb]

Wait until you find out you can undock documents too...

[thomaso]

While that option was waiting for you in the menu for 2-1/2 years ... have you ever tried just double-clicking on the empty area of the docked or the title bar of the undocked tools?

[nickbatz]

1 hour ago, ronnyb said:

Wait until you find out you can undock documents too...

I know you can do that to a new view you've created - that's what I do when I'm going to work on one with the Wacom (I have a macro programmed to move it over to the next monitor) - but I'm pretty sure that doesn't work on Macs if you have it set up to move documents to the macOS dock?

Is that right?

By the way, it turns out that the macro, programmed in BetterTouchTool, also works with the undocked tools. 

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

While that option was waiting for you in the menu for 2-1/2 years ... have you ever tried just double-clicking on the empty area of the docked or the title bar of the undocked tools?

I have now. Thanks!

[carl123]

You can also have a Horizontal, undocked tools panel (top or bottom) for those that prefer it that way, have a lot of tools, need/prefer more horizontal workspace or don't like scrolling the vertical one

(Requires a minor edit to one of the config files, the location of which may/will vary depending on if you are using MSIX, EXE or Mac/Windows)

[nickbatz]

9 minutes ago, carl123 said:

You can also have a Horizontal, undocked tools panel (top or bottom) for those that prefer it that way,

Who knew! (Although I personally don't happen to be one of those.)

Now, just to be sure - there's no secret way to open two tools panels, right?

That would make it even easier to use the Wacom, meaning that I wouldn't have to move the tools over to it and position the panel... in addition to creating a new view, tearing it off. moving it over to the Wacom, then sizing and zooming it for the Wacom's smaller monitor.

I wonder whether I can program a macro to do all of that. Hm...

[carl123]

18 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

Now, just to be sure - there's no secret way to open two tools panels, right?

Not that I'm aware of at the moment

Though Studio Presets will allow you to specify which tools are displayed on the Tools Panel. So, if you just wanted a subset of tools when using the Wacom, thus taking up less space, you could do that

Unfortunately, Studio Presets do not allow you to specify the position of the Tools Panel on screen or else that might have also assisted you. Hopefully that will come in a future update/upgrade

 

24 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

I wonder whether I can program a macro to do all of that. Hm...

Not by using the inbuilt macros functions in APhoto but there are other 3rd party macro software packages that work on Windows and Macs that might be able to do what you want.

[v_kyr]

8 hours ago, nickbatz said:

I hold everyone here responsible for my not knowing that. Come on, I've been using the program for over 2-1/2 years ...

Too bad that you for 2-1/2 years nether looked through the apps help or online help  🤔😉...

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, carl123 said:

(Requires a minor edit to one of the config files, the location of which may/will vary depending on if you are using MSIX, EXE or Mac/Windows)

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

Hopefully that will come in a future update/upgrade

Can you tell us the required file path & edits … or was your screenshot a simulation, as in this previous feature request?

[carl123]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Can you tell us the required file path & edits … or was your screenshot a simulation, as in this previous feature request?

It's not a simulation, the file you need to edit is Tools.xml in the %appdata% folder structure on Windows EXE version

Not sure if the Windows MSIX version is in same location and I don't have a clue where that file will be on Macs

This is the line you need to change (I set mine to 40, which is the maximum number of Tools I could get on my screen (different screen sizes/resolutions may change that number)

<DockedColumns>40</DockedColumns>

[thomaso]

42 minutes ago, carl123 said:

I don't have a clue where that file will be on Macs

It seems in the app package for mac does not contain any .xml file while possibly related files are of type .nib or .dylib, not editable like .xml.

Since V2 (different to V1) allows the colour swatches within the tools panel in 1-column width you possibly might be able to move the icon for these swatches up to the row of tools (to save blank space in the bottom toolbar this way).

[lphilpot]

Too bad there's apparently no way to dock the Tools to the right side of the edit window, in this location but docked. This ...works... kind of, but Ctrl+0 puts a little bit of the image under the tools and if you move the app window, the tools stay where they are (even if the app is moved to another display). Dunno why Serif won't allow us to dock to the right, effectively between the edit window and the right-hand panels. The far left is an extremely inconvenient location for right-handed users, particularly if you're using a pen.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

... and I don't have a clue where that file will be on Macs

As @thomaso mentioned, there is no Tools.xml file in the Mac versions, & indeed I don't think there are any app data .xml files related to any of the Mac versions except for one licence.xml file I found at path ~/Library/Group Containers/6LVTQB9699.com.seriflabs/v2/Affinity Designer 2, that just contains the following data.

Quote

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Licence xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <Key></Key>
    <Email></Email>
</Licence>

 

[v_kyr]

For macOS it's defaults system (see: man defaults) is probably used for that sort of Affinity app data defaults.

