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Being a fairly new user to the Affinity programs I have a suggestion.  It is time to have separate headers for Affinity Support Questions.

It is a big time waster to see a subject which seems to be an area of interest in one program to be addressing some issue in another program.

Please separate the three products under the Support Questions header.

Thanks

R. Burns

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Many have tried and failed my friend. they and others cite commonality between apps for the all-in-one forum.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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This has been suggested many times before. The response from Affinity (and many members) is that there is so much commonality between the three programs that they need just one forum. I (and many other members) disagree. I keep telling myself that one day I will survey the posts and see how many are separate  and how many are common to two or more apps

John. 

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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5 minutes ago, John Rostron said:

This has been suggested many times before. The response from Affinity (and many members) is that there is so much commonality between the three programs that they need just one forum. I (and many other members) disagree. I keep telling myself that one day I will survey the posts and see how many are separate  and how many are common to two or more apps

John. 

Commonality may live within the programs, I agree, I support your position, as it narrows search to ones specific need.  I think that if one wants to see, read and participate in all, so be it, do so.  

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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Mandatory prefix upon post creation would be a benefit, this is how new post creation works on VxOn forums, see image below.
634763464_ScreenShot2019-08-24at17_02_15.png.01ed3e10277390268033f8cbbc6c0e8e.png

1683233410_ScreenShot2019-08-24at17_04_23.png.cb2b47a887f890e231a4ca3f4e9a2c37.png

 

Consider this a subliminal hint 9_9 :ph34r:

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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I also think that it would be good to see sub-forums and that the divisions used in the Feature Request forums could be used. There may be commonality, but there are major differences as each program serves a different purpose.

David Voth

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher ver. 2: macOS Sonoma and iPadOS 17

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If I was looking for general information about any of the following subjects (among others), why should I have to search through multiple sub forums to do that?

  • Move Tool
  • View Tool
  • Zoom Tool
  • Node Tool
  • Pen Tool
  • Any of the 19 shape tools
  • Frame Text Tool
  • Artistic Text Tool
  • Color Picker Tool
  • Customizing the Tools panel
  • Snapping
  • Layer types
  • Layers Studio panel
  • Color Studio panel
  • Swatches Studio panel
  • History Studio panel
  • Transform Studio panel
  • Navigator Studio panel
  • Snapshot Studio panel
  • Showing or hiding Studio panels
  • Reorganizing, grouping, or floating Studio panels
  • Glyphs Browser, Character, Paragraph, Typography, or Text Style panels
  • Insertion options
  • Defaults options
  • Assistant Manager options
  • Guides Manager options
  • Grid and Axis Manager options
  • Customizing the Toolbar
  • (Mac) Separated vs normal Window view mode
  • Geometry (Boolean) operations
  • Using two or more Affinity apps together
  • Color spaces & ICC profiles
  • Supported file formats
  • Cross platform compatibility
  • Keyboard shortcut, light vs. dark UI, & most of the other app preferences
  • Purchasing decisions (hardware or app)
  • Licensing
  • Installation or update issues

The bottom line is that while there are some topics that are relevant only to one app (or to one platform or to purchases from one store) most are not.

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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R C-R “

“bottom line is that while there are some topics that are relevant only to one app (or to one platform or to purchases from one store) most are not.”

As always you provide a detailed reply to areas that could provide informative and potential helpful information.  However the consistency, repeating and strong opinions express by many, clearly prefer to bypass this and address specific Affinity Program.  They are asking for option, not the ability not to select all.  I do think frustrated newbies, more is less, in addressing specific question and receiving numerous unrelated topics on programs they do not have and most likely, never will. Freedom of choice.

  •  

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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10 minutes ago, Cecil said:

However the consistency, repeating and strong opinions express by many, clearly prefer to bypass this and address specific Affinity Program.

The issue is how, in practical terms, to set up the Desktop Questions forum to "bypass" all the topics that are not specific to any one app & somehow show only the ones that are.

