What a shame...

...that other forums (members) are not as helpful.

All the members, here, are the most helpful I have ever met, on any forum.
Why do I say this?
Well...
I'm sure you know that Affinity is a programme that is out there and there are many Xara users who also use Affinity Designer.
And I came across a video tutorial showing something that would be pretty easy to recreate in Xara, but, if you want to learn another product, then why not watch a video that someone else had taken the time and trouble to do.
Well, I did watch the video and to be honest, the video is not clear, and all I personally see is the mouse moving here and there and choosing options that are not clear to see.
And, I said as much on the Facebook post.
The answer to my comments?!
" This tutorial clean and usefully. If you don't know these "mouse movements everywhere" you need more practice in Affinity. ;)
Peace..."

That answer did not surprise my in the least.
And I've had the same answer when I've asked a question on the Affinity Forum, before.

On this forum, there would have been loads of users willing to help, and show, and answer any question I would have had.

It is getting harder and harder to find civility on line. That's the sad part. If someone does not agree with you, or vice versa, the typical response is the person disagreeing must be mentally challenged, or worse.

From what I can see, Affinity is really putting out a good product that they took the time and effort to design from scratch, but I just don't have the concentration or patience to learn a new program so I just bang on with Xara. It's not perfect but I know how it works and how to make it do the things I need it to do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rik

All the members, here, are the most helpful I have ever met, on any forum.
Why do I say this?
Well...
I'm sure you know that Affinity is a programme that is out there and there are many Xara users who also use Affinity Designer.
And I came across a video tutorial showing something that would be pretty easy to recreate in Xara, but, if you want to learn another product, then why not watch a video that someone else had taken the time and trouble to do.
Well, I did watch the video and to be honest, the video is not clear, and all I personally see is the mouse moving here and there and choosing options that are not clear to see.
And, I said as much on the Facebook post.
The answer to my comments?!
" This tutorial clean and usefully. If you don't know these "mouse movements everywhere" you need more practice in Affinity. ;)
Peace..."

That answer did not surprise my in the least.
And I've had the same answer when I've asked a question on the Affinity Forum, before.

On this forum, there would have been loads of users willing to help, and show, and answer any question I would have had.

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Yes, I agree, TG is a wonderful forum and has a number of extremely able, kind and generous members showing the way to various solutions to almost any problem. I try to take my cue from them but only succeed once in a while.

Where's the tut online(link?)
I have the feeling this is about people on some facebook page?
Maybe try out the forum instead as I find it much more helpful.
Most people using Affinity products are (semi)converted PS or AI users,frustrated that many tools/features aren't copied one on one into Affinity or working as they think it should be.

The post is on 'Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher Group' Facebook page, and there's a link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/umJalBfybj0

I don't know what size monitor you would need to see the video clearly, but, when you can't see what is being selected, then it's very easy to get lost.

I could easily make that in Xara, but, that's not the point I'm trying to make.
Effort has been put into putting music on the video.
Why?
I just find that distracting.
Instead, some text showing the options being selected would be more instructional.
I just found it to be more 'showing off' rather than instructional.

There's been user to user—and user to Xara—abuse here, too.

It is a user-made video with yet another (non-English speaker) user who commented to your comment. It is a poorly done video. The resolution is poor, the music is distracting (good thing there is a mute option). I've seen some poorly done user Xara video tuts posted here and elsewhere as well. No matter where I see a poor tut, I just pass on making comments to them. People tend to get defensive, other users may stick up for the poster, etc.

While there have been rude comments on the Affinity forum, FB & YT is a whole different arena for rude commentators.

for the most part I disliked this video too, Rik.

If a video has background music and no narration I instantly close it. That video is crap and I should know, I excel at them ;)

Rik, it's a bad video.

Most tutorials covering any complexity without a voiceover are not so good. The resolution wasn't perfect (not full HD) but I was able to make everything out. I don't think you can judge a community on the basis of this.

I've seen some pretty bad Xara video tutorials too.

The good thing is that there are some excellent commercial affinity tutorials available and two books, so I'd say affinity is in the ascendancy for sure.

Not related, exactly, but I frequent the Cartographers' Guild, and they have a very friendly, helpful member base (including me) - TG is not alone in that positiveness.

I know of Affinity, but no reason for me to look at it, yet.

This thread is not about how to do it in Xara, but, I couldn't resist seeing how long it would take!!!
So...
I had a go.
I'm sure anyone who uses Xara, knows it's pretty easy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rik

This thread is not about how to do it in Xara, but, I couldn't resist seeing how long it would take!!!
So...
I had a go.
I'm sure anyone who uses Xara, knows it's pretty easy.

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I've never really dabbled with Affinity Designer, but it took me about ten minutes to get something similar and if I had to do it again I'd take five minutes at most.

It's just three circles, two with radial fill, one with a flat fill. My colours are wrong and I could play with it to get closer to your example.

The message is that Xara is no quicker for making this than affinity and it should be pretty simple in any package. Three circles. I didn't bother with the shadow.

Attachment 123212

My thoughts are like the above posts Rik,
It isn't a great tut video to begin with and I prefer to have no sound on and like many, have on screen displaying their actions.
If I don't get something, I rewind/pause the video to see what was done.
The comments you received were from a single user and doesn't mean that all affinity users are like that.
Like Mike I have seen some rude people come by on the Affinity fora but overall it's a most engaging bunch and with developers participating as well.
Would like to see more of that engagement here too but due to attitude of xara,this forum has reached a point where only some regulars and drive-by-questioners come.
Now that's what I would call a shame.

On the subject of affinity software, I recently received an email from affinity showing what people are doing using affinity - designed to inspire me. There's nothing like that coming from Magix and TG/XaraXone used to sort of fulfil that role but no longer does.

At the end of 2018 affinity showed it's user figures - 1.4 MILLION - grown from 200,000 in 2015.

This year I cancelled my Adobe Cloud renewal. I'll see how long I can live without it.

About the only thing that Xara does that Affinity can't do is make a website.

There are more things than websites that Xara does that Affinity can do ... yet. Contours is one that serif says will come but it's not there yet. Each new update brings something more though to affinity. I still use Designer Pro and it will always be a great tool, However the Affinity programs are going to be the ones the world is watching.

I think the video shows enough to get the idea what to do - but then I am reasonably familiar with the interface, and watched it on a 22" screen (with the sound muted!).

Maybe this tutorial would have been better planned out and presented as a static step-by-step list of illustrated actions, but that’s probably more effort than just making a screen recording.

There are a few other people that make tutorial videos. I quite like the ones by Isabel Illustration (Isabel Aracama) which often have her chatting away explaining what she’s doing and why. I also like Egg’s for the same reason! :D

I agree that The TG forum is friendly and helpful, but like others I do wish that Xara themselves would contribute more to the discussions, particularly when it’s about a specific issue that only Xara can answer - like when are we going to get the next update?

There’s a lot to like about Affinity Designer, but PGD/DPX still remain fast, versatile design tools for those (Windows users) lucky enough to come across them.

I agree jono. Video tutorials though, if they are good ones are more work than just a quick screen capture. They require planning, scripts, rehearsal and then there is editing. I usually edit out mistakes, pauses and unexpected things that crop up like phone ringing, etc.

There are also ways to use Xara and Affinity products together. Affinity photo can be set as an external editor for easily transferring photos back and forth. And if you want to have contoured or blended objects in affinity create them in Xara, convert to editable shapes and export as svg. Same for molded text. Then import the svg into affinity

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

That video is crap and I should know, I excel at them ;)

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;))