A few quirky and quite annoying behaviors in AD.

[pxls2prnt]

Perhaps these have been discussed, but I couldn't find anything after a quick search. And perhaps these behaviors are limited to just me. I hope there is some sort of insight that can provided. For reference, I'm running the latest MAS version of Affinity Designer on a late 2012 model Mac mini (2.6 GHz quad-core i7, 4GB RAM) on macOS Sierra (latest version).

 

Firstly, nearly every time I'm using the CMYK sliders to adjust the color of objects or text, my mouse curser seemingly "sticks" to the sliders. When I click and drag on the first slider (doesn't matter if it's C, M, Y, or K) and adjust the value, everything is fine. However, when I click any of the other sliders to adjust them, the previous slider acts as though it is still selected and the adjustment gets changed. Perhaps the same behavior would be present in other color modes, but I haven't worked with them, so I can't be certain.

 

Secondly, and this also happens quite often, my working canvas will randomly shoot across the screen to the right so only the left 1/4th or so is showing...and then it will stick there. I can scroll as much as I want to the left, and the canvas will bounce a little to the left, and immediately bounce back to the right where it was. Has anyone else seen this? It's really quite frustrating.

[Hokusai]

pxls2prnt,

 

Are you by any chance using a Magic Mouse?

[pxls2prnt]

pxls2prnt,

 

Are you by any chance using a Magic Mouse?

 

Ah, yes...I failed to mention that detail. Original Magic Mouse, not the second generation.

[Hokusai]

pxls2prnt,

 

I wish I could help you more but I'm not sure what is causing your problems. I would recommend this as a read for you though: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/16674-affinity-designer-magic-mouse-disaster/?hl=%2Bmagic+%2Bmouse

 

Best of luck,

Hokusai

[pxls2prnt]

Thanks for the information, Hokusai. 

[pxls2prnt]

A little update...since I didn't have a lot of time last night to spend in AD or AP, I wasn't able to test everything. However, I did shut off my Magic Mouse and used my Wacom tablet as the input device, and the color sliders performed as expected. Switched the mouse back on and tried using that...sliders were all messed up again.

 

Guess I'm in the market for a new mouse. I just don't want anyone to suggest the monstrosity that is the Logitech MX Master.

[R C-R]

My wife's iMac came with a Magic Mouse 2, which I think is functionally the same as the older one except for being wireless. It is very frustrating to try to use it for just about anything that is scrollable because it is much too easy to scroll accidentally when just trying to click on something -- the window will scroll, resulting in the thing you are trying to click on moving out from under the pointer so the click is on something else, or nothing at all.

 

After a week of that, I bought her a Logitech M535. (Amazon in the US sells the blue one for $26 so it is not very expensive.) I have not used it with the Affinity apps so I am not 100% sure it would be the best choice for that but you might want to consider it for the following reasons:

 

• Cheap

• Well made, with a comfortable rubberized surface

• Real buttons with good tactile feel, none of that touch nonsense

• Tracks well on everything except glass

• Bluetooth -- no extra receiver needed. No disconnect or lag problems with the wife's iMac, which has some USB 3 devices attached, a known source of issues with some BT mice

• Logitech Options software gives you lots of options to configure the buttons, supports OS X features like notifications when the battery runs low

• Uses one AA battery -- don't know how long it lasts, but more than 6 months so far

• Scroll wheel has tilt function, can be configured for horizontal scrolling or for other functions

• "Gesture" button can be configured for two way scrolling -- button down changes mouse movement from controlling pointer location to scrolling.

 

It isn't the fanciest mouse on the planet but I think it is good value for the money.

[pxls2prnt]

Thanks R C-R. I'm probably one of the few people on the planet that love the Magic Mouse. I have one for use and home, and I also use one at work (9 hours a day) for design.

 

Overall, the thing works great with Adobe CC. InDesign gives me some troubles with the scroll sensitivity and the pages moving around, but all other apps I'm fine with. I love that I can scroll in all directions in Illustrator with the touch surface. I know a lot of people complain about it not being ergonomic at all, but I hold it in a fingertip grip and have never had any sort of pain in over 3 years of use. I once bought the coveted by many Logitech MX Master, but I couldn't handle how the stupid thing forced me to hold it with a palm grip. It ended up getting returned to Best Buy within a few days.

 

I almost bought a Logitech G900 last night, but the local Best Buy sold their last one before I could get there. Now I'm questioning whether I really should spend more on a mouse than I did on software, just to make the software usable to me. It's a little ridiculous that these "bugs" exist only when using a certain mouse.

