R. C. Schletty

I occasionally have this same issue with Affinity 2.3.1. It is vexing. My workaround is to "Save As" to my Mac Desktop or to a folder one level higher than my working job folder. After saving, I move the file into position in the job folder. I am NOT using iCloud. I am working off an internal 4TB hard drive in my 2009 Mac Pro running Catalina with 48 GB of RAM.

Lo and behold! See what has been added to Affinity version 2.3. Alt text (for screen reader accessibility) can now be added to images and objects in a PDF file. Looks like we have to wait longer for ePUB export. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/whats-new/ Tags Panel for adding alt text to images and objects The new Tags Panel in Affinity Publisher allows you to add alt text to any image or object when exported to PDF for accessibility purposes. To use, just open the Tags Panel from the Window menu, select the image or object you want to add alt text to, and add your description in the box. Alt Text Source As well as adding your own custom description to any object, you can also choose to scrape the alt text from the Title, Description or Headline meta data which may be embedded within the image in question. Mark as Decoration You also have the option to ‘Mark as Decoration’. This means no image description will be exported or used by screen readers as the item is purely there for decorative purposes rather than important to the understanding of the document. Marking as a decoration is primarily used to positively tag an image as not needing a description, so it’s not flagged in preflight. Preflight Options have also been added in preflight to make it easy to check your document for any missing alt text should you wish. When creating or editing a profile, you will see a new section for alt text. Here you can choose whether you want preflight to return a warning if images, placed documents or vector objects do not have alt text added (or marked as decoration). Export There is now a new ‘Tagged PDF’ option in the advanced section of PDF export. This is required to be checked if you wish to export your PDF, including any tags you have added.

I am having a similar problem. One error is sometimes not being able to Save, Save As or Export. Job files are on an internal 4TB HDD drive in my 2009 Mac Pro tower (macOS Catalina). The job folder is 4 levels deep in the hierarchy. One temporary solution was to move the Affinity file to the Desktop where I was able to Save and Export. Next temporary solution was to remove a comma from the nested folder name. Seemed to work for awhile but then the issue recurred. The second error is with switching between Designer and Photo. After switching from Designer to Photo and doing some image edits, I tried to switch the file back to Designer. I got this error: Failed to launch Affinity Designer 2 The application was not available. An recoverable error occurred while trying to restore the document. The document will now close. Happily, after quitting both Designer and Photo, I was able to open the .afdesign file in Photo, but not in Designer. Trying to open the file in Designer gave me this: Failed to open file The file is already open in Affinity Photo 2 on this device. So I had no choice but to open in Photo, whereupon it prompted me to open a recovery file. I didn't lose any work, but it is really annoying to be getting these errors. Never had anything like it with Affinity 1.

The ability to merge different text frames into a single text frame has existed in Adobe Illustrator for decades. How is it that Affinity missed this basic function in Designer? In Adobe Illustrator, you can select text objects, copy, draw a text frame and paste. Voila. All text combined into a single frame. Sometimes, you have to manually add returns after each paragraph.

Affinity 2.1 has arrived. Still no mention of accessible PDF and accessible E-PUB! 2.1 update – May 2023 https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/whats-new 5 things you need to know about Affinity 2.1 https://affinityspotlight.com/article/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-affinity-21/?utm_source=SpotlightEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SpotlightNewsletter Affinity 2.1 introduces some highly requested new features, plus hundreds of usability improvements to Affinity’s most-loved tools. Here are five things (and more!) you need to know about the first free update for V2. Write to Melanie and tell her to apply firm pressure to decision makers at Affinity! Melanie Khareghat Spotlight editor As editor of Affinity Spotlight Melanie oversees the stories, interviews and tutorials published on the site. Outside of work she enjoys travelling, reading crime thrillers, Pilates and dabbling in a spot of oil painting. Get in touch with Melanie if you would like to contribute or be featured on Affinity Spotlight.

I had done several reflowable ebooks using MS Word (rough draft from my client) > InDesign > Calibre. When that same client switched from doing his rough book draft in Word to Affinity Publisher, I ran into problems with tagging and the TOC, and of course could not export to reflowable EPUB3 from Publisher. So his manuscript had to be copied over to Adobe InDesign, whereupon I did the export to Calibre as EPUB3.

I am also shocked. ePub export was the first thing I looked for when I saw the Affinity 2 announcement. Serif, please give us your roadmap for this very important feature that needs to be part of Affinity Publisher.

The text flow frames I imported from an IDML document all have a scale applied to them which is unknown – probably something like 300% or 400%. It must be a glitch with the Affinity Publisher import of the InDesign IDML file. My solution was to copy the text frame from the last page in the flow, and paste that frame into the page where you want the flow to continue. Delete all content from the newly pasted frame. Now link the two pages using the Text Flow feature. The text that flows into the new frame will be the correct size!