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File Default Save As, Export Save As in Source Folder


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Affinity is a Superb and Affordable program which I use all the time. I'm grateful that it exists and I recommend it to everyone.

Whenever I choose Save As or even more important File Export Save As, I end up in my Windows Default Save location (Drive and Folder), which I never want, so I end up wasting a lot of time browsing to the correct folder. Almost always this is the location from which the file was loaded. I looked but I was not able to find any way to set this in the Preferences.

It would be extremely useful to allow the user to be able to enable such a feature:  Save As and Export Save As to use the Source Folder of the File.

Thanks,

Dan

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  • 4 weeks later...

Obivously not enough people are signing on to get serious attention from Affinity, but I believe for every one person who has commented that they want the option, there are at least 50 more people who would if they noticed this request.

If you agree please get more people to put their voice into this request !

In any case the most important thing about this request is that:

1 Those who like it the way it is (no choice) need not worry that this would change

2 This is not something that is very difficult to do. No major programming project to simply give this choice to the user.

3 The best programs always pay attention to the users feedback, and when possible, with little costs in time, they make the users happy. This vastly improves the customer relation and results in the best word of mouth recommendations resulting in more sales. Everyone wins.

Thanks for a great program,

Dan

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  • 3 weeks later...

Affinity photo should make the default export folder be the same folder the source file was in that was used to open the editing session.  

Right now, AP exports to whatever folder was last exported to. 

I edited an image file today located in folder A and exported it (I had to navigate to folder A to do the export).  Later today, I edited an image from folder B (in this case, it was a .afphoto file).  When I exported a JPG file, it went to folder A (because i didn't pay attention or, for that matter, even expect that).  That's not good.

This is a no-brainer request..  I completely agree with everyone else on this topic. 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Qualifier: I'm just starting to evaluate Affinity and don't fully understand it's use model. I'm trying to determine how Affinity could fit into my workflow. This topic addresses the quandary I'm facing.

Since I'm working with a DAM and other software on windows it's critical to be able to easily export a file back to the source folder. Save will overwrite the original file without warning or option to chose another filename. Save as only works to .affinity file type. This leaves export as an option which uses the previous file folder, not the current file source location as a default save folder.  I'm new to Affinity so it's likely that I'm missing something. Affinity looks to be a good replacement for Photoshop for my purposes, but the inability to quickly save back to the original source folder seriously impacts my ability to productively use Affinity. I would appreciate clarifications or suggestions on workarounds.

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The Affinity-Products have several usability-issues - just read the forum-postings - quite a lot of them do not refer to bugs/errors.
But Serif did not yet respond to suggestions like having their software checked by usability-experts.

Based on the long time 1.8 is stuck in Beta, I guess Serif is struggling with customer feedback/error-reports.
Perhaps the amount of active users reached a critical mass...

kind regards
Fritz

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11 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

long time 1.8 is stuck in Beta

You don't remember the 1.7 betas, do you?

 

11 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

struggling with customer feedback

Unlikely.  There are a few bugs reported in the beta forums that they are most likely trying to tidy up.  There was already an indication at least for one of the apps that they have basically implemented all of the major functionality they intend to for this beta cycle.

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2 hours ago, fde101 said:

You don't remember the 1.7 betas, do you?

I do. To me it seems the beta-periods become longer as the version-Numbers increase.
 

Quote

Unlikely.  There are a few bugs reported in the beta forums

??
I have seen postings about issues with Macros, complaints about the RAW-Development (missing Formats and lenses not recognized..), about the IDML-Import, Interface-Issues, Performance-Issues, wrong dimensions of exported files, subpar drawing-tablet-support etc

To me it seems that a growing number of pro-users test the Affinity-Products with high expectations since they are used to use matured (?) products from e.g. Adobe.
Up to a certain point this comparison is unfair, OK.
But on the other hand there are also postings about missing features that are just ???what!?!?

kind regards
Fritz

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RAW: the Serif-RAW-Engine is NOT in the hands of Serif??  (Windows)

IDML:  not a luxury but a necessity to attract Adobe-Customers.
BTW:  Google, 1st hit: https://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/indesign/sdk/cs6/idml/idml-specification.pdf

Export-Dimension-Errors: not in those cases I refer to.

Drawing-Tablets: well... how do others, like Adobe,  handle this ?


Don´t get me wrong:
I like and support Serif and the Affinity-Products but I feel that they are slowing down the pace.
Perhaps its similar to aerodynamic drag: the more speed, the more force against you.
= more customers lead to a drastically increasing number of bug reports, complaints and feature requests.
= more customers also leads to more professional customers which leads to higher expectations.
Since people are creatures of habit any major change in their workflow, necessity of work-arounds etc. are not appreciated.