There has not been much consistency about that. Some have proposed as many as six sub-forums (three for Macs & three for Windows) plus one or more 'general' sub-forums. Others have proposed mandatory tags instead of sub-forums, but there is no general agreement on how many tags there should be to choose from, if tags for platform relevancy should be a part of it or what. For tags, there is also the potential issue of if the forum software can support that.

There is also the issue of if it is even appropriate for a product support forum to require customers & potential customers to 'jump through hoops' like choosing among what could be a bewildering array of sub-forums or deciding which mandatory tag(s) they should use before they can ask about anything. A lot of people find having to make choices like that difficult or annoying, which too often can result in their just randomly choosing something & hoping for the best, or not posting anything & looking elsewhere for answers.

What it amounts to is some forum users just want to see whatever they currently have a personal interest in & nothing else, but no surprisingly they can't even all agree on what constitutes an item of interest or how the forum should be set up to make that possible.

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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I don’t disagree with your excellent observations, potential consistency in regards to unlimited subtopic, tags, etc.  I suggest a simple format: Desktop as header, all OS, and then separate subtopic for each program with a simple choice to subscribe to all, one or several. Choice is what members are requesting. This debate will never die unless Serif responds with their official position concerning members request.  Members may not agree with them, but it may help put the topic to rest or provide a simple reference, for future request.

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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If, IMHO, Affinity Support & Questions forum would simply replicate the Features, Suggestions & Discussions forum format and allow users to subscribe to specific software or feedback in either forum, Alleluia.

 

 

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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7 hours ago, Cecil said:

I suggest a simple format: Desktop as header, all OS, and then separate subtopic for each program

I can't see your suggestion to become more simple. Imagine that many topics would possibly appear with same/according content in then 3 sub-forums, instead 1 only. You can estimate a calculation of the resulting total number of threads:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/95164-this-category-is-too-broad/&do=findComment&comment=507067

5 hours ago, Cecil said:

If, IMHO, Affinity Support & Questions forum would simply replicate the Features, Suggestions & Discussions forum format and allow users to subscribe to specific software or feedback in either forum, Alleluia. 

So the total number of threads which yearn for answers would increase. You seem to have in mind only the reader who is looking for an answer (and, actually who is often not really looking in terms of searching before writing, as you can see by the number of same/similar threads). You seem to ignore all those who need to answer, staff + community, such an increased amount of threads.

However, meanwhile in my eyes it seems to be useful to create a separate forum for Crashes only, because 1. their number increased massively for AfPub since its retail release and 2. the answers are often not helpful to avoid such a crash (instead crash reports often have to wait for a beta or next version).

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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4 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I can't see your suggestion to become more simple. Imagine that many topics would possibly appear with same/according content in then 3 sub-forums, instead 1 only. You can estimate a calculation of the resulting total number of threads:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/95164-this-category-is-too-broad/&do=findComment&comment=507067

So the total number of threads which yearn for answers would increase. You seem to have in mind only the reader who is looking for an answer (and, actually who is often not really looking in terms of searching before writing, as you can see by the number of same/similar threads). You seem to ignore all those who need to answer, stuff + community, such an increased amount of threads.

However, meanwhile in my eyes it seems to be useful to create a separate forum for Crashes only, because 1. their number increased massively for AfPub since its retail release and 2. the answers are often not helpful to avoid such a crash (instead crash reports often have to wait for a beta or next version).

I clearly do not see how defining the subject would increase the number of questions or answers required,  I think it would decrease.  How many answers start with, what program are you using? Desktop or IPad? IOS or Windows. Finally after five or six post, click File, Open.

This is not a debate that I personally  have a problem with, but as it appears, so frequently, many do.  Shoe (US) comic today: Would you like a table by a window? No.  I’d like a table near a waiter.  Some would like a topic, concerning Affinity Photo and zero interest in any other products. Have a great day.

