Designer – linking images rather than embedding

[Martin-S]

I think I came across a thread here somewhere that stated the ability to link images was implemented in beta 1.7.x

Now 1.7 is out but I can't find it anywhere. Am I missing something obvious or did this rather useful feature not make it?
If not are there any plans to make this happen soon?

I generally like Designer a lot, but having the ability to just link images and thereby keeping file sizes down would be great.
Freehand had this feature since the early 90s

[R C-R]

AFAIK, linking is a feature only of Affinity Publisher, currently still in beta but due for release on or about June 19.

[Martin-S]

On 6/10/2019 at 12:26 PM, R C-R said:

AFAIK, linking is a feature only of Affinity Publisher, currently still in beta but due for release on or about June 19.

Well, I wasn't imagining it…  it works exactly as Walt describes: 

1. select image
2. press the "Replace Image" button in the toolbar
3. in the file dialog click "Options" and choose to embed instead of linking

I just tried it and the file size plummeted as expected.
What I can't find anywhere though is a setting in preferences to make linking the default.

Anyway it looks like we're getting there 

This is on Mac, AD 1.7.0

Edited June 11, 2019 by Martin-S

[Aammppaa]

You are correct that the Replace Image hack is the only way to do this in Designer at present.

Hopefully the Resource Manager will make its  way into Designer at some point.

[walt.farrell]

28 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

You are correct that the Replace Image hack is the only way to do this in Designer at present.

That hack is a bug that is logged to be fixed.

[R C-R]

45 minutes ago, Martin-S said:

Anyway it look like we're getting there 

I only just noticed the "Options" button, so thanks for that!

But from what I can tell, this only works with Placed or dragged & dropped images -- items that appear in the Layers panel with the "(Image)" suffix. It doesn't seem to work with embedded files (Affinity, PDF, etc.) The Layers panel says it is a Linked Document, but when I click the "Edit Document" button, the tab that opens says "<embedded>" in the title bar, & changes made there don't seem to update the original document. 

20 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That hack is a bug that is logged to be fixed.

Any idea if the fix will completely remove the hack or (hopefully) just fix whatever issue the bug causes?

[walt.farrell]

28 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Any idea if the fix will completely remove the hack or (hopefully) just fix whatever issue the bug causes?

Presumably it would remove the Link/Embed buttons in that dialog, as Designer and Photo are not supposed to be able to create documents with Linked files (from what we've been told by Serif).

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Presumably it would remove the Link/Embed buttons in that dialog, as Designer and Photo are not supposed to be able to create documents with Linked files (from what we've been told by Serif).

Your presumption is probably correct, but I can't help wondering what they will do if "Edit in Designer" is implemented in Affinity Publisher (presumably for single pages), meaning Designer must at least handle linked files ... somehow ... I think.

I guess we will know more after 19 June.

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, R C-R said:

Your presumption is probably correct, but I can't help wondering what they will do if "Edit in Designer" is implemented in Affinity Publisher (presumably for single pages), meaning Designer must at least handle linked files ... somehow ... I think.

I guess we will know more after 19 June.

I agree. Of course, though Designer needs to be able to handle linked files, Serif might decide it doesn't need to be able to create documents containing them, nor be able to change embedded files to linked, etc.

I think that Edit in Designer already works in Publisher, by the way

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I think that Edit in Designer already works in Publisher, by the way

It does not with the current Mac Publisher public beta. This is what I get when I try that: