How to select groups within groups with the move tool and the auto-select option set to "groups"?

[ldna]

Hi all

I am really struggling with selecting groups in affinity publisher 2. I have several groups within other groups. If I want to select a sub-group and move that one from A to B, how do I do that easiest?

I have tried setting auto-select to "groups", but this only lets you select the "biggest" group. Double-clicking to go deeper into the grouping system does not work.

I have tried setting auto-select to "objects". Then, if you want to select several object from a group by dragging the mouse over the objects:
1. it seems that one object of that particular group has to be pre-selected, so that the dragging selects the rest of the objects
2. if I also want to select an object that is not part of that particular group to move it together with the other group, this object is not selected.
3. if I drag over the objects I would like to select and then try to click on a random selected item to then move all the selected items, sometimes the selection is cancelled and I can only move the one object that I just clicked on to move the whole selection.

There is a screen recording showing these 4 problems.

I really struggle with just selecting and moving objects around and so much time is wasted for just rearranging objects, that it is really frustrating. If anyone can point out an easy way to solve this that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

19 hours ago, ldna said:

Double-clicking to go deeper into the grouping system does not work.

Have you tried the documented methods in the Help? https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/select.html

Specifically:

Quote

To select other objects in a selected object's z-order:

Do one of the following:

• With the object selected, on the Select menu, choose:
  • Select Next / Select Previous—selects an object adjacent to the selected object in z-order sequence, within the same layer, group or entire layer stack. The option will cycle selection from bottom to top and vice versa.
  • Select Top / Select Bottom—as above but selection is made of the top or bottom object in the layer, group or entire layer stack in z-order.
  • Select Parent—selects the parent clipping object, layer or group in which the selected object is placed.
• -click the object, then choose the same options as above from the pop-up menu.

And also the information lower on that page in the Modifier Keys box may be useful.

[ldna]

Hi Walt

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I did have a look at those options, however, they don't really do what I want. They move the selection from one group to the next, but they don't make it possible to select only part of one group AND only part of another group. Also, these options don't really fix the problem that when I drag to draw a marquee around the options that I want to move, then when I click on one of the now selected items to move all the selected items, the whole selection disappears and I have to start drawing the marquee again (as seen in the video above). However, moving the selected items with the arrow keys works fine, and sometimes it also works with the mouse, but I can't tell when it works and when the selection just disappears again.

Also, I don't see the Select Top/ Select Bottom and Select Parent options. I only see the Select Next / Select Previous options:

Do I have to activate these options somewhere?

Thank you!