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James Ritson

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35 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The first Affinity Photo help page also says it's for 1.6.0.

On the other hand, that's also what Help->Help... says, so perhaps none of the Help files have been updated since the 1.6.0 releases of Designer and Photo?

 

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Maybe not a real issue but when I open the US English Affinity Designer help page, it still refers to version 1.6.0:

 

Since we are now at 1.6.1 on Macs, I don't know if this means any updates to the help topics in that newer version (if there are any) would be found with the search or not.

 

I think we will change that to 1.6  not 1.6.4/1.6.7 (and 1.6.4/1.6.1 for Designer) as the desktop versions are a little odd

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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30 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Say I'm reading something on one of the pages and want to search for that term. Without having already thought of making and saving away a bookmark what is 'Ms Average' meant to do to search the site for the term?

I don't know. All I can tell you is I made those bookmarks for the top level pages for my own use, mostly because they are much faster (with or without the new & much appreciated search function!) to load into my browser than waiting for Apple's built-in help viewer to open the respective Affinity (or almost any other sizable) help book, which typically takes forever to open. Also, its search function often does not find what I am looking for either at all or as quickly as the Google-powered online one does.

 

The online version just works better so that is what I use.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 hour ago, Patrick Connor said:

...Say I'm reading something on one of the pages and want to search for that term. Without having already thought of making and saving away a bookmark what is 'Ms Average' meant to do to search the site for the term?

Well if 'Ms Average' is clever & smart, she could also always ask Google here:

  • "search term" site:https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Just now, v_kyr said:

Well if 'Ms Average' is clever & smart, she could also always ask Google here:

  • "search term" site:https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj

 

nope, that means a new tab or browsing away.... I'm not saying it's not possible to search this site... I'm saying there is no point in us adding this feature to the site on the landing page never to be seen again as you go on to use the site as designed.

 

Am I being unclear here?

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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I know what you mean and IMO your best way and option here is so far only, to also add an clear visable "search icon" with an associated link (which then expands to the initial start search page), on the left side bottom down pages there. Beside the "Copy link to clipboard" icon!

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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1 hour ago, Patrick Connor said:

 

nope, that means a new tab or browsing away.... I'm not saying it's not possible to search this site... I'm saying there is no point in us adding this feature to the site on the landing page never to be seen again as you go on to use the site as designed.

Am I being unclear here?

Another possibly way which came to my mind here is, to just use an always being there positioned floating search button on the right side. When you hover that floating button it will then slides out the search field for input, otherwise being less unobtrusive there if needed. This way you don't have to go to a search landing page at all and can perform the search from where ever you are, so to say one can then perform a search from inside of any actual help page.

I believe this can also be combined with the previous left side bottom icon suggestion then, meaning here instead of an always being there visable floating search field & button on the right side, then just showup the right side flaoting search field when that left bottom side button icon is pressed.

 

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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8 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

 

nope, that means a new tab or browsing away.... I'm not saying it's not possible to search this site... I'm saying there is no point in us adding this feature to the site on the landing page never to be seen again as you go on to use the site as designed.

 

Am I being unclear here?

 

I think this makes sense. It's like using google to find content on a shopping website rather than using the search on the shopping website. I can relate since I'm an organization freak. :D

 

I have an idea. Seeing how all the content is on the left, why not slightly shift them down, and place a home icon and search box right above the different sections? That way, everything is pinned and in one place.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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A question about the online Help files, and the newly added Google Search ability.

Suppose we open the online Designer help, and search for the word scrubby. Doing that, I get these search results from Google:
 

Quote
About 2 results (0.21 seconds)
Sort by:
Relevance
 
 
 
 
If you have a Trackpad, you can use 'pinch to zoom' to zoom in and out at any time, regardless of tool selection. By default, the tool offers 'scrubby' zoom, which means you drag left or right to zoom out or in, respectively. To change behavior to zoom to marquee region, go to Affinity Designer>Preferences (Tools option).
 
 
 
Preferences. Preferences comprise a series of miscellaneous options that are applied across your application. They can be used to set up your own way of working. General options. Choose whether to restore the last session when launching application. Choose to open PSDs with editable text objects. Select whether to ...
 
 

If I click on the Zoom Tool result, nowhere on that page can I find any of the preview text that Google provided for me.

As my local search of the Windows help for Designer does not include the word scrubby at all, I suspect that is only a Mac setting, which leads me to wonder if the online Help is perhaps based on the Windows help file, but the index is based on the Mac help file? Or is something else going on?