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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1 hour ago, Cecil said:

I clearly do not see how defining the subject would increase the number of questions or answers required,

How does splitting this forum into sub-forums or requiring mandatory app/platform tags define the subject? If say I am looking for info on how the Move or Zoom tools work; how the History, Transform, or Color panels work; cross-platform compatibility, etc. how would the sub-forum or tag suggestions make it easier to find answers? 

2 hours ago, Cecil said:

How many answers start with, what program are you using?

For how many is that irrelevant?

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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2 hours ago, Cecil said:

I clearly do not see how defining the subject would increase the number of questions or answers required,  I think it would decrease.  

If it would decrease the total number of threads: Where would the questions go? Why aren't they asked any more?
Not "defining the subject" (what do you mean?, the topics title?) but separating the existing into 3 forums, one for each app, would increase the total number of threads.

Why it would increase: Many topics, which aren't specific for one particular app only, will become asked in up to every of your 3 forums. For instance threads about issues with PDF export might then appear separate in 3 forums and therefore will generate "duplicates": 1x asked in Designer + 1x asked in Photo + 1x asked in Publisher = 3x asked.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Why it would increase: Many topics, which aren't specific for one particular app only, will become asked in up to every of your 3 forums. For instance threads about issues with PDF export might then appear separate in 3 forums and therefore will generate "duplicates": 1x asked in Designer + 1x asked in Photo + 1x asked in Publisher = 3x asked.

How come other app forums manage to function without this hypothetical duplication, I for one wouldn't ask about PDF export from Photo in anything other than the Affinity Photo forum.

The same amount of questions will be asked, they will just be organised into app-centric forums, if a question is posted in the affinity designer forum it's pretty safe to assume it will relate to affinity designer. What tends to happen at the moment are questions like "which app are you using", these will not be needed.

Vague questions get vague replies, so if the OP doesn't stipulate which app they are referring to we have to ask a question that should never need to be asked.

 

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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14 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

How come other app forums manage to function without this hypothetical duplication, I for one wouldn't ask about PDF export from Photo in anything other than the Affinity Photo forum.

The same amount of questions will be asked, they will just be organised into app-centric forums, if a question is posted in the affinity designer forum it's pretty safe to assume it will relate to affinity designer. What tends to happen at the moment are questions like "which app are you using", these will not be needed.

No, it would probably lead to more questions. Because the applications share all the same code with respect to, say, generation of PDFs, one can ask a question about PDF export and the answer will apply to all 3 applications. Someone could ask about PDF export using Photo, and a user with the same question about Designer can find the answer from the earlier thread in the common forum, and wouldn't even need to ask.

With application-specific forums, that question would need to be asked twice, or 3 times, rather than once, because the users looking in the Designer or Publisher forum would not see the answer that was given for Photo, even though they had the same question and will get the same answer.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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I will not try and justify why a Newbie would think that he could go to Affinity Forum, look for Affinity Photo (his only Affinity Program), subscribe (Desktop or iPad) and submit any question concerning Photo or any other Affinity program.  One could still subscribe to all and receive all the Programs/Threads, no information lost if that is a concern of duplication.  It's just an option to subscribe and enable notifications to one, two, three or all.  I'm just pulling for those that want to 1) select one program or 2) reflect threads/notifications of their interest.  

tomasso yes PDF question may appear three separate forums, as if search prevent repeated questions today.  As Affinity continues to grow, first time users will increase, many without any photo software background.  

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

How does splitting this forum into sub-forums or requiring mandatory app/platform tags define the subject? If say I am looking for info on how the Move or Zoom tools work; how the History, Transform, or Color panels work; cross-platform compatibility, etc. how would the sub-forum or tag suggestions make it easier to find answers? 

For how many is that irrelevant?

