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The Wook

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  1. Agree...to this I'd add cross-referencing and book file handling.
  2. From my (generally similar, although I don't produce e-books) perspective, you may be in a bit of a tough spot with regards to suitable software. FrameMaker is very capable and long-proven in publishing long and complex technical documents. It has a long pedigree in this field. Its book capability, handling of large files with many images/illustrations/cross references, and the breadth of its features and capability make it the gold standard (in my mind, at least) for this type of work. For the past close to 20 years I've been using it for a suite of long technical documents of a similar length to yours, along with a separate program and data file reference that runs close to 500 pages. To my experience, all of the things that seem to be missing from what might otherwise be it's competition, it has. And more. But it comes at a cost, literally and figuratively. It's part of Adobe's Technical Communication Suite that runs $600 a year. Also while the program has greatly improved over the time of my use of it, it can also be pretty frustrating to use. Compared to InDesign and the feature set it brings to the table, there are times where FM is just not very intuitive. It can also feel "clunky". I've always found I need a web browser open right next to FM whenever I use it as invariably there's something that I've forgotten how to do. In some cases, it seemingly takes forever to get some small thing to work...but that may just be me. Out of the cost and my seemingly constant frustration with FM I've only recently considered attempting to convert one of my manuals over to InDesign. I'm not sure how well its own book features and cross inter-chapter referencing works with long docs. While considering this, I was pretty happy then to recently test Publisher as a possible alternative even to InDesign and thereby allow me to cut that Adobe CC cord....until finding out that even simple cross-referencing isn't available (yet?). If you can accept its cost, test FrameMaker. You may find you take to it easily and that it does all that you want.
  3. @benwiggy I wasn't actually actively looking for a pdf reader when I posted this. Just found out as a pleasant surprise that for my generally-limited use of Acrobat's features, that Publisher would serve me nicely as a reader that also has the ability to generally correctly interpret my pdfs to allow their simple editing. Not having to even look for another simple reader is just a small bonus. ...plus, this ability also fits into my desire to ditch my Adobe subscription. PDF scripting and similar usage really isn't a need for me. I've been using Publisher for the past week or so as my pdf reader and light editor and am pretty happy so far. I'm even happier with Designer and Photo, the main magnets for my purchase. Am very close to hitting the subscription cancel button.
  4. @Wosven @fde101 Thanks for this info. On the note of substitution, I'd not considered doing so to alter the pdf but simply to improve my copy/paste operation into Word. On that use, it has already helped. Will keep your comment in mind should I ever need to modify a pdf in this way.
  5. Hello again, @fde101, Just discovered Publisher just may offer a partial solution to pdf-embedded fonts as well. It identifies the typefaces used in the pdf and gives you the option of choosing their replacements. After reloading my pdf into the program today, this time I spent a moment in the PDF Options panel that launched when I started the import. In addition to checking "Favor editable text over fidelity and "Group lines of text into text frames" (this was likely the magic that made me happy earlier), I now checked "Replace missing fonts". I went through the displayed list and chose the replacement family for each of those listed in the pdf. This included a couple that I no longer had on my system, but that Publisher identified as having been used. I changed each of them to the typefaces that I'm using in my destination Word document. It worked...but I still needed to apply my chosen Word styles owing to slight variations in the new font size, leading, and sometimes justification that I now use for this new doc. It's impressive to me that Publisher recognized all the fonts I'd used eight years ago in my FM document, including a couple of pretty obscure ones that I'd used on very specific and rare occasions.
  6. Hello @fde101, Indeed, as I pasted each block into Word, my next step was to apply my chosen paragraph style as the substitute typeface was incorrect. I created the source working document about eight years ago in FrameMaker. Was pretty happy not to use that powerful but often non-intuitive program again and let its separate subscription slide. I've been using the Adobe suite for a long time. Over the period that I've used InDesign, which otherwise is a wonderful program, I'd never tried reading a pdf with it. I've always had access to Acrobat Pro for my pdf use. It's why I was surprised with just how well Publisher worked in my recent task...especially with it being able to interpret blocks of text correctly as paragraphs. Why the Sejda pdf reader/editor was also adding extra spaces between most words was puzzling and another task to have to fix via find/replace. Hence one part of my happiness in discovering this alternate use of Publisher for my task at hand...the second being not have to find an Acrobat alternative for Adobe-cutting...and this post.