I can say that the online Help bears a strong resemblance to my local Designer help for Zoom Tool, but it is not identical:

  1. My Help file has a box with the text "Tool shortcut: Z key". The online help has "Tool shortcut key: Z".
  2. Below that box, my local help has a box with the text "If you have a trackpad, you can use 'pinch to zoom' to zoom in and out at any time, regardless of tool selection." but that box/text is missing from the online help.

So the online help seems to be missing parts of what may be Mac-specific info, but also seems to be missing part of the Windows info.

(I'm not sure why the Mac and Windows versions would have different capabilities for the Zoom Tool, but that would be a separate question. :) )

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

If I click on the Zoom Tool result, nowhere on that page can I find any of the preview text that Google provided for me.

For what little it is worth, this is what the page looks like for me, using the Safari browser on my Mac:

5aa317151fae7_Zoomtool.png.f6df1b218d0f7d2504f451f0794152e4.png

I tried tricking the page into loading what I might see if I were running Windows by changing the 'user agent' to identify my Mac as a Windows PC running a PC browser but without success.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/17/2017 at 2:33 PM, Polygonius said:

Am i to stupide?

Can not download the whole file. Just print single-pages like in the old version?????

Why to hell, not just a simple PDF???? 

The help itself (and the localization) is very good, but the access to the chapters or keywords is from the for-last centurry.

 

But at least - its now zoomable!

I've used HTtrack Copier and successful now. I think you can try!

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  • 5 months later...

Hi there, may I make a request?

For each topic, there is a navigation explaining how to get to the topic (Home > Learn and Share > Resources). My request is if you could do the same for the Affinity Online Help Resource. If I were to search for something like the Node Tool, for example, then I could see through the navigation, okay, that's how you get there. And then, next time, I'll remember. Also, if I want to go back to the home and search another app or start a new search, I could just click on the home button. This would be very helpful. Let me know if it can be considered.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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7 minutes ago, Bri-Toon said:

If I were to search for something like the Node Tool, for example, then I could see through the navigation, okay, that's how you get there. And then, next time, I'll remember. Also, if I want to go back to the home and search another app or start a new search, I could just click on the home button. This would be very helpful.

Couldn’t you simply add the relevant URLs to your bookmarks? :/

https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=/Tools/tools_node.html?title=Node Tool

https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Yes, but that may not work for everyone, because then you'll add up with a dozen bookmarks. Being the organization freak that I am, I like to know the structure in which something is organized. For example, when I was in school learning about Adobe, I was taught a lot of the key commands (shortcuts) before first knowing the route path. And I struggled in remembering. If I found which menu the option existed in first, then it would give me an idea of which other options might also be listed there for when I'm lost. So I guess it's just a way to not find the detail but to become familiar with its category.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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  • 2 months later...

Unfortunately, the Help File referred to here seems to be solely for the Desktop version - with nothing equivalent for the iPad version.

A while ago, Forum member DM1 spent considerable time and effort to transpose the complete iPad version's in-app Help file into pdf format, and made it available to all.

The link to his post is here:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/64366-affinity-designer-on-ipad-pdf-help-file/&tab=comments#comment-336477

I have suggested to the forum moderators they might place it as a Sticky at the top the Resources and/or Support forum, since so many people have asked for such a useful file.

Sadly, they have not, and so the post has become long-buried amongst past threads.

It is not, of course, an official Serif document, but that is made absolutely clear in the post, and I can assure all it is an almost totally literal transposition - so I cannot see why Affinity have not made it a sticky. Perhaps they missed that (lengthy) thread - (in which case please excuse my irritation).

I'd think the frequent, frustrated, requests for such a resource - not to mention the both accurate and generous efforts of DM1 - plainly make it just as worth highlighting here and in iPad Questions as this post.

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  • 7 months later...
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Hello all, apologies as the online help had been updated since Thursday but I didn't get around to updating this thread. Affinity Publisher has now been added to https://affinity.help and there have been a couple of new features added:

  • Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left.
  • Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.

Product Expert (Affinity Photo) & Product Expert Team Leader

@JamesR_Affinity for tutorial sneak peeks and more
Official Affinity Photo tutorials

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1 hour ago, James Ritson said:
  • Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.