Wow, when did I drop the mandatory hammer? We all know some will and continue to post question(s) that have been answered numerous times.  Is the system working today?  Why is this requested frequently?  If it's broke, fix it. Many do not know how to defined the problem because they do not have the experience to know how to search for appropriate question. This is totally understandable and should be the focus of the forum. Searching for Color Panel:  Change (if possible) search  Topics, add Program  or in search Find Results That Contain: be able to search for Color Panel and add dropdown for specific Affinity Program. BTW, I just searched Color Panel, 57 pages, clear as mud.

This could go on and on. Please just agree to disagree, as it's clear that this trench is dug deep by Affinity most talented members. Cheers

 

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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38 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

if a question is posted in the affinity designer forum it's pretty safe to assume it will relate to affinity designer

You might like to think so, but in practice there are often threads created in the Windows section instead of the Mac section, or in the Designer Beta forum instead of the Photo Beta forum. There are also many posts inappropriately posted to existing threads for another platform or a different app (or both!) so it’s rarely safe to make any assumptions at all.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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10 minutes ago, Alfred said:

There are also many posts inappropriately posted to existing threads for another platform or a different app (or both!) so it’s rarely safe to make any assumptions at all.

We even see posts added to existing topics, where the user is using a different OS, and/or different application, and says they have the same problem but then describe something that's different than what that topic is about.

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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41 minutes ago, Cecil said:

Wow, when did I drop the mandatory hammer?

Please re-read what I said. I asked how either splitting the forum into sub-forums or requiring mandatory tags would help in "defining the subject." I'm not even sure what you meant when you posted that comment.

1 hour ago, Cecil said:

Why is this requested frequently?  If it's broke, fix it.

The issue is how to implement this request in some way that won't break more than it would fix. Consider for example someone who decides to follow (which I assume is what you mean by subscribe to) just one app sub-forum, or to restrict their searches to one, or to only topics tagged with an app name and/or OS. If they did that, they would miss a huge amount of helpful info because so much of it applies to all the apps & to both desktop OS's.

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Vague questions get vague replies, so if the OP doesn't stipulate which app they are referring to we have to ask a question that should never need to be asked.

If someone asks a question relating to the tools, panels, or most of the other things I listed in my earlier post, there is usually no need to ask which app they are using because that rarely matters. Also, we must consider that the reason OP's has not not specified the app (or OS) may be because they already own or are considering buying more than one Affinity app, or that they may be well aware that their topic applies to more than one of them.

If we really need to ask which app or which version or which OS they are using to provide an appropriate answer, then we certainly can do that, but often a 'generic' answer is all they really need. Moreover, it is often more helpful to do that, for both the OP & for others who read the topic, because even 'advanced' users sometimes are unaware of something that applies equally well to all the apps.

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Yes, I did mean follow, I think you are fully aware of that, but assumptions!  “Requiring mandatory app/platform tags define the subject”, is not actually the same as allowing someone a choice to select a program of choice for following or allowing notifications, to a specific program.  How many times have I stated that yes, it could limit helpful information. I’m clueless concerning how many Affinity Photo users plan or have multiple programs, please inform me. I do admire your interest to ensure each and every users receives the best support available. 

I was ready to toss my ProCam RAW app, after reading that thread today.  I question posted information as it seems it’s totally contradictory, being nice.  Truly not the coldest can of beer in the ice box...many would appreciate the ability to identify which program to follow and receive notifications. How, if, when, or not gonna happen, so be it. BTW, gonna (going to happen).

 

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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If features request can be subdivided, at the cost of loosing valuable cross program information, I think this is a simple example for Affinity Programs.

A0EC3B5B-67BB-42B2-949F-F177D1C0A64F.jpeg

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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2 hours ago, Cecil said:

“Requiring mandatory app/platform tags define the subject”, is not actually the same as allowing someone a choice to select a program of choice for following or allowing notifications, to a specific program.

But once again, the issue is how could that be implemented? IOW, how specifically can this forum be set up so that someone can follow topics that are only about one of the apps?

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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