To reposition the ruler origin:

[Hans Rutgers]

 

 To reposition the ruler origin:

• From the main toolbar, enable Edit Ruler Origin and drag the ruler origin to your desired position.

Where has this function gone? Was there in 128, can't find it anymore. I find it really useful and I would like to have it also in Designer.

Publisher is really going to be a serious competitor in publisher imho, thx.

Hans.

[MEB]

Hi Hans Rutgers,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
It's still there (see the screenshot below). The Help file is not very clear about this. You have to drag the origin point that's by default on the top left corner of the canvas. Zoom out if you don't see it (see screenshot 2).

[MikeW]

Which is a poor implementation of what ought to be a simple task from any zoom level by dragging from the ruler intersection...like in about everything else. I only add the word "about" because while I have used a bazillion applications over the years, there actually could be one that uses some sub-optimal method.

[Hans Rutgers]

Well, yes, there it was in 1.7.0.128, but not in my copy of 133 for Mac!  

Schermafbeelding 2018-09-25 om 21.57.50.pdf

[Hans Rutgers]

And it is not in the "customize toolbar" menu.Schermafbeelding 2018-09-25 om 22.11.00.pdf

[MEB]

Hi Hans Rutgers,
Probably some issue with the update. Press and hold ⌃(ctrl) while launching the app until a Clear User Data dialog appears. Keep the first three checkboxes ticked and press Clear. This should fix the issue.

[Hans Rutgers]

Thank you, that worked. Now I will go to the Affinity Designer forum to list it as a feature request :-)).

 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, MikeW said:

Which is a poor implementation of what ought to be a simple task from any zoom level by dragging from the ruler intersection...

I don't necessarily disagree with you about that, but the current implementation has the (very minor) advantage of allowing users to move the origin even when the ruler is not visible.

Also, since the origin crosshair target appears in the workspace, together with the usual snapping options, it can easily be snapped to any object, even to a snapping candidate of an object that is that is completely off the page. I have no idea if or how useful that really would be, but it does make possible precision placement of the origin to a point on or off the page.

Maybe one of both of those things went into the decision to implement it this way? 

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Hans Rutgers said:

And it is not in the "customize toolbar" menu.Schermafbeelding 2018-09-25 om 22.11.00.pdf

Your Customize Toolbar dialog was not scrolled all the way to the bottom. The tool you wanted is lower in the list.

[MikeW]

42 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't necessarily disagree with you about that, but the current implementation has the (very minor) advantage of allowing users to move the origin even when the ruler is not visible.

Also, since the origin crosshair target appears in the workspace, together with the usual snapping options, it can easily be snapped to any object, even to a snapping candidate of an object that is that is completely off the page. I have no idea if or how useful that really would be, but it does make possible precision placement of the origin to a point on or off the page.

Maybe one of both of those things went into the decision to implement it this way? 

Personally, I think I may have moved the ruler origin a couple times in a layout application in what? Going on 30 years. Which goes to explain my disregard (perhaps disdain) for how it currently works. I mean, I gotta toggle a button? I cannot imagine it cannot be done using the ruler intersection along with all the nifty snapping features too. And most all of them work to reset the ruler origin by double-clicking on the ruler intersection.

I do use the feature off and on in vector editing software though. I mainly use Xara Designer Pro, which does also snap to objects when the "other application" method is used. As does CorelDraw. As does ...

But anyway, like other items in Affinity products I find odd or hey, "just different," Serif didn't ask my opinion way back when these things were a dream and certainly aren't asking outsiders much now (if at all). Tis their vision that we chuckle at when using (else one could get upset) and put up with if using their software.

[Alfred]

14 minutes ago, MikeW said:

I do use the feature off and on in vector editing software though. I mainly use Xara Designer Pro, which does also snap to objects when the "other application" method is used. As does CorelDraw. As does ...

... Serif DrawPlus, perhaps? I know they’re trying to do everything “new from the ground up”, but double-clicking on the ruler intersection to move the ruler origin is so intuitive that almost any other choice of method seems perverse.

