restore customized workspace

[Paresh]

Hi guys - I finally bought the book so I can start learning this properly. It says to restore to default workspace to do the projects but how do I then return to my custom workspace? Thanks...I will likely have more questions as I work through the book.

[Old Bruce]

Hold down the Control key while starting the application/program and wait until you see the Clear User Data window appear the top three checkboxes should be marked. Hit Clear and you are done.

[R C-R]

16 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Hold down the Control key while starting the application/program and wait until you see the Clear User Data window appear the top three checkboxes should be marked. Hit Clear and you are done.

The question was how to return to the custom workspace, not how to set it to the defaults.

The only way I know to do that on the Mac Affinity versions is via an unsupported hack (which may have no counterpart on the Windows version):

1. Open the ~/Library/Containers folder (where the ~/ prefix is the standard UNIX shortcut for the user's home folder)
2. Locate the appropriate application containers subfolder, like /com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner for Designer or /com.seriflabs.affinityphoto for Photo
3. Make a copy of that folder somewhere else
4. To restore everything to the custom settings, after quitting the app (important!) drag the copy back into the ~/Library/Containers folder & confirm you want to replace the existing newer one

Alternately, if you have a Time Machine backup you can skip making the copy in step 3, enter Time Machine, navigate to the ~/Library/Containers folder, go 'back in time' to before the everything was set to the defaults, & restore the older version of the subfolder that way.

Note that this is not an officially approved method so it is strictly a "try it at your own risk" kind of thing.

[walt.farrell]

Just a thought: for both Mac and Windows, it might be easier to define a new user and login to that new user in order to do the workbook exercises. Then you don't mess around with any of your existing Affinity settings.

[R C-R]

Just now, walt.farrell said:

Just a thought: for both Mac and Windows, it might be easier to define a new user and login to that new user in order to do the workbook exercises. Then you don't mess around with any of your existing Affinity settings.

Excellent suggestion, one I wish I had thought of.

[Wosven]

On Windows, it's:

C:\Users\_user_name_\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\*Photo\*1.0 (Beta)\Workspaces

* May vary depending of the app you're using.

[Alfred]

52 minutes ago, Wosven said:

On Windows, it's:

C:\Users\_user_name_\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\*Photo\*1.0 (Beta)\Workspaces

* May vary depending of the app you're using.

 The environment variable %AppData% points to the current user’s ‘AppData\Roaming’ subfolder, so you can use it as a shortcut; e.g.

%AppData%\Affinity\Photo

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Wosven said:

On Windows, it's:

C:\Users\_user_name_\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\*Photo\*1.0 (Beta)\Workspaces

* May vary depending of the app you're using.

Good to know, but to avoid having to restore a custom workspace after restoring everything to the defaults to do the workbook projects, I think doing as @walt.farrell suggested is the best approach. Otherwise, every time you wanted to do a workbook project you would have to go through the save a copy & later restore procedure.

[Wosven]

I don't think we need to restore to the default workspace for the exercises, we only need to look at the beginning of the books if we forget where some studios are, or how to find them.

Usually, when modifying some interface, it's because we add what we frequently use. Learning where are the other options -- or which ones are available -- is important too.

[MikeW]

20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Good to know, but to avoid having to restore a custom workspace after restoring everything to the defaults to do the workbook projects, I think doing as @walt.farrell suggested is the best approach. Otherwise, every time you wanted to do a workbook project you would have to go through the save a copy & later restore procedure.

Well, I think the best approach would be the ability to save custom work spaces. Kinda like the other layout applications. 

I switch work spaces in the other layout applications I use frequently depending upon what I am working on. 

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, MikeW said:

Well, I think the best approach would be the ability to save custom work spaces. Kinda like the other layout applications. 

I switch work spaces in the other layout applications I use frequently depending upon what I am working on. 

Yes, clearly. But that has been a feature request for a long time.

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, Wosven said:

I don't think we need to restore to the default workspace for the exercises, we only need to look at the beginning of the books if we forget where some studios are, or how to find them.

There is more to it than that. For example, if the "Synchronize from selection" defaults feature is enabled, the Assistant options have been customized, changes have been made to the Brushes panel, or any of several other things are not set to factory defaults, various things will not work as described in the workbook.

It has been a while so I don't remember the specifics, but shortly after I got the Photo Workbook, when I was doing one of the 'enthusiast' projects, something was not working as described because I had not set everything to the factory defaults like the workbook said to do. It took me a lot longer than I like to admit to figure out that was the cause, & not because the app was 'broken' somehow. 

19 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Well, I think the best approach would be the ability to save custom work spaces.

I agree, but since we do not (yet) have that option, I still think for the workbook scenario what @walt.farrell suggested is the best approach.

Among other things, it makes it easy to delete all the workbook downloads & project work files after they are no longer needed, & to keep those files separate from the day-to-day work done in the normal user account. Since I regularly use Mac OS features like 'smart' folders, tags, Finder searches, & such; if I had created a separate user account for workbook stuff, none of those features in one account would be affected by what I did with them in the other account. 

[Paresh]

thank you all for your insights. Good forum! I have another Q I will post separately.

[Wosven]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

There is more to it than that. For example, if the "Synchronize from selection" defaults feature is enabled, the Assistant options have been customized, changes have been made to the Brushes panel, or any of several other things are not set to factory defaults, various things will not work as described in the workbook.

This shouldn't happen, that app keeps in memory and reuse options can be helpfull in some few ways, but I'd rather do without it, or have a specific studio where I can read about those changes, reset some, etc.

Like the sort of % size some items get sometimes... It's worste with APub, since some of those parameters/differences aren't visible at first.

I'm not fond of reseting workspaces, and it would be nice to be able to save different workspaces soon, since it would be usefull for a lot of situations like this one.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Wosven said:

This shouldn't happen ...

I can assure you that it does, because like I said it has happened to me.

Besides, the defaults options, customized brushes, & all the rest of it can be very useful for different workflows -- after all, isn't that why we would like to have savable workspaces to begin with?

[Aktive Pupille]

18 hours ago, MikeW said:

Well, I think the best approach would be the ability to save custom work spaces. Kinda like the other layout applications. 

I switch work spaces in the other layout applications I use frequently depending upon what I am working on. 

yes, this should be the best way