whitewolf7070

Yes, I truly want to switch from ID to APub, but can't as long as there is no Span Columns. I do newspaper/magazine layout and it is a must have for that kind of work. I did buy it though, in hopes that Affinity will add this feature soon.

C'mon man, seriously? You think those of us bringing this up haven't thought of and/or tried the "second frame" and "pinning" routine? It's a kludge and not workable for deadline driven, magazine and newspaper work. When you have to meet daily/weekly/monthly deadlines for multi-age layouts, this is not a "convenient shortcut." Maybe these kludges work for one-off flyer and brochure work where you can tweak and nudge all day and tell the client to wait. That's a different world, man. APub will probably sell well because people like me, who won't use it because of this flaw, but just want to have it in our tool bag while we wait for this flaw to be fixed will buy it anyway. As has been said before, the venerable Ventura Publisher (may it RIP) had this essential feature in the mid-90s. It's omission from APub is a crippling flaw for multi-page production work on deadlines.

THANK YOU. Span columns is, as captain_slocum has said, a "deal breaker." I do all my ad and element design in AD and it would be great to edit them natively after placing them in in an AP layout, rather than PDFing after every change. This morning I was trying to figure out a way to work around not having span columns, but no joy. I suppose you can make anything work if you have to, but with a working alternative in ID, it's just too much hassle and too time-consuming to try a work around. I hope they add the feature soon.

Well, I tried Corel Draw for the Mac and it definitely is NOT ready for prime time -- slow -- buggy -- ugly. Crashed. I have never been able to grok Illustrator, must be a mental block or something. So staying with AD despite not having text warping and bulleting, numbering at this time. AD is fast, slick and the features it does have work well. Hope those other features arrive soon.

I used to use CorelDRAW for everything, but switched to Mac in 2012. DRAW had several key features that AD does not have: text warp, text wrap, numbered paragraphs, bulleted paragraphs, etc. Apparently AD does not even intend to have these features in the future. Wants people to buy Publisher so they deliberately cripple AD. Doesn't seem wise. I would buy Publisher anyway for layout work (though not until they have the feature to span columns in paragraph styles), but using Publisher to design most ads is like using a wrench to pound nails. You can do it, but its awkward, frustrating, and time-consuming. I design many ads and elements each month for a publication and these features are very useful. I know that everybody wants "their" features, but these seem pretty basic. I have been working around them in AD, but now that CorelDRAW has come to Mac, I may move back. People here make a big deal about not liking the subscription model (I'm not a fan either, but I have one), but the cost is not a super big issue for most designers, productivity is. Hope Affinity gets a clue before they start to lose momentum.

I understand their limited time. However, if they think this is a minor feature, they likely haven’t done much layout work. The suggested work-arounds are a kludge at best. This is a feature that regular layout artists need every day. Simple as that. Until the span column feature is included, APub will be a novelty, not a workhorse for many people, IMHO.

Thanks for the suggestion and example Walt. It is a technique that seems to work in your example, but why have to create TWO text boxes and format them as well as the text itself? I don't see this as a regular substitute for the simple "Span Columns." Why don't the programers simply include it? Maybe there's a reason, but as a designer, it escapes me.

Sorry, no. The Span Columns feature is very simple: Just add the optional paragraph attribute "Span Columns" and a variable of how many columns you want a particular paragraph, such as a title or heading, to span. That's it. When this feature is invoked, the paragraph with this attribute will go across the number of column specified, but only that paragraph. It will have all the formatting assigned to it, but just span across columns. It is vital for making headlines where you need the title or headline to span the entire text box while the rest of the text flows into the columns in the text box. It is very handy and essential when resizing text boxes. If the headline is in a separate text box. you have to resize and reformat TWO text boxes and make sure they are correctly aligned every time you change something. What a pain! This "Span columns" is really elementary stuff. As I have said before, Quark, ID, and even the old Ventura Publisher have had this basic, essential feature since the 1990s. I am not criticizing, just observing and making the point that for me as a newspaper, magazine publisher for more than a quarter century, it is an essential feature. I would LOVE to switch to AP, but really can't as long as this feature is missing. I am probably not the only one.

With every beta, I hope for this feature. Still not there. With newspaper/magazine publication, this is a MUST.

Stunning that this is left out. Corel Draw had this since the 90s.

Still hoping for the option to have paragraphs span across columns without having to create a separate text box, with all the text wrap settings and all. The ability to do this is about the only thing keeping me with InDesign.

Thanks Adriandw.

We are launching a new newsmagazine-style pub in March and having a big debate on using inDesign or AP. We would like to standardize on Affinity. However, this is a “must have” feature for our type of publication. Even the old Ventura Publisher, circa 2000, had this feature. Surprised it’s missing so far.

FWIW: I designed a staff box in InDesign and then decided to move the publication to APub. I didn't want to rekey all the text, so I just did a select all and copy in Indesign. Then, I went to the box in APub just to paste in the text. To my surprise, the text came in all formatted and the paragraph styles imported, too. Nice surprise. Maybe this is part of the planned ID import feature that Affinity just isn't publicizing yet. Anyway, made my work easier today. FWIW.

Thanks.