iPad file management experience

[Aaron Martin]

Hi. 

I have tried force myself to use the iPad suit of affinity as my main professional set up for little under 3 months this summer. I was pleasantly surprise with the amount of work on details and most of the times after passing the learning curve it was a joy to use. In some cases even better than desktop. I will speak about my suggestions at the end but my main issue, which at some part is due to lack of proper file system on iOS, was the way affinity manages their file. 

I believe the purpose if files displayed within affinity app is somewhat like tabs on the desktop app. They keep changes history, and use a huge amount of space. But when u save the files or close them, thats when it gets a bit confusing.

if i open a file from cloud or “files” in ios, after working on them for a while, its hard to know if they are still attached to those files or now acting as an independent file. I thinks there are several indicators (mentioned below) missing that would make the process more logical:

1. When u open from file, it should be an indication (an icon or text) mentioning that this file has a pre determined location in files or a cloud. 

2. When closing the app, it should ask if you i want to save changes to my current pre determined posision (in other words, replace it with) or make a duplicate (or save as) in a new location. 

3. It should have the ability to ask me to save with change history (same as desktop)

4. If the file is created from scratch in affinity appe, it should ask me if i want to save the file before closing (which at this point it asks, but doesnt allow me to save while asking)

5. If i rename a file with pre determined location indicator that already exists in the cloud or files, it should rename the file in cloud as well. 

This was my main complain. Other changes i like to add is:

1. Layer arrangement (where u bring a layer to the top or buttom) is in alignment tab in studio while creating shape on or inside or under is on command tab. To me it seemed more logical if they were together, or both at both places. There was many times i wanted to bring a shape on top and i unconciously went and clicked the command tab. Although this might just be me.

2. if there was an easier way to sheer a shape as i can on desktop app, that would help me save alot of time. I get that we can utilize the pre existing sheer function but after even somewhat getting used to it, it felt like fresh air after coming back to desktop and pushes me sometimes to avoid working on ipad just for this reason.

the rest of the experience was alot of fun. I enjoyed so much of it and thank you for creating such a wonderful app.

 

[Mark999]

Not sure if there's a way to up vote this but I support it. I have a project with over a 100 files, keeping them in sync with desktop isn't easy. 

[Beaty1961]

I am very new to not only Affinity Designer but also the iPad and I must admit that the whole file support experience has been my biggest headache so far!

I'm not sure that's Affinity's 'problem' though as the mad method of file support on the iPad is Apple's brainchild, baked in and a bit of a nightmare... Boy, would I love t be able to just plug in an external drive and magically use that instead of the confusing 'cloud' system.

At the moment - as I learn AD - this isn't a huge problem, just a major inconvenience, but as I start creating 'proper' projects I think it is gonna start to hurt. So can I echo some of the issues and support some of the ideas of the original poster. (I'm just skeptical that it not really within Affinity's remit/ability to sort some of this out).

Steve

[Filo63]

Affinity on the iPad is a fantastic experience. It's not an immediate process but after decades of desktop applications I think it's hard to adapt to a different system.

Aaron's notes are interesting because file management, saving changes is not clear.

I use FileBrowserGO to connect with computers on the office network and all in all it works ... managing changes, saving on the server without anxiety would help me better.

I am aware that iOS must grow in this sector and probably Affinity must follow some rather complex rules. If you can improve it would be a big news.

Fabio

[Aaron Martin]

On 2/1/2019 at 9:21 PM, Filo63 said:

I use FileBrowserGO to connect with computers on the office network and all in all it works

I just downloaded FileBrowserGO, so far, it seems like an interesting file management alternative that iOS lacks. Thanks for the recommendation. 

[Filo63]

Having an advanced file system within iOS would be better, however FileBrowserGo does its nice job.

[TonyO]

I think it should be simplified definitely. You should be able to select iCloud storage, and the affintiy folder in iCloud is where things are saved ONLY. Right now theres 2 layers. On device and On icloud. If you leave a document or save while the document is open, its saved to local, then if you click the burger icon and select save, it dumps to icloud.....

It would just be better to open and save directly to iCloud and bypass the weird local files layer. I can't tell you how many times i saved a document while it was open, then went to the desktop to finish and the old version was there because i didnt leave the document, tap another icon and save again. If i open from icloud it should just save to icloud.

[Aaron Martin]

10 hours ago, TonyO said:

You should be able to select iCloud storage, and the affintiy folder in iCloud is where things are saved ONLY.

Than it eoulf be a problem for people wity limited icloud storage

 

10 hours ago, TonyO said:

Right now theres 2 layers. On device and On icloud. If you leave a document or save while the document is open, its saved to local, then if you click the burger icon and select save, it dumps to icloud.....

Right now where it saves can be selected in preference where u have two options, in my ipad or icloud. If the document is made and not saved, while closing, it will delete the document indefinately. 

I think an indicator icon where it says the document is being synced with a file in either “in my ipad” or “files” or wherever would fix the confusion. Plus they have to ask us to (A) save the further changes or (B) save as or (C) discard the changes while closing. 

[David LARK]

Hi I wanted to ask if such thing is getting  on iOS 13's iPad version. it would help if I could see with an indicator that which file is from cloud or from iPad or app itself. I'm tired of saving all files in a folder and relocating them later to the cloud. id also want if I could share the original affinity file via the app itself instead of saving it in files and sharing from there.

[Rocketdrive]

Exactly my thoughts. File management needs improvement. iPad OS will bring some file management improvements by itself, and I hope that Affinity can upgrade the experience on the iPad.

[Aaron Martin]

To better illustrate my idea, i drew some UI changes and attached below:

[Karak]

Yes please! I get Anxious with the file system because it is not clear if something is properly saved. Also the possibility to rename and overwrite a saved file would be great. 
I also don’t get the point of projects if you can’t save the documents inside all together in a projectfolder. 
 

Really great app otherwise !!

[Wisdarch]

I stopped using Designer a while back because of this and other issues, but I love the good things about Designer and really want it to become a great app, so I come to check on it from time to time to see if any progress has been made.

I am astounded and rather disappointed that nothing has been done to address file management in the nearly three years since this thread was opened. I really like Aaron Martin's example improvements from April 2nd, 2020, and I feel like this is a relatively simple solution that would go a long way toward improving the usability of this aspect of the app. But apparently this either isn't a development priority, or Serif just isn't interested in spending development resources to improve Designer on iPad? I can't really tell.

I once deleted something I was working on because there is no indication at any point whether something is correctly saved or not before you close it. Even though I was aware of how the system does work and consciously trying not to do that!

[Aaron Martin]

Thank you V.2