No user manual?

[DaveS 71]

9 hours ago, Catshill said:

I rarely use the help within the application and when I do, I typically remember why that is.

 I also understand the conflict between a continually updated product and a printed manual. An official pdf manual though would be appreciated however.

I understand the near impossibility of a detailed manual, especially when updates are totally 'brand new' and frequently added to Affinity but a short 'starter' pdf (to keep it cheep) is totally possible. EXAMPLE: It took me literally an hour (+) to figure out layers / adjustments. THIS IS A BASIC operation not likely to be modified and readily explained (with legible images) in a pdf doc.

[h_d]

42 minutes ago, DaveS 71 said:

but a short 'starter' pdf is totally possible

Indeed: https://resources.serif.com/photo/start_guide/Affinity+Photo+Start+Guide.pdf

43 minutes ago, DaveS 71 said:

It took me literally an hour (+) to figure out layers / adjustments

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/photo/desktop/video/365012457/

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/photo/desktop/video/310549897/

[thomaso]

Though workbooks, tutorials or help texts don't replace reference manuals, – here some sorted link-lists to Serif's video tutorials for APh + APub:

APhoto – posted by @v_kyr, 2020 dec:

Quote

See the following ...

• Affinity Photo Desktop Tutorials
• Affinity Photo Video Tutorials

Creative Tools

• Colour picker tool
• Gradient tool
• Paint mixer brush
• Selection refinement
• Fill layers
• Pen tool
• Bitmap pattern fills (New: 24/10/2020)
• Selecting sampled colours (New: 24/10/2020)
• Selection Brush Tool (New: 24/10/2020)
• Freehand Selection Tool: Freehand, Polygonal and Magnetic modes (New: 24/10/2020)

APublisher – posted by @acapstick, 2019 june + @EmilyGoater, 2021 march

Quote

Official Affinity Publisher Desktop Tutorials

The Affinity Publisher video tutorials are available here:

https://affinity.serif.com/tutorials/publisher/desktop/

In case you didn't know, the above tutorials are also accessible directly from Publisher's Welcome screen. 

We've really tried to go the extra yards with this tutorial set - all shot in 4K, picture-in-picture, subtitling and packed full of tips and tricks. If you have any requests or feedback, please let us know by replying to this topic.

The videos listed at the above link are hosted on Vimeo. Alternatively, please find a list below with YouTube links:

Basic Operations:

• UI overview
• New Document dialog with templates
• Open and import
• IDML import
• Pan and zoom
• Selecting
• Moving, resizing and rotating
• Studio Presets

Page Layout:

• Pages
• Master pages
• Smart master pages
• Sections
• Page numbers
• Rulers, ruler guides and column guides
• Column rules
• Baseline grids
• Picture frame tools
• Place and Scale Images and Documents with PDF Passthrough
• XLSX import
• Linking and embedding
• Pinning
• Assets Panel
• Shape tools
• Convert pixel layer to image node
• Configurable bleed and margin guide colours
• Clear Picture Frame Background on Populate

Text Tools:

• Simple text
• Frame Text Tool
• Linked text frames
• Text styles
• Text wrapping
• Text on a path
• Artistic Text Tool
• Find and Replace
• Initial Text Baseline Advance

Typography:

• Characters: Fonts and font attributes
• Characters: Kerning and tracking
• Characters: Optical alignment
• Characters: Special characters
• Characters: Advanced typography
• Paragraphs: Alignment, leading and inter-paragraph spacing  
• Paragraphs: Text Ruler for indents and tabs
• Paragraphs: Bullets, numbers and initial words

Advanced:

• Tables
• Table of contents
• Indexing
• Hyperlinks
• Merge documents
• Collect resources
• Data Merge

Publishing:

• Preflight checking

StudioLink - interworking with Designer and Photo:

• Designer Persona: Vector Brush and Pencil Tool
• Designer Persona: Multi-stroke/multi-fill effects 
• Photo Persona: Paint Brush Tool
• Photo Persona: Removing image areas
• Photo Persona: Applying creative live filters

Publishing and Sharing:

• Spot PANTONE colours
• Desktop printing
• PDF publishing for web
• PDF publishing for pro print
• PDF Bookmarks
• Packaging

 

[R C-R]

15 hours ago, Catshill said:

I rarely use the help within the application and when I do, I typically remember why that is.

On Macs, one really nice feature of the Help menu is that the search box will list menu item matches & pop open the appropriate menu or submenu as you roll over one of those matches & places a giant floating marker next to it. It is really handy for locating menu items rarely used.

Apart from that, using the built-in help topics is hit or miss, mostly because unless/until one is familiar with the nomenclature it is hard to find the right terms to search with.

[jmwellborn]

@DaveS 71  Please look at the first newly-pinned post in this section of the Forums, for many resources to help you learn.