[MikeW]

2 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

... Serif DrawPlus, perhaps? I know they’re trying to do everything “new from the ground up”, but double-clicking on the ruler intersection to move the ruler origin is so intuitive that almost any other choice of method seems perverse.

I usually term these types of things, novel. I suspect Serif doesn't like me using that term.

[Seneca]

1 hour ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

but double-clicking on the ruler intersection

You can double-click the Page Origin Icon in Publisher and it too will snap back to the 0,0 origin.
I kind of like this implementation. You don't have to drag it from the top-left ruler intersection to get to the page. It's already there at the 0,0 origin.
On a bigger screen that's a big advantage.

[MikeW]

Yes, double-click works fine. When it's in view. Do update the thread after quite some use. The extra zoom in/out has already been an impediment for working quickly.

Now, like I mentioned earlier, I doubt I'll ever use this facility in APub. I'm just trying it out as this thing will be in AD. 

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

... Serif DrawPlus, perhaps? I know they’re trying to do everything “new from the ground up”, but double-clicking on the ruler intersection to move the ruler origin is so intuitive that almost any other choice of method seems perverse.

IIRC, back in ancient times when I used Freehand 7 on a classic PPC Mac, to move an origin one clicked & dragged on the zero point on the rulers, so the vertical & horizontal origin points could be adjusted separately. Double-clicking on the units designator at the intersection of the two rulers reset it to the upper left edge of the canvas.

[A_B_C]

4 hours ago, MikeW said:

The extra zoom in/out has already been an impediment for working quickly.

Apart from bloating the interface with a basically superfluous button, I believe this is the big disadvantage of the current approach. You cannot quickly reposition the ruler origin when the origin handle is out of sight. While the “handle” approach has advantages on bigger screens, this one is really an issue. In some cases, it requires a lot of zooming in and out indeed. 

Furthermore, we should be able to change document units by right clicking the ruler origin.

[R C-R]

34 minutes ago, A_B_C said:

You cannot quickly reposition the ruler origin when the origin handle is out of sight. While the “handle” approach has advantages on bigger screens, this one is really an issue.

Except that particularly on small screens, users may not want to sacrifice any screen space to showing the rulers. For that matter, even on my 27" iMac, if I am working in separated window mode with several workspace windows and/or views of a document, all those pixels devoted to showing the rulers leaves progressively less room for the documents themselves.

As for toolbar bloat, users can remove the pair of buttons if they don't need them, or move them so far to the right that they are on the pop-out ≫ menu.

[Fixx]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Except that particularly on small screens, users may not want to sacrifice any screen space to showing the rulers.

CMD-R, move origin, CMD-R. Just toggle rulers on-off.

[Seneca]

3 hours ago, A_B_C said:

Furthermore, we should be able to change document units by right clicking the ruler origin.

+1

[fde101]

It would also be nice to have an option (probably buried in a menu somewhere) to set the origin point to the center of the page - maybe center vertically, center horizontally, center both?

 

Actually, I could almost see a submenu somewhere in the menu bar:

Coordinate System ->
    Show/Hide Origin Point

    Set Origin Point...

    ----

    Upper-Left Corner Origin

    Lower-Left Corner Origin

    Upper-Right Corner Origin

    Lower-Right Corner Origin

    ----

    Top-Center Origin

    Bottom-Center Origin

    Center-Left Origin

    Center-Right Origin

    Page Center Origin 

    ----

    Invert Vertical Axis

    Invert Horizontal Axis

    Measurement Units ->

        Inches

        Millimeters

        Picas/Points

        Lightyears

        ...

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, fde101 said:

It would also be nice to have an option (probably buried in a menu somewhere) to set the origin point to the center of the page - maybe center vertically, center horizontally, center both?

That can be done with the current implementation using the existing snap to spread or margins options, without the need for more menus.

[A_B_C]

I could imagine to add these options to the Guides Manager.