Hiding Items from view on the desktop

[kathmat]

If this is in the wrong posting area I apologise, but not sure if this is an OS or graphic issue?

As a 25 year Photoshop user, I am giving Affinity Photo a whirl. However, that application does not have a solid background like PS, and so with floating windows, what they call separated mode, any and everything in the background including my busy desktop shows through. I assigned a new space to AP and that works partially as I can use a solid colour instead of an image on that space, but all my folders and image files or screenshots etc and which are there on my desktop when I am currently working on them still show. Is there any command on the Mac that will allow me to hide these from view so that I have a plain desktop with just the dock? (Don't want to hide that - find that annoying.)

Thank you.

 

[MacInWin]

Start reading here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25574?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

and then follow some of the links to see how to set individual spaces. I think you can have different views in different spaces, but I don't really know how to do that. I use spaces, but am happy to have the same desktop in all of them.

 

[ferrarr]

I don't use Affinity Photo, but I found this, https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.l...earance.html?title=Changing the UI appearance, so I can not test it to be sure if it will help with your issue.

 

[kathmat]

Thank you. I had already set up a new space just for Affinity Photo, but as I had mentioned, even with the solid background I chose, as opposed to my normal image (pretty picture lol) desktop, it is still cluttered with the images of the folders, files etc. that I have on my desktop. I glanced at the article you linked, but will read it more in depth as soon as I can grab five minutes.

 

[kathmat]

I don't use Affinity Photo, but I found this, https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.l...earance.html?title=Changing the UI appearance, so I can not test it to be sure if it will help with your issue.

Sadly no - thank you though. I had already posted on their forum and they do not have a solid background to their work space on which other files open like Photoshop does. Not sure why they went that route, as it is very distracting. If you are a photographer or artist who works with tabs, that's fine because the image space then takes up virtually the entire real estate of your monitor minus the Apple menus and the dock etc., but I like working with open windows rather than tabs, and that is where the problem arises. What you linked me to is to change the colour of the individual background work space on each file.

 

[MacInWin]

Another work-around would be to expand the window in which you are editing to fit most, if not all, of the screen. I looked at their website and the tools seem to be in individual windows, so you may need to re-arrange things to make s space where the image window can be expanded to cover up the background.

 

[pm-r]

Sadly no - thank you though.

Why wouldn't Jakes suggested link method work as he posted in his #2 post?

Or I guess I'm not understanding the problem correctly.

Or you could make a new folder and put all your desktop clutter in it and then just keep it in the Dock for access.
And also create the original folder somewhere other than the normal Desktop so it isn't cluttering the desktop. Phew.…






- Patrick
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[IWT]

@kathmat

Hello again.

I use Affinity Photo a fair bit and I'm not understanding the problem; which is more than likely my error.

You can easily lose the Desktop background in a couple of ways.

The obvious one to start with is Full Screen Mode - activated by clicking the Green button under the top menu bar:



Or, clicking on View > Enter Full Screen

You then have the entire screen filled with Affinity Photo. To view the Menu Bar, move the Mouse Pointer up to the top of the screen and hover there. The Menu Bar will appear. To Exit Full Screen, use "esc" on the Keyboard (top row, far left).

Or, if you don't want Full Screen, hold down the Option Key and click on the same Green button, then adjust the screen to suit your needs.

Personally, I prefer Full Screen mode.

AF is a great app with enormous potential.

Please post back.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

The issue is with the background, as in Affinity Photo does not have one. Photoshop, displays a background upon which all documents are opened above. This way, if an image is smaller than the background, then you don't see the cluttered desktop.

 

[MacInWin]

Here is a screenshot from the Affinity Photo website:



From what I can see, the image is being edited in a smaller window, but that window has the three buttons in it, so it should be possible to select the Green one to make the image being edited full screen. If that's the case, then the desktop should disappear behind the edit window. I don't have a copy of the software, but from the website, it should be possible to hide the entire desktop. Now, if the image being edited isn't shaped like the desktop, then I don't know what the green button will do. It might fill the width, or the height, or zoom in or out. But she can try it to see what happens. It's also not clear what happens to the other boxes if the image is filling the screen. Hence my suggestion that she just move them around to make room to expand the image being edited to fill up as much as possible of the desktop.