This was not working for me before the update but I am happy to report that it does now. :)

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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22 hours ago, James Ritson said:

Hello all, apologies as the online help had been updated since Thursday but I didn't get around to updating this thread. Affinity Publisher has now been added to https://affinity.help and there have been a couple of new features added:

  • Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left.
  • Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.

The Publisher Help is beautifully done!   Only problem is that it won't print, using the little icon.   


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

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18 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

Only problem is that it won't print, using the little icon.

...on your MacOS Sierra with a local printer?

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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18 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

...on your MacOS Sierra with a local printer?

Yes.  With my iMac OS Sierra.  I have tried this with my HP Officejet Pro 8620, which I use for everyday fiddling.    It prints everything else from all three apps.   Haven’t tried the Photo or Designer help files.   Just tried to print from Designer help.  Same thing.   The Print icon (above More) shows as active, but when I click on it, the print menu shows a blank page, as does Publisher Help.    Clicking on More brings up the usual active Extensions menu.


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

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26 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

but when I click on it, the print menu shows a blank page, as does Publisher Help

@James Ritson is off for a bit but I am sure he will try to resolve this if at all possible. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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1 hour ago, Patrick Connor said:

@James Ritson is off for a bit but I am sure he will try to resolve this if at all possible. 

I am absolutely fine with making screen shots if there is something I want.  Just thought that people who are brand new to the Affinity trio may refer to the Online Help more often and might like to print something out.  I am a total dolt at making screen shots but did flounder through one using Publisher Help, that demonstrates this issue.  I have saved it in case @James Ritson would like to see it when he comes back after a few days.  Anyway, HELP is grand!!  


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

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On 6/24/2019 at 11:55 AM, Patrick Connor said:

@James Ritson is off for a bit but I am sure he will try to resolve this if at all possible. 

Further for James:  It occurred to me that I should try going straight through Safari, rather than Publisher/Designer/Photo HELP.    When I accessed the Publisher HELP by logging on through Safari, I was able to print any HELP page, but only after clicking on the top of the opened page.   Nothing was then highlighted, but it did show the page(s) in the print dialog box.  Just opening a particular HELP page and then going straight to Safari>FILE>Print without clicking on the page gave the same blank page as I get when trying to print from the Publisher/Designer/Photo HELP  page.   This might be useful.  


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

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To all,

RE: HARD COPY RESOURCE & USER GUIDES: AFFINITY PRODUCT RANGE

Being a loyal SERIF user for many years, PPV9, WPV8 & PHOTO+V7. I thought the little (A5/6-ish) hard copy resource guides & user guides one received when purchasing just got straight to the point without any faffing & one could find most things with ease. I realise times have changed & most software (apps--yuke) I've purchased over the last 5/8 years or so don't come with any hard copy manuals, everything is a download, (save-the-trees-&-all-that). But was wondering if the AFFINITY line up of products would consider something similar to download in pdf searchable form ?

If that isn't do-able, then perhaps make available the help manuals to be standalone in pdf file format !

 

Over & out,

CJT963

Over & out,

CJT1963

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On 6/22/2019 at 11:53 PM, James Ritson said:

and there have been a couple of new features added:

  • Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left.
  • Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.

I just now discovered the online version of help and am pleased about this as an alternative to the built in help system. To me the font size there is always too small and I haven't found a way to set a preference. The online help looks much better to me. It is also helpful to have it on the tablet at the side.

One thing I am missing: an icon/shortcut to the startpage of the help where I can choose Photo / Designer / Publisher.

Many thanks and cheers,
d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

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1 hour ago, dominik said:

I just now discovered the online version of help and am pleased about this as an alternative to the built in help system. To me the font size there is always too small and I haven't found a way to set a preference.

On Windows, at least, the Help is a set of HTML files displayed in a web browser. Thus, many standard browser shortcuts such as Ctrl- + and Ctrl- - will work to adjust the font size.I don't know of a way to save a preferred size, but that adjustment on a per session basis may hep.

1 hour ago, dominik said:

One thing I am missing: an icon/shortcut to the startpage of the help where I can choose Photo / Designer / Publisher.

You can, of course, create a browser bookmark to the home page. With some browsers you can even put that bookmark on the browsr's toolbar, to make it very convenient. Or, with Firefox, you could create a keyword shortcut so you could simply type something like "afhelp topic" and get to that site with the search filled in (though I have not confirmed it will work with this website).

However, yes, it would be nice if the Affinity Help website provided a link. :)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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