Dragging between windows

[KIMat]

Hi,

After having been a PS user for the past 27 years, and giving Affinity a whirl, (just bought it today) I am wondering  is it not possible to drag between windows? Love the programme so far, but not excited about the UI. When using separated windows, there is no background base that I can see, and so it is very confusing as whatever application is open behind Affinity shows through. The inability to drag between windows though is a deal breaker for me. I use PS and will use Affinity primarily for design, and with almost everything I do I need to drag elements and text layers between files. Am I missing something here? Is there a way to do this? And is there a way to get a solid background base as part of the UI to make viewing open files in separated mode, and my preference for working 100% of the time, easier? LOVE the ability to save history with files, and to be honest what sold me on the programme, but loving that feature or not, if I can't drag between windows, then it all becomes moot. FYI - Mac User. Attached is what I am seeing when using Affinity in separated mode. 

[Fixx]

You have to drag objects from layers palette to move them to another document. Works fine.

There is no way to set background in separated mode as far as I can see. It would also be quite unmaclike. I though love PS feature "press F" that sets solid background for a document, which yields some work flow advantages. There is no such thing in AP and it also hides other documents, disabling drag&drop.

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, KIMat said:

When using separated windows, there is no background base that I can see, and so it is very confusing as whatever application is open behind Affinity shows through.

The simplest way to avoid having other open apps visible behind Affinity is to hide them. You can do that from the Mac menubar using the 'Hide Others' item or with the keyboard shortcut CMD-Option-H.

 

Alternately, for a more flexible approach use the virtual desktop (a.k.a. Spaces) feature built into the Mac OS to run an Affinity app in its own space. One of the nice things about this is you can set a different desktop background for each space (open System Preferences > Desktop & Screensaver while in that space), so for example you could use one of the Apple > Solid Colors > grays as a neutral desktop background for Affinity. As explained in the article, you can set an Affinity (or any other) app to always open in a specific space if you want.

 

If you don't want to be distracted by the Dock as well, you can hide it so it only pops up when you move the pointer to the edge of the screen.

[KIMat]

Like with all new software there will be a learning curve to navigate. I have just started with Affinity and so there is much to learn, such as how to get my new layer to have a transparent background etc. ( When you import a png how can you view it over a solid layer?) I have used spaces before, but went back to the single space as for some reason as it was causing my iMac to act up. I'll try it again. The dock I absolutely like fixed, I find the hidden dock extremely annoying, and have to chastise my iMac whenever it decides to go rogue and hide it. Just my preference.

 

Oh well... onward and upward. I'll try to look at as many tutorials as I can on AP and maybe get answers to quite a few of my questions such as that transparent layer thing already mentioned. Not thrilled that I have to go to the layers panel to drag from one window to another, and lots of other little tweaks such as is it possible to increase the size of the name on the top of the open file etc. I guess after using PS for as long as I have, all of its features are second nature and I am completely comfortable working with them. Hopefully that will happen with AP as well. 

 

Sometimes I think I am way too impulsive, and should have downloaded a trial first before diving headlong into the programme and purchasing. We'll see...

UPDATE: Much better with  AP in its own space, but while I am not seeing my "busy" image desktop as I assigned a solid colour, I still see all the folders and images that I have on my desktop. Still wish there was an AP solid background like Photoshop.  I will now dedicate my Sunday afternoon to AP Tutorials 101. Thank you both.

 

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, KIMat said:

( When you import a png how can you view it over a solid layer?)

Document menu > Transparent Background controls whether or not empty parts of a document show the checkerboard background indicating transparency or a solid white color. There is no default background layer in Affinity; here "Background" refers to the background of the canvas itself, independently of the transparency or contents of any of its layers.

 

If you want a different background color, add a Fill Layer (from the Layers menu) & move it to the back (the bottom of the layer stack). You set its color as you would for any other object type, like in the Color panel or from the Fill menu in the Context toolbar with the layer & Move Tool selected. You can also use the Gradient Tool to give the Fill Layer a gradient or even a bitmap pattern fill if you want.

 

Essentially any item on the Mac menu can be assigned a custom keyboard shortcut in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts, so for example you could set CTRL+T to toggle on & off the Document menu > Transparent Background command.

[KIMat]

Brilliant! See... I have a lot to learn about this, but always up to a new challenge. A rolling brain gathers no Alzeheimers (we hope). Looking forward to being as comfortable with AP as I am with Photoshop. Thank you. 

[Mithferion]

A bit of a health advice:

• Donating blood helps reduce the levels of iron in our veins, which is related to the development of Alz.. Alz... that thing.

Best regards!

[KIMat]

Interesting... another new thing learnt today. I do take iron so now I will have to do my homework.

Cheers.

[R C-R]

54 minutes ago, KIMat said:

See... I have a lot to learn about this, but always up to a new challenge.

The Affinity apps are different enough from the Adobe ones that it can be a challenge just to figure out what the differences are & how best to use them. Because of that, I think it is easier for people with little prior experience with Adobe to learn Affinity than those that do.

[KIMat]

27 minutes ago, R C-R said:

The Affinity apps are different enough from the Adobe ones that it can be a challenge just to figure out what the differences are & how best to use them. Because of that, I think it is easier for people with little prior experience with Adobe to learn Affinity than those that do.

Indeed - but that's what makes it interesting and fun. I hope I am never too old to accept a challenge and a passion for learning something new.