  7. Just purchased Publisher to help support its development. While I can't use it for my technical writing owing to the lack of native cross referencing capability , I've discovered that it may just replace my use of Acrobat Pro. If so, another Adobe tether snipped. Publisher seems to do a nice job in recognizing and interpreting the text from my 300+ page pdf manual I created years ago using FrameMaker. Copying and pasting selected paragraph blocks from it into Word, Publisher seems to recognize and interpret these paragraph blocks correctly. It doesn't insert returns at the end of each line as a pdf reader does, nor does it double the spaces between each word. Both are things that the pdf reader I've been testing (Sejda) does, the latter inexplicably. Both are a PITA to correct in volume. Given that I primarily under-use Acrobat Pro that comes with my CC subscription for mainly reading pdfs and performing minor text edits, this is a pleasant surprise.
  8. @walt.farrell The idea of using linked frames and the asset panel is a good one for sure given the absence of native cross reference support. I did try it. But it just won't work for me across the sometimes long docs I work on . Serif's triumvirate is certainly otherwise very capable, user-friendly for those trying to convert from a wayward Adobe, and....affordable. Those three things are hard to find all together. Perhaps it's still early days, but any idea whether native cross referencing is in Serif's plans? I've seen that others have requested this capability but nothing from the company themselves.
  9. Thank you for the clarification @walt.farrell. Indeed I'm starting to see the difference between Publisher's StudioLink and the otherwise-prevalent-in-all-three-applications "edit in" menu. As I visualize it now, StudioLink allows you to stay within Publisher while accessing either Designer's vector tools or Photo's raster tools via Personas. I'm thinking of Personas as alternate layouts that have a lot of magic under the hood to allow remain in the Publisher environment while using features from its two bretheren. Perhaps StudioLink will make its way to Designer and Photo?
  10. @thomaso Thank you for taking the time to do this. However, perhaps we aren't referring to the same things. The examples you've provided demonstrate that Affinity Publisher indeed handles links or hyperlinks in a variety of ways: page, anchor, URL, file, and email. Hyperlink interactivity is indeed very useful. I should have been a little clearer though. What I refer to as cross referencing is more old school, not involving interactivity that indeed you've demonstrated Publisher can handle. To me, cross referencing is used (and still especially useful, even in these days of electronic publishing and document interactivity) in text to refer the reader to other sections, figures, chapters, appendices, etc. of interest. Here are some examples: - Refer back to section 3.4 "System Operation" for more information. - Figure 43 on the next page illustrates this concept in action. - Full system specifications are found in Appendix B on page 343. Not all technical documentation is always available in electronic form. Sometimes paper copies still dominate. Cross referencing is referred to by this name in FrameMaker, InDesign, and even Microsoft Word, all of which also offer hyperlink capabilities similar to Publisher and what you've demonstrated with your two examples. Can text anchors be used to repeat, rather than link? By this, I mean, can you add an anchor to say the heading text "Appendix B" and then somewhere earlier in the document body text "call" that anchor to be repeated (the refer to "Appendix B" part of my earlier example?). The Publisher workarounds I've seen proposed are similar to what is described here: But really, this workaround isn't as simple, quick, nor intuitive as what is seen in Publisher's competition. That is, unless I've just missed this capability as I continue to evaluate the full suite.
  11. Perhaps I have mistaken the name of the feature that allows program switching via the file menu when I referred to it as StudioLink. Yes, it's the program switching invoked from within each program via the File>Edit in "<alternate Affinity program name>" menu choice. I tend to have Designer and Photo both running when I use this feature. I've not been using Publisher as it's current lack of support for cross referencing prevents me from switching from InDesign.
  12. Am evaluating the full suite of programs and thus far am impressed. One missing feature is a killer for me though, with respect to Publisher. The program needs to support cross referencing out of the box without needing to use workarounds. Technical and scientific documentation can't live without this key feature. I am coming from a FrameMaker/InDesign background. Is this on the Publisher's near-term roadmap? I've seen other requests for cross referencing posted on this forum. As minor as this feature might seem to some, it is what is preventing me from making the switch away from Adobe.
  13. In the midst of evaluating the trials, am finding Affinity Link very useful, with one exception. Choosing to edit in another program in the suite doesn't automatically switch to that program. I need to click that program's icon in the task bar to view the file and program to continue editing. I found this very confusing initially as my workspace would go blank and I wouldn't see my working file. Then noticed that the icon of the program I'd wanted to switch to was flashing in the taskbar. At this point clicking on it would bring both the second program (and my file) into view. Given that I find the icons for both Photo and Designer to be hard to distinguish at a glance (their chosen purple and blue colours and fine line-based design are much too similar for these colour-deficient eyes when viewed in a tiny icon ) I find that I need to devote more concentration to navigation than is really necessary. I often find myself needing to mouse over the logo next to the logo to see what program I'm in from the tool tip. This should be doable, no?
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