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Essential Publisher modifiers for an instant productivity boost

Modifier keys are a great way to save time and hassle. Here are just a few of our favourite keys for working faster and smarter in Affinity Publisher…

Making use of Affinity Publisher’s modifier keys allows you to easily rescale and position objects, override snapping, and instantly display additional text options for your publication as you go.

Rescaling and repositioning objects

A number of helpful modifiers make transforming objects a breeze.

Holding the Shift key as you drag any of an object’s handles allows you to maintain the selected object’s aspect ratio while resizing it.

Resizing an image with its aspect ratio maintained.

Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows)-dragging from a corner handle allows you to resize an object from its centre.

Resizing an image from its centre.

With Ctrl (Mac) or the right mouse button (Windows) held down as you drag a corner handle, you can resize an object from its opposite corner.

Resizing an image from its opposite corner.

Overriding snapping

By pressing the ; key, you can toggle snapping on or off, allowing you to make snapping exceptions for specific objects as you go.

Holding Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) when transforming or placing objects allows you to override snapping restrictions when the text ruler or baseline grid is enabled.

Overriding snapping with the baseline grid enabled.

Displaying extra text options

While working on your text, you can make the Character panel pop up at any time by pressing Cmd+T (Mac) or Ctrl+T (Win).

Displaying the Character panel on the go.

Typography options can be displayed by pressing Cmd+Shift+T (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+T (Win).

You can display spelling options on the go by pressing Cmd+Shift+; (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+; (Win).