Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 (Mac) Can't unselect layer.

[Przemek O.]

Hello, 

I have a small problem in the program that is very irritating. In the project, when I drag an element from assets and it is a single object, clicking anywhere in the document deselects it. However, if the dragged element from assets is a group, then despite clicking anywhere, the element is still selected. In the case when I now drag anything from assets, the element falls into the selected group. In other words, when the selected element is a group, clicking on an empty space in the document does not deselect it. However, when a single element is selected, everything works correctly.

Unfortunately I am not able to determine in which version this error appeared, in any case, in versions from a year ago it worked correctly, because old projects have each element dragged from assets separately, and such action as I described above would definitely have caught my attention.

I am posting a video to illustrate what I have described.

[walt.farrell]

It appears to me that the items you're calling Groups might in fact be Layers (Layer layers, sometimes called Vector Layers in the Help). You can confirm that by hovering the mouse pointer over that layer icon in front of the layer thumbnail.

Layer layers don't have a specific size, so there's no way to "click outside them" in the workspace. You would probably have to use Layer Select > Deselect (Cmd+D on macOS, by default).

I don't think this is a bug, just a difference in object behavior that users need to recognize and adjust to.

[Hangman]

11 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

You would probably have to use Layer > Deselect (Cmd+D on macOS, by default).

Deselect is under the Select menu rather than the Layer menu but selecting it doesn't solve the issue...

Likewise, the Help file seems to suggest this is the expected behaviour...

Layers or child layers are created above or inside the currently selected layer, respectively.

The only solution I can think of would be for the black arrows to be added to the Assets Panel as Layers (in the same way the colour icons have been) which would then allow them to be placed above the currently selected layer rather than as a child of the currently selected Layer...

Or

Include an object in the document to select before adding the black arrows which would then deselect the Vector Layer before the arrow is added. Option Selecting Insert at the Top of the Layer would always place it at the top of the layer stack...

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

Deselect is under the Select menu rather than the Layer menu but selecting it doesn't solve the issue...

Thanks. Fixed.

And you're right that Layer layer selections are quite "sticky". You have to specifically select something else; you can't just Deselect.

Another fix for the Asset problem mentioned by @Przemek O. might be to actually use Groups for the Assets rather than Layers.

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

Another fix for the Asset problem mentioned by @Przemek O. might be to actually use Groups for the Assets rather than Layers.

That doesn't work, the Group is seen as a Child of the Vector Layer and is subsequently nested...

The only solution I can think of is to make the Assets Vector Layers which then results in the Asset appearing as a Parent Layer above any existing Vector Layer rather than as a child of an existing Vector Layer...

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Hangman said:

That doesn't work, the Group is seen as a Child of the Vector Layer and is subsequently nested...

I'm suggesting not using Layers in the Assets at all. Then you don't end up with them in the design unless you create them explicitly for the design.

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm suggesting not using Layers in the Assets at all. Then you don't end up with them in the design unless you create them explicitly for the design.

That would equally work but I guess it all depends on whether the road sign Assets shown in @Przemek O.'s screen recording were created by him or whether they are imported from another source as Vector Layers but yes, either All Groups or All Layers would achieve the same thing...

[Przemek O.]

I realize that some of the assets are layers. I use Affinity several times a year to create routes for tourist rallies. I last used it in January this year. The assets have been the same from the very beginning (since the previous version of Affinity). I created some of them and Affinity from scratch, and these are as groups of objects. And some I imported from Corel, in which I worked before. And they were most often imported as layers. The problem is that when I worked on the project previously, the publisher did not work in the way shown in the video. That is, clicking on the document would even unmark these layers. The current operation is so inconvenient for me that if it had been like this before, I would have noticed it too.

In any case, it is not a problem to convert all assets into groups. The bigger problem for me is the inconsistency of operation. If I have something in the object tree, I would expect the same way of operation, regardless of the type of the object. And this is probably the biggest problem. The way it works now is not intuitive for me.

Maybe, as someone who doesn't work with the program on a daily basis, I'm approaching this wrong and there's some justification for this and not another action.

Edited October 6, 2024 by Przemek O.

[Hangman]

On 10/6/2024 at 10:49 PM, Przemek O. said:

Maybe, as someone who doesn't work with the program on a daily basis, I'm approaching this wrong and there's some justification for this and not another action.

Not at all, the issue is already logged as a bug under AF-4601 and is still awaiting a fix...

Another option which is again only a workaround so far from ideal, is to Group the Vector Layer once dragged to the Page, this will prevent the non-Vector Layer Assets from being nested...

[DWright]

I have added this to the bug report for this issue.