No possibility to assign shortcuts in Publisher

[GRAFKOM]

Probably an oversight. There is no option in Preferences to add shortcuts to items in the context menu in Publisher. The items in question are: Move Selection to New Layer, and Expand Stroke. Serif forgot to add these items to shortcuts in their haste. And the final version 2.6 is just around the corner.

[Hangman]

1 hour ago, GRAFKOM said:

There is no option in Preferences to add shortcuts to items in the context menu in Publisher.

The option is also missing from the Layer Menu in Publisher which seems a little odd... On Mac, none of the Keyboard shortcuts are shown in the Context Menu...

[Chris B]

I'm not convinced it should be on the right-click menu in Publisher. I think it was added by mistake for Photo and Publisher... I'm just waiting to hear back from the developers.

[joe_l]

7 minutes ago, Chris B said:

I'm not convinced it should be on the right-click menu in Publisher. I think it was added by mistake for Photo and Publisher... I'm just waiting to hear back from the developers.

Noooooooo. Do not remove it. Pleeeeaaaaase.

PS: As this RC3 was released I thought it was meant as a birthday present for me. Obviously not. 😭

[blureogroup]

3 hours ago, Chris B said:

I'm not convinced it should be on the right-click menu in Publisher. I think it was added by mistake for Photo and Publisher... I'm just waiting to hear back from the developers.

I must admit I'm not technically aware of how StudioLink works, but given the level of integration between file extensions, tools, and personas, I keep finding decisions to exclude features from certain applications baffling. Why can't we open PSD smart objects in Publisher? Why can't we get an Export Persona in Publisher (Do people only batch export stuff in Designer and Photo??). Following this line of questioning: Why on earth would expanding a stroke be a Designer only feature? Instead of drastic decisions like this, maybe we could get more checkboxes in the program settings and decide for ourselves. As a Publisher power-user, I think that approach would be much nicer.

[GRAFKOM]

And weak Serif, weak. Our intention was only to add shortcuts, not to remove the shortcut menu from the list. Seriously, Serif, you are regressing in development.

In this Beta release, the Expand Stroke item has been removed from the Publisher and Photo pop-up menus.

You are making decisions that your customers do not ask you to make. After selling out to Canva, you most likely have no say in the matter.

Too bad. Because I have made several thousand projects in your program for 9 years, and I don't know if I will not slowly withdraw from your software. Thank you Butryn Marek

[GRAFKOM]

Of course Serif is in such a hurry to release 2.6 that a shortcut to this function will not be added.

Maybe in about 20 years. Good thing I'll be retired and won't be interested in the actions of the Affinity decision-making team.

Serif's momentary mistake of adding Expand Stroke in the context menu in Publisher and Photo only proves that the Publisher program consists of the sum of three programs and is only artificially divided into three Personas. In each Persona, any function of the entire Affinity can work, but it is only artificially blocked.

Nothing to make the program easier, just the use of Serif's unwise decisions. I have version 1.10 of Publisher, where there is a Pages panel in Persona Designer. So what? It can be done. Yes, it can. Only in the new version 2.0 the Pages panel was removed from Persona Designer instead of being added to Persona Photo. Below is a screenshot from Publisher Persona Designer.

 

 

[Meliora spero]

It's not particularly advanced software development to simply expand a chaotic list or remove items from it. Is there anyone in Nottingham hiring one or more real UX designers so this increasingly ridiculous context menu can be reborn in a modern and user-friendly form?

[Frozen Death Knight]

On 2/3/2025 at 9:39 AM, Chris B said:

I'm not convinced it should be on the right-click menu in Publisher. I think it was added by mistake for Photo and Publisher... I'm just waiting to hear back from the developers.

Certain features should be working across the board the same way when it makes sense. What does not make sense however is that I can toggle between a transparent checkerboard background and white background in Photo, but not in Publisher or Designer. Same with the menus being different between all 3 software where the Document menu is missing a ton of features that should be available in all 3, or the fact that "New to Clipboard" doesn't exist in the Publisher Persona while the Photo and Designer Personas do have it. Expand Stroke to me is one of those no-brainer features that you shouldn't need to switch to different Personas just to execute, especially when all 3 software use vector shapes with vector lines.

People will still be using each software because of the toolbars having different tools that specialise in either raster, vector, or publishing work. That does not mean that everything has to be stuck inside one software only. The Linked Layers panel from Photo comes to mind.

[blureogroup]

28 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Certain features should be working across the board the same way when it makes sense. What does not make sense however is that I can toggle between a transparent checkerboard background and white background in Photo, but not in Publisher or Designer. Same with the menus being different between all 3 software where the Document menu is missing a ton of features that should be available in all 3, or the fact that "New to Clipboard" doesn't exist in the Publisher Persona while the Photo and Designer Personas do. Expand Stroke to me is one of those no-brainer features that you shouldn't need to switch to different Personas just to execute, especially when all 3 software use vector shapes with vector lines.

People will still be using each software because of the toolbars having different tools that specialise in either raster, vector, or publishing work. That does not mean that everything has to be stuck inside one software only. The Linked Layers panel from Photo comes to mind.

Or think about the export persona. Honestly now, granular and batch exporting something a designer does no matter the type of material they're working with. You need that in Publishing, Vector, and Raster. Why does Publisher not have one?

Linked Layers... I was using them in every single file in Photoshop. Because they're hidden in a special panel inside of Affinity Photo only I had no idea about their existence until reading your post. I do all of my work in Publisher, because it's just a more flexible version of the other two programs, and using Paragraph styles and Masters on my artboards when I work in documents with the same page size for every artboard, is an absolute superpower.

Well... I guess it's not really a more flexible version. The only sad sad reason I can think why Affinity won't do this, is to drag people into buying Photo and Designer through meaningless little inconveniences locked behind buying them too. But what I can't understand is why people that own all three would have to suffer as well.

A smart thing Canva could do is order an external UI audit for v3 or before, that focuses specifically on these powerful little features that are locked behind a persona or three dropdown menus/modals deep.

[joe_l]

On 2/3/2025 at 9:45 AM, joe_l said:

Noooooooo. Do not remove it. Pleeeeaaaaase.

PS: As this RC3 was released I thought it was meant as a birthday present for me. Obviously not. 😭

They removed it. 🙁🥲😭