Feature Requests: Override Hotkey; List All/Search for Hotkeys; [No Change] Behaviour, etc...

[hayaku]

Hello all!

I've been using the Trial Version of Affinity Publisher 2 now for about a week, and am seriously considering purchasing it.

However, there are a few glaring "quality of life" issues that have driven me absolutely insane, and have caused me to waste an enormous amount of time. Hopefully they can be resolved, and you can win another loyal and satisfied customer

ISSUE 1: Hotkey Overrides
In my entire life playing video games, setting up clashing Hotkey/Shortcut would give the user the option to flush/discard the legacy option. For some reason, Publisher 2 simply brings up a warning label, but then forces the user to manually go and locate the existing shortcut, and clear that by hand. In some cases, I tried this multiple times and gave up, since I did not know what the existing shortcut was, or what it did, or where to find it. Googling would occasionally help, but its also a frustrating experience these days (what with search dying before our eyes). This annoyance is, however, massively exacerbated by...

 

ISSUE 2: Hotkeys/Shortcuts not searchable, and not visible in a "list all" format
Having to manually click through all the subgroups is immensely frustrating. Most programs/menus that are considered 'well-polished' either have a search option, or at least an alphabetical index under "list all" that will jump to highlight after a few quick keystrokes, IE through type-ahead or incremental search functions. This would be very, very helpful!

 

ISSUE 3: Settings Menu is NOT resizable, and is very claustrophobic.
This synergises with Issues #1 and #2. I am using a 4k monitor, and the Settings Menu takes up about 1/8th of my screen real-estate. Makes life difficult!

 

ISSUE 4: 'Settings' Shortcut is Broken
No matter what I map it it as, I can't seem to get the shortcut to bring up 'Settings' to function. Synergises with 1–4, making settings Hotkeys in general a VERY painful experience.

 

ISSUE 5: [No Style] defaults to 0, instead of its own Value.
This one is killing me. Obviously, I want my styles to be selectively linked, so that if I randomly decide to go from 0.5" to 0.333" Text Indents, this will be universal across my document.

However, when clicking on the [Same Style] box, the existing value does not flood the field, but actually defaults to Zero (or something else strange) in many cases ruining everything, and forcing me to trace my way back through all the style links, searching for the original values, so I can copy-paste these in, and finally get about tweaking the value itself! (adds ~2–3 mins to my work flow, for absolutely no good reason). Perhaps this should be changed? Or at least, create a setting that allows it to be changed?

That is all.

Thanks so much for the wonderful software! Looking forward to these (and other) improvements as time goes on!

Edited August 23 by hayaku

[Old Bruce]

48 minutes ago, hayaku said:

Publisher 2 simply brings up a warning label, but then forces the user to manually go and locate the existing shortcut, and clear that by hand. In some cases, I tried this multiple times and gave up, since I did not know what the existing shortcut was, or what it did, or where to find it.

Issue 1

If you hover the mouse on the warning triangle then you should get a tooltip which will show the name of the item that shortcut is set for. Sadly your complaint about not being able to find where it is is all too valid. I don't know how hard would it be to have the section included.

56 minutes ago, hayaku said:

ISSUE 2: Hotkeys/Shortcuts not searchable, and not visible in a "list all" format

Another thing I don't understand is why there isn't a list of things which can have shortcuts made for them. A simple list of what can have a shortcut with the Affinity default applied shortcuts and then another column with our hand rolled and changed shortcuts would be a start.

1 hour ago, hayaku said:

ISSUE 4: 'Settings' Shortcut is Broken

I am guessing you are talking about the "Preferences" shortcut which is Command + , (comma) on my Mac.

====================

Issue 5

I really don't know what you are describing here. It reads like you are discussing Text Styles which should be a separate post.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

I am guessing you are talking about the "Preferences" shortcut which is Command + , (comma) on my Mac.

It is Settings in newer releases of macOS.

 

[Old Bruce]

33 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It is Settings in newer releases of macOS.

Do you know if there is there a problem with Command + , for the shortcut? Or with a home made shortcut for it not working? Just curious.

[hayaku]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Issue 5

I really don't know what you are describing here. It reads like you are discussing Text Styles which should be a separate post.

Yeah maybe I'll make another post about it (it *is* about text styles)

I managed to fix the 'Settings' Shortcut is Broken comment, there seemed to be a conflict with some other software (AutoHotKey) which for some reason was breaking come Ctl + shortcuts but not others.

Yes I am aware that I can over over and find the conflicting command, but this does not help me. I still have to go and search for it, and without a searchable or alphabetized index, this is nightmarishly annoying.