XLS for features and ideas - Mega Thread
-
@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Mega Thread:
Spray symbol without calling the tool. Using + number pad when moving a symbol (or group of symbols).
Not clear how this would work. You can insert one or more symbols by dragging from the panel but that will not work as a spray.
Would pressing "+" activate the spray symbol tool?
-
@VectorStyler: you have created symbols. Now with the select tool active, you make a sequential selection of all your symbols. Then you press escape. Now, when you press + repeatedly, the select tool places the symbols you selected in the same order you selected them. If there's only one symbol, then, that symbol gets stamped. Every time you plus +.
-
@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Mega Thread:
the select tool places the symbols you selected in the same order you selected them
Sort of "insert symbol at the current mouse position" ?
-
@VectorStyler I'll explain this much more clearly tomorrow.
-
@VectorStyler I've used "Continuous Export" for working on themes or templates in Affinity that have a lot of moving parts. Assets that need to be uploaded in either chunk form or .zips.
While useful, it's not critical (well, not always...). I'd say its more for UI people or web designers. It's just more that the Export functions are hidden by another Persona, so having to avoid tabbing is beneficial instead of scrolling through a very lengthy list to export single items. Meanwhile I can go quickly test something I've exported once I've made a change. I don't think the way they implemented it is efficient though. It shouldn't be instantaneous as it has caused hangs. But for the most part, seems to work fine.
Edit: The other consideration, if that user has a template/theme they are working on but it's multiple parts for a particular element, that element involving many parts may need all updated at once. So having this process streamlined makes pushing to production side (running on local system, FTP, etc) and previewing more straightforward.
-
@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Mega Thread:
Going forward, to avoid splitting conversations, I've created this little xls sheet. I will add all my suggestions in here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dYra_2F893JPb44kOR_vRcs5stexRBRmm-78f0wF7Ic/edit?usp=sharing.
If others would like to comment or add votes, please feel free to do so. This is just so I can come back to see what I've said in each instance without having to search for threads. Also, it means I won't create requests for features that already exist.
In there, you have some 15 ideas for features and improvements. I will keep adding.
This is excellent! I started my own Excel sheet on my machine for suggestions for tweaks, suggestions, desires, hopes & dreams, etc, but haven't taken the time to organize them like you have. For the most part, I focus on reporting bugs and recording video and it's hard to split the time. So I just make a suggestion here and there where I can fit in... maybe I should let my thoughts do the work and setup an altar next to my machine instead..
-
@debraspicher said in XLS for features and ideas - Mega Thread:
"Continuous Export"
I will try to think of a solution for this.
But what if the "Export Again" is added as a toolbar button (top row)? Still not continuous export, but just one click to export again the content.
-
@VectorStyler: the solution is actually much simpler than Affinity has made it. Export Persona is a terrible idea especially because as they've discovered they can't replicate it in all of their products. Not even in Designer persona within Publisher.
The solution is to have simple exposed button like you've said. Actually, there's something even better you can do. "Export on Close". this would mean that every time I close, the file is exported automatically.
-
@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Mega Thread:
they can't replicate it in all of their products. Not even in Designer persona within Publisher.
They have obviously made an intentional choice not to include it in Publisher. It is not that they cannot do so - they have left various things out on purpose to help differentiate the products.
The Export Persona is great for some use cases and not a bad idea at all, but it is definitely overkill for many purposes as well and is not a tool to be used in every situation. For example, sometimes the same slice/artboard needs to be exported at multiple resolutions and in multiple file formats - how would you currently do that in VectorStyler if you need to rerun the export periodically as you make changes? If you need to apply the same set of related exports to different documents which have the same slice arrangement, in Designer, you could set them all up in a template then have all of the exports ready to go, with multiple formats and resolutions per slice, simply adding the artwork for each one: again, how would you set something like that up in VectorStyler right now?
As an aside, Export Slices doesn't seem to be working for me at all in VectorStyler when I try to use it - I'm probably missing a step somewhere and will need to go back and look for documentation to see what I am doing wrong. It prompts to select which slices to export followed by where to put the files but never asks what format(s) to export in and after selecting a destination just stops without further prompting or any indication of why there are no files added to that folder.
-
@fde101: I phrased that poorly. What I meant is what you said. They've made a choice. And it's a poor one. The whole pitch that Serif makes is that it's a seamless workflow. Correct?
Well, no.
Affinity Photo and Designer don't support curly quotes, the so called Smart Quotes. Only Publisher does. So, I'm forced to do most of my work in Publisher, but I can't slice for web within Publisher. Not even within the so called Designer persona of Publisher. For that, I need to leave the program completely. In that case, why have Designer at all?
So, it's hardly an overkill. Exporting is an essential feature. Slicing is too. You can slice in all three of the main Adobe alternatives. Illy, Photoshop, and InDesign. This is a consistent reproduction. You can add pages and artboards in all three programs.
I also cannot add multiple artboards within Photo. Again, I have to leave the program and go out completely JUST to add an artboard. That's a terrible, terrible, terrible workflow choice. I do most of my initial iteration of mock up work directly in PS before I transfer to Illy. And artboards are essential for that.
Likewise, Pixel Persona does not contain live filters. Which is a deeply fragmenting choice. Especially because affinity photo within Publisher has it. So serif's choices are as whole terrible.
Font Manger vs Find & Replace - I don't even want to start talking about it.
I can get even deeper, but I think the point is made.
I don't think it's a matter of differentiation. It's a matter of commercialization. They have to pretend they have three products. They don't.
-
OK, I need to make a correction: I found the Slices panel, and it is possible to specify multiple file formats and resolutions (scales) per slice. This looks good for that requirement.
The problem is that at least for me, I am getting inconsistent behaviors depending on how I ask it to Export Slices:
- If I choose the "Export all slices of the current canvas" button at the bottom of the Slices window, it does just that - that option appears to work, as does the "Export the selected slices" button.
- If I choose Export Slices from the File menu and check the Export All checkbox, no files are exported. This is with both Current Canvas and Member Canvases checked, as well as tested with neither of them checked (there is only one canvas in the document, and four slices).
- If I choose Export All Slices of the Current Document button at the bottom of the Slices window, it comes up with no slices selected, and proceeding with the export produces no files; if I choose that button then check the Export All checkbox, it still exports no files. I believe one time I managed to export a single slice when using this button, but I cannot seem to reproduce that now.
Current version of VectorStyler (just ran the update), macOS 14.6.1, M1 Ultra Mac Studio.
-
@VectorStyler Personally, I don't think you should focus too much adding continuous export functionality just yet until the UI/UX is really nailed down and the need for that becomes clear. An Export Again option is fine I think in the toolbar, especially if it relates to currently selected Artboards.. then I think that could just be part of the Canvas/Artboard workflow? Does that make sense? For Affinity's workflow, it makes more sense to have Continuous because of the way personas is completely segregated from the rest of the interface.. anyway, I wanted to explain the use case where Continuous export benefits the process.
Another thought, a way to create Export Groups. I know there is the ability to create Canvases, etc (features I've really not intuitively grasped yet), it may be helpful to compartmentalize our designs some way so that they also create these Export Groups automatically? I guess independent canvases creates this already? But as exporting an entire canvas works, as far as I understand it, it tends export sort of like a sprite sheet? I'm not sure if that idea fits at all within the current framework, because I've encountered a few bugs with Canvas, so I'm reluctant to use it too much (I think those you fixed..). So it's just a thought, thus not a suggestion.