Fritz

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1 hour ago, Fritz_H said:

RAW: the Serif-RAW-Engine is NOT in the hands of Serif??  (Windows)

Much of the RAW development in the Serif Labs RAW Engine is done by the LibRAW Open Source library that Serif makes use of. There are aspects of it that are implemented around the invocations of that library, but much of the core processing is in the library which means that Serif can't support some functions and new cameras until the LibRAW developers support it.

However, in 1.8, given the long delay in LibRAW supporting CR3-format files, Serif contacted Canon and implemented the support themselves, if I've understood various Serif comments in the forums correctly.

-- 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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Hi Walt,

Thanks for the information.
I do understand your reply, but in the end the customer is allowed to say: "I don´t care about those details, just make it work".
Please keep in mind that I did no complain about the RAW-Features of Photo, I mentioned it as example where postings show dissatisfaction of users.

We are now far off-topic...

My point regarding the File-open-save-location-behavior of the Affinity-Applications: professional usability-check needed.

kind regards
Fritz

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9 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

We are now far off-topic...
Fritz

Export-As topic.  I previously mentioned my preference of defaulting export-as to the source folder.  Today, I played around with Photoshop's approach (for Export As, not Quick Export).  PS defaults export-as to the image's source folder.  If I choose a different folder when exporting a file, PS remembers the new location for that file (and others I choose a different folder for), but otherwise continues to default to the source folder.

AP's approach of defaulting to the last used folder might be useful if I'm working with a large number of documents and want them all exported to a different folder, or where I open images from multiple folders but want all output files to export to a same different folder.  So I guess there's a place for both approaches.

Perhaps, as a suggestion, AP's export-as default could be the source folder, but if I change that folder for an export, maybe open a dialog box asking if I want to continue to export-as to the new folder (which would continue to apply until changed again, or give the option to revert to the source folder for other files.

 

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11 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

To me it seems the beta-periods become longer as the version-Numbers increase

The 1.7 version of Publisher (as an example) was in beta for 9 months.  As much functionality is shared among the apps, some of what was being tested for the Publisher beta is applicable to Designer and Photo as well.

The 1.8 betas for Publisher came out at the end of October, so we are just over 3 months in for that one, and the Windows betas for Designer and Photo started at the beginning of October, so maybe 4 months or so.

Either way, less than half the time the Publisher 1.7 beta took, so far.

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  • 2 months later...

Default Export-as folder followup:

I've come up with an idea that if it, or some variation of it, is implemented, it might be very helpful to a lot of people.  I mocked up a screen shot (in Affinity Photo of course) of the Export-as dialog window (attached) with a new drop-down menu that has 2 choices: 

  • Use source folder (which means the folder either the background image file is in or the folder the .afphoto file is in if re-opening it)
  • Use previous folder (which means use whichever folder was last exported to (for those who want to export repeatedly to this folder regardless of where source is located)

An alternative would be for one of those to be the default Export-as location, and there be a radio button or check box to override that to the other option.

 

 

AffinityExport.jpg

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To: Craigleeus

Nicely done, especially the idea of having the default be the prior setting. Perfect for those of us who want to save back to the Source folder 95 % of the time, but on occasion would like a different folder destination. Very nicely done.

If only Affinity would pay attention and implement it. They had an opportunity with the last update, but FAILED to implement it. What a shame, since this type of thing is not at all difficult. No AI needed, no Rocket Science.

Affinity used to really pay attention to feedback so I'm wondering what happened.

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dcdancm:  Thanks!  You're correct, this should be a relatively simple implementation, and it addresses an issue that touches nearly every, if not every, AP user.  I've found a number of nice-to-haves, some 'very' nice to have, but this is definitely at the top of my list of desired enhancements.

As for 'what happened?'  I think a great deal of their work has been technical refinement and bug fixes.  Plus, given Publisher was rolled out last year, no doubt the last few years have been largely devoted to that platform.  And of course, now there's 3 apps in the family, not to mention the other stuff in their store, to support. 

I have faith that one of the forthcoming releases will make me a happier camper.  Photoshop is my benchmark.  Hope springs eternal!  :)

 

 

 

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I can understand that obvious programming bugs are considered most important and therefore get the highest priority, but in my opinion, interface issues which unnecessarily waste time and cause tons of frustrations to users are just as important, other things being even (meaning some bugs are the rare result of a number of variables causing unexpected problems in a few cases).  Our issue affects everyone who cares about it, because it part of the current design of Affinity Photo. A lot of people, perhaps those who are not Photoshop users, may not realize that there is a simpler, better way of doing things.

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