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Layer seemed to become a text curve on it's own?


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Hi, working in Designer Mac... I created a curve, say of a mountain range... using the pen tool. It looked good and I made some edits with the node tool, added a color, then selected the gradient tool and added some gradient shading. Odd thing is, when I went back into the file today to edit the gradient color... when I select the mountain layer, 1. there's not color, nor gradient available to edit. and 2. It shows in the layer's panel as a T (text) curve. There's no text in it and I really don't recall converting it. Is there any way to get it back to where I can edit the color and gradient? Anyone ever run into anything like this before?

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Hi Timber :)

I've not heard of this happening before, could you possibly provide a copy of the .afdesign file for us to look into?

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Interesting... the idea of going back through the history panel was helpful, though I had saved file previously before turning 'save history with document' on, so where this happened in history wasn't there. In trying to replicate this, if I draw an object and then select under the Layer menu > Convert to Text Frame, it turns my object into a text frame and cannot be turned back unless one goes through history to before that action (or issue an undo command). The interesting thing is, I know I did NOT select Convert to Text Frame, so I am still unsure how this object became a text frame. Once a text farme... you can no longer edit the fill.

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3 hours ago, Timber said:

Once a text farme... you can no longer edit the fill

You can, but only for the "text" itself not the whole frame. Thus before converting an object into a text frame, performing a copy/paste of the object and then just converting the last copy of that into a text frame and group both, will give the filled object look.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
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So, it looks like I drew the curves using either the pencil or brush tool... then when curve was still selected I selected the Text tool... which seems to automatically convert the curve to text curve and wonk the ability to further adjust it's fill, stroke, etc. Lesson seems to be, to de-select curve before selecting Text tool.

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3 hours ago, Timber said:

So, it looks like I drew the curves using either the pencil or brush tool... then when curve was still selected I selected the Text tool... which seems to automatically convert the curve to text curve and wonk the ability to further adjust it's fill, stroke, etc. Lesson seems to be, to de-select curve before selecting Text tool.

There is more to it than that. There are 3 kinds of text in Affinity Designer: Art, Frame, & Path. Frame text is usually created with the Frame Text Tool by first dragging out the frame & then typing the text in it. However, it is also possible to convert an existing shape to a text frame in two ways:
1. Select the shape & choose Convert to Text Frame from the Layer menu.
2. Select the shape, change to the Frame Text Tool, & move the cursor near the shape until it changes to a pentagon shape like this1667843026_convertframecursor.jpg.cd5ae07c5418cae745105acf73a8fddd.jpg & then click to convert the shape to a text frame. But if you don't move it close enough for the cursor to change to that shape, clicking will not convert the shape to a text frame. 

Path Text can only be created by converting an existing shape or curve. There is a Convert to Text Path item on the Layers menu for that, & like with converting a shape to a text frame, you can also select the shape, switch to the Artistic Text Tool, & move the cursor close enough to the shape for it to change to this 763904711_convertpathcursor.jpg.efa7b24f4be10034d63d49c4774e3b8e.jpg & then click to convert the shape to path text. But again, if you don't move it close enough for the cursor to change to that shape, clicking will not convert the shape to path text.

Two video tutorials may help make this clearer:
Artistic, Frame and Shape Text
Affinity Designer - Text on a Path: Overview

Anyway, the point of all this is no shape will be converted automatically just by selecting it.

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
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5 hours ago, Timber said:

So, it looks like I drew the curves using either the pencil or brush tool... then when curve was still selected I selected the Text tool... which seems to automatically convert the curve to text curve and wonk the ability to further adjust it's fill, stroke, etc. Lesson seems to be, to de-select curve before selecting Text tool.

Hi Timber,
There's no automatic conversion here. When you draw a curve with the Pencil Tool you can change the stroke's width, colour etc immediately from the context toolbar (with the Pencil Tool still selected) - those controls are contextual and change according to the tool selected. As soon as you change to the Artistic Text tool these options are removed and replaced with the appropriate ones (controls) for the Artistic Text Tool - until this point the selected curves you have drawn remain as curves (there's no conversion to a text path). Only when you place the cursor over the path (notice it will change to a "T" with a wave below) and click once on the path it will be converted to a text path. Note the path will then be hidden from view, so there's no point in changing its colour or width. If you need to have it visible you have to duplicate the curve before converting it to a text path and set the stroke's width/colour you want on that duplicate.

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