Languages 'sticking' to new text fames

[Old Bruce]

This may not be a bug but it sure acts like one and one that bugs the heck out of me. Any new text takes on the language set for whatever the most recent language the text cursor was in. This behaviour carries over after closing and restarting the program. I would like it to behave in such a manner so that the language set in preferences is honoured for all new text frames and only changes manually or for pasted text.

Really messes up the appearance of the page when there are all sorts of red wiggly lines because it thinks I've been working in Dansk.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

I would like it to behave in such a manner so that the language set in preferences is honoured for all new text frames and only changes manually or for pasted text.

I'm  not sure that using the UI language as a default is necessarily the correct behavior, as there are undoubtedly Affinity users whose primary language is not available in the UI. They'd prefer that the program defaults for the Text Frame take precedence, I think.

I feel your pain, though. I am finding it increasingly difficult, as I play with different features, to figure out what the current defaults are going to be for any particular tool. And I'm also finding it difficult to figure out how to reset the current options/values to some default state without having to visit each option and make a specific decision.

Make a text frame, play with fill/stroke, change some insets, adjust vertical alignment, maybe change some things in the character panel (language, other stuff) etc.

Now, I want to make a new text frame with the default values. But how do I get everything set back to where it was before I started making changes?

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm  not sure that using the UI language as a default is necessarily the correct behavior,

Good lord no, I don't think English would be a smart choice. I don't want the current UI language I want the language used by whoever is using Publisher is using used. At present we are all stuck with English but when we get to choose to use our own languages (for me it is English) then the new text should default to that language.

 

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

how do I get everything set back to where it was before I started making changes?

That is how I spend a good portion of my time with this testing, and I am never 100% confident I have it right so I'll just reset the whole program.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

At present we are all stuck with English but when we get to choose to use our own languages (for me it is English) then the new text should default to that language.

Even when Publisher gains additional UI languages, there are far more languages in the world than Affinity will support, and many users of those languages will have to pick some other language for their UI. 

Why should that suboptimal language choice be the default for their text frames? They would probably prefer to have a new language Preference.

 

[Old Bruce]

14 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

They would probably prefer to have a new language Preference.

I think we are talking at cross purposes here due a mistake I made, I referenced the User Interface and then failed to say Preference as  you have pointed out. I am in agreement with you and I think that for starters we use the user's language from the Preferences. In reality I doubt I would be bothered by the current behaviour on a daily basis.

[Dave Harris]

23 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

This may not be a bug but it sure acts like one and one that bugs the heck out of me. Any new text takes on the language set for whatever the most recent language the text cursor was in. This behaviour carries over after closing and restarting the program. I would like it to behave in such a manner so that the language set in preferences is honoured for all new text frames and only changes manually or for pasted text.

Really messes up the appearance of the page when there are all sorts of red wiggly lines because it thinks I've been working in Dansk.

The intent is that when you change the language, it affects all the text you add in future until you change it again. Merely putting the caret in some text should not affect it; you have to actually set some text to Dansk to get Dansk. That's how it is working for me. Other text attributes, and indeed other object attributes like fill and stroke, behave the same.

 

22 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I feel your pain, though. I am finding it increasingly difficult, as I play with different features, to figure out what the current defaults are going to be for any particular tool. And I'm also finding it difficult to figure out how to reset the current options/values to some default state without having to visit each option and make a specific decision.

Make a text frame, play with fill/stroke, change some insets, adjust vertical alignment, maybe change some things in the character panel (language, other stuff) etc.

Now, I want to make a new text frame with the default values. But how do I get everything set back to where it was before I started making changes?

The current defaults should be shown in the UI if there is no object selected. To reset them, click the Revert Defaults button in the top toolbar (the one that looks like a cloud with a line through it). Or use Edit > Defaults > Revert.

Revert Defaults actually puts them to whatever they were when Edit > Defaults > Save was last used - that makes the current defaults apply to new documents. Use Edit > Defaults > Factory Reset to put them back to how we set them when Publisher was shipped. This can be useful if you saved them in a bad state.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Dave Harris said:

The current defaults should be shown in the UI if there is no object selected. To reset them, click the Revert Defaults button in the top toolbar (the one that looks like a cloud with a line through it). Or use Edit > Defaults > Revert.

Revert Defaults actually puts them to whatever they were when Edit > Defaults > Save was last used - that makes the current defaults apply to new documents. Use Edit > Defaults > Factory Reset to put them back to how we set them when Publisher was shipped. This can be useful if you saved them in a bad state.

Thanks, Dave. Another question, though: does Edit > Defaults > Revert affect the default settings for all tools or just the currently selected tool?

[Dave Harris]

23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks, Dave. Another question, though: does Edit > Defaults > Revert affect the default settings for all tools or just the currently selected tool?

It affects all the (new file) object defaults. So quite a lot of stuff, but not stuff that is pure UI.

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, Dave Harris said:

It affects all the (new file) object defaults. So quite a lot of stuff, but not stuff that is pure UI.

Thanks. That's what I was afraid of. When I need to reset text properties I might not want to lose the defaults for all my other objects, so it would be better if it were (somehow) more granular, but I know that could be very complex.

[Old Bruce]

Hey, I just found out this is set in the Text Styles (Group, Paragraph and Character). And it is set/over-ridden/changed by the Character studio. If you have an imported style with an unwanted language set for it that may not show up in the Styles dialog box, might just show [No Change].

We really need a check to show what we aren't changing. I'll make a request.

[fde101]

I wonder if it might be useful for there to be a consistent way to "reset-safe" a property to make it immune from the reset options?

That might be pushing things a bit too far though... just a random thought for now.