[Hokusai]

pxls2prnt,

 

If it makes you feel any better, I went through the same thing. I liked the magic mouse (at least for general use things) but it caused me problems with Affinity Designer and if I had to turn off the scrolling, then why use it? I too looked at many different options from other companies (namely Logictech) but in the end I bought a Mighty Mouse and I've been really happy with it (the one with the scroll ball in it). I bought the corded one (as I hate messing with batteries) and I love it. The only downside is, sometimes the ball gets dirty but it is super easy to clean so it isn't a problem. I hope that you are able to find a mouse that you enjoy!

 

Hokusai

[R C-R]

The Mighty Mouse is OK until the little chamber the ball is in gets too much gunk built up in it for the 'briskly rub on pants' thing to clean it all out. It starts to spill over onto the optical encoder wheels, at which point it becomes erratic.

 

I have had several of these things develop this problem. They are not designed to be disassembled for cleaning. I broke one trying to do that & was successful with another, but is hardly worth the effort.

[Alfred]

My wife's iMac came with a Magic Mouse 2, which I think is functionally the same as the older one except for being wireless. It is very frustrating to try to use it for just about anything that is scrollable because it is much too easy to scroll accidentally when just trying to click on something -- the window will scroll, resulting in the thing you are trying to click on moving out from under the pointer so the click is on something else, or nothing at all.

 

After a week of that, I bought her a Logitech M535. (Amazon in the US sells the blue one for $26 so it is not very expensive.)

 

For some strange reason, Amazon.com sells the black Logitech M535 for $4 more than the blue one. On Amazon.co.uk, they offer the blue one for £34.98, a whole penny off the RRP of £34.99.  :rolleyes:

[pxls2prnt]

I agree with R C-R. I used to use the Mighty Mouse at work. I actually went through three or four of them before my computer was upgraded and came with the Magic Mouse. 

 

I may go pick up a Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX for $20. For as little as I'd use it, I don't want to break the bank.

[Hokusai]

The mighty mouse ball is super easy to clean. Just place a piece of paper (plain white) on your desk and then turn the mouse over and gently apply some pressure and make the ball turn over the paper and it will clean the ball. My Mighty Mouse's scroll ball wouldn't work and I thought I was going to have to get a new one (3 years ago) and I read about this trick and I tried it and it works great. It has kept my Mighty Mouse working perfectly.

[R C-R]

The mighty mouse ball is super easy to clean. Just place a piece of paper (plain white) on your desk and then turn the mouse over and gently apply some pressure and make the ball turn over the paper and it will clean the ball.

Tried that many times. Like I said, it works fine until enough gunk builds up in the very tiny little box chamber around the ball that it works its way out into the area where the equally tiny optical encoder wheels that translate rotation of the ball into digital quadrature signals & clogs them.

 

It isn't the ball itself getting dirty that is the problem, it is that there is no way to get to the stuff that gets trapped inside the mouse out of it.

[pxls2prnt]

The mighty mouse ball is super easy to clean. Just place a piece of paper (plain white) on your desk and then turn the mouse over and gently apply some pressure and make the ball turn over the paper and it will clean the ball. My Mighty Mouse's scroll ball wouldn't work and I thought I was going to have to get a new one (3 years ago) and I read about this trick and I tried it and it works great. It has kept my Mighty Mouse working perfectly.

 

 

Tried that many times. Like I said, it works fine until enough gunk builds up in the very tiny little box chamber around the ball that it works its way out into the area where the equally tiny optical encoder wheels that translate rotation of the ball into digital quadrature signals & clogs them.

 

It isn't the ball itself getting dirty that is the problem, it is that there is no way to get to the stuff that gets trapped inside the mouse out of it.

 

I tend to agree with R C-R on this, although I never did try the paper trick. I did try other methods of cleaning that I read about online, and none of them worked. I believe my mother still has a dead (clogged) one laying around somewhere at her house. Next time I'm over there, I'll have to dig it out of the junk pile and try this cleaning method to see if it makes any difference.

 

Also, went and picked up a Logitech Anywhere MX last night. I've yet to try it out with the Affinity software, but I do need to commit to working on my wedding announcements at some point this weekend, so I'm sure the opportunity will arise. I sure hope this is the solution! It's going to take some getting used to a new mouse, but it may be worth it.

[v_kyr]

Among the input devices laying around here, I have a Logitech M555b Bluetooth mouse which is usually Ok to use, at least under Windows. When used on an iMac under OSX it always suffered from performing "double klicks" instead of a single click, which is pretty annoying in certain situations. That drived me crazy, so I tried a bunch of other settings, different Logitech drivers and so on ... well to no success at all. - Finally ended up using another bigger Logitech mouse I had here and also using the Apple Magic Mouse 2 instead. The Magic Mouse doesn't suffer from that double click syndrome, but is very gesture sensitive, sometimes too much!