Quote

> man defaults

> defaults read -app "Affinity Designer"
...
...
SnappingPageCentre = 1;
SnappingPageEdge = 1;
SnappingPixelSelectionBounds = 0;
SnappingQuantizePixelMovement = 1;
SnappingScreenMinSize = 8;
SnappingScreenTolerance = 8;
SnappingShowSnappingCandidates = 0;
"Tab-ToolUI-Hidden" = 0;
"Tab-ToolUIPanel-NumberOfColumns" = 2;
"Tab-ToolsPanel-showingPalette" = 0;
"Tab-ToolsUI-DockedState" = 1;
"ToolbarData-Hidden" = 0;
"ToolbarData-ShowIcon" = 1;
"ToolbarData-ShowText" = 0;
...
...

 

[nickbatz]

13 hours ago, carl123 said:

Not by using the inbuilt macros functions in APhoto but there are other 3rd party macro software packages that work on Windows and Macs that might be able to do what you want.

Right, I use BetterTouchTool (https://folivora.ai).

It's fabulous - but its clipboard management feature collides with Affinity Photo, so anyone considering it needs to know to disable that.

[nickbatz]

10 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Too bad that you for 2-1/2 years nether looked through the apps help or online help  🤔😉...

None of that, please. Come on, there are things you'e missed too.

[nickbatz]

4 hours ago, lphilpot said:

The far left is an extremely inconvenient location for right-handed users, particularly if you're using a pen.

I think your feature request is a good one, but to be fair it's subjective. I personally would put the tools on the left just because... I don't know why, but that's where I'm used to looking for that kind of thing.

What I'd like - and have posted as a feature request - is for a "screensets" feature that among other things lets you include a new view on a second monitor (aka a Wacom in my case). That would include the position of the tools.

[lphilpot]

Just now, nickbatz said:

I think your feature request is a good one, but to be fair it's subjective.

I actually made an RFE for this, but in general it's not because I'm right-handed. It's because being able to dock in only one place -- when UIs in general have long been more flexible than that -- seems more than a little arbitrarily limiting.* The tools panel should be dockable anywhere anything else is dockable.

 

* Kind of like multiple image windows should be tileable, just like GUIs have been able to do for thirty years.

[nickbatz]

1 minute ago, lphilpot said:

I actually made an RFE for this, but in general it's not because I'm right-handed. It's because being able to dock in only one place -- when UIs in general have long been more flexible than that -- seems more than a little arbitrarily limiting.* The tools panel should be dockable anywhere anything else is dockable.

 

* Kind of like multiple image windows should be tileable, just like GUIs have been able to do for thirty years.

Fair enough, although - as I discovered - you can tear off the tools and put them wherever you want.

The gold standard for screensets is Apple Logic Pro, which includes everything you can think of in them. For example, even the secondary tool you access by holding Command is part of the screenset. 

[lphilpot]

Just now, nickbatz said:

you can tear off the tools and put them wherever you want.

Yes, but try this with the tools non-docked -- Drag the app to another screen. Nice, eh? (NOT!)

[R C-R]

51 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

For macOS it's defaults system (see: man defaults) is probably used for that sort of Affinity app data defaults.

Maybe so, but I do not see anything there that would result in a horizontal Tools panel. Any idea if there is one that I'm just overlooking?

[nickbatz]

1 hour ago, lphilpot said:

Yes, but try this with the tools non-docked -- Drag the app to another screen. Nice, eh? (NOT!)

 

 

I think what's going on is that the second screen is lower-res, so the program window is too big to fit on it. If so, the workaround is what I wrote: create a new view, undock it from the top bar, and move it to the second screen to use. And as I discovered, you can then move the tool panel over.

For example, I run my main monitor (a 32" 4K one) at 3200x1800 and the Wacom is 1920x1080. It looks like you have a larger second monitor than mine (?), but I'd have to change the window size on the Wacom anyway - for the same reason I don't run my main monitor at the full 3840x2160 4K resolution: the dot pitch would be way too small.

macOS' behavior when you move programs to different screens is a little odd. Going from larger to smaller, it does what you show (cutting off some of the window). But then when you go back from smaller to larger, the window is smaller than it was originally.

[lphilpot]

3 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

I think what's going on is that the second screen is lower-res, so the program window is too big to fit on it.

No that's not what's going on. Both monitors are the same resolution. It just leaves the tool panel behind if undocked. Doesn't move it at all when the main app window is moved.

[nickbatz]

Ah, then that's why God created BetterTouchTool - so you can program a key command to move the dock over.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Maybe so, but I do not see anything there that would result in a horizontal Tools panel. Any idea if there is one that I'm just overlooking?

For Windows I think the magic was setting the number of columns to 40 for the Tools, which gave just one icon per column.