Interface default change in styles

[Clayton King]

Is it possible to change how Affinity products display entries in styles. For example, in Paragraph Spacing, it is not particularly helpful (at least to me) to see "[No change] in the field as I have no real idea what that is. I know I can look at the style settings at the bottom of the window, but that requires reading through and finding what I'm looking for. Rather, it seems it would be more helpful to see the actual value in the field which is visually more immediate.

 

[MikeTO]

@Clayton King Most apps do show the actual value when editing a style but Affinity's approach means we can create styles that specifically include a value even if the parent style has the same value. This is handy for those who need to change the base style for different outputs.

For example, if Heading 1 is defined as Bold and Heading 2 is based on Heading 1:

• With Affinity's approach, Heading 2 is really defined as Bold so if you later edit Heading 1 and make it Regular, or change Heading 2 to be based on another style, there will be no impact on Heading 2.
• With the other approach, Heading 2 would not be defined as Bold when you click OK because the app wouldn't save definitions for fields that match the parent style. If you later edit Heading 1 and change Bold to Regular then Heading 2 will change, too.

If Affinity were to be changed to show the actual value in the control, editing Heading 2 and clicking OK would delete the Bold attribute because the Heading 1 already has it. This might not be an issue for most users but it would be for some.

However, I agree with your point that it's impossible to know from the Text Style Editor what the inherited value is. The window is modal so I've sometimes had to click OK and edit the parent style to find out its value.

In an ideal world we'd have both - the control set to N/C and an indication of the inherited value but showing both would clutter up the window. The simplest solution might be to be able to hover over a control and see a tooltip with the inherited value.

Another more limited option would be to make the parent style name clickable in the Style Settings summary at the bottom, or add a button beside the Based On list, to display a summary of the parent style.

[Clayton King]

@MikeTO, I completely agree. I guess ultimately, I'm old school and used to build my stylesheets (aging myself there) from the top down (i.e., Heading 1, Body, Bullet 1, etc.) and adjust from there. And because I did that, I inherently knew the values of things. You're right - ideally, we'd see both.

[MikeW]

Serif could perhaps show inherited values in brackets. 

Dang autocorrect!

[Bound by Beans]

1 hour ago, MikeW said:

Serif could perhaps show inherited values in brackets. 

And should!