SallijaneG

This is a big problem for residents there; I work with folks on decommissioning issues, and we are all concerned that there are plans to keep old, embrittled reactors open for decades after end of design life. Residents have good reason not to trust the NRC; I recommend watching the film Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island (https://radioactivethefilm.com). The investor community is salivating over new small modular reactors, even though the only company that had a model approved, NuScale Power, had most of its potential customers drop out because of delays and cost (https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nuscale-power-uamps-agree-terminate-nuclear-project-2023-11-08/).

Sorry, environmental justice—I should have formally defined that. In the U.S. at least, and likely overseas with possible different criteria, communities that are largely folks who make low incomes, whether very rural or urban communities, often but not always people of the global majority (Black and Brown), where projects such as incinerators and gas-fired power plants are often located. Example from history, the film COOKED: Survival by ZIP Code, about the 1995 heat wave that killed more than 700 people in Chicago, largely Black, elderly, and in what is now often called “environmental justice” neighborhoods. We didn’t do much better, if at all, with COVID-19—essential workers, often from EJ communities with jobs that could not be done from home, often using public transportation, were hardest hit. I fear these people being deprived of energy to feed expanding AI—if not directly, being priced out.

My biggest concern is the amount of energy it needs and the cost, both financial and environmental—including environmental justice issues—that it will require. (EJ in terms of both dirty generation in EJ communities and redirecting of affordable energy away from working-/middle-class communities.) (Have I mentioned that I am not a great capitalist?)

Honestly, I am not sure what sort of account my 2 groups have; I looked at the pricing, and see that the Team is a bit of a discount compared to the Pro plan (Teams price is $100/person/year for a minimum 3 people, as compared to $120/year for the Pro version [which would be $360 for 3 people]). I don’t know how big one has to be to qualify for Enterprise, the custom version—found it in the footnote—100 seats; that is big indeed! I don’t know what the previous pricing was, this does include access to all 3 Affinity products, so that is part of the justification for an increase (and I do see the possibility for a substantial increase on the horizon so that folks continue to stay in Canva teams rather than migrate to individual Affinity perpetual licenses). I don’t really want to speculate a lot—I do want to encourage my fellow team members to dabble in Affinity, even if just for proofreading and editing files I create. Time will tell, and meanwhile I will likely keep updating my Affinity programs fairly regularly, equipment permitting.

Hmm, interesting—that is how they are paying for the free nonprofit accounts, I presume. I am on teams for 2 nonprofit organizations (admin on only 1), so I guess that we have what is a Canva Team account. As long as they keep being generous to nonprofits and schools, and stay substantially lower than Adobe, and keep a perpetual license, I am O.K. with increases that basically are for the big-budget folks. (I am far from the best capitalist.)

I get the Word files, or e-mail-body submissions, and do a basic copy-edit as I do layout in Publisher. I use last year’s issue as a template, using a text style called “Replace Me” to make all the old text red (so there is no chance for it to sneak through), and export pages as PDFs as I get them done, using a text style to identify text needing final proofreading (style: Needs Proofreading, makes text blue). Finalized text has those text styles removed, so it is standard black. I send these pages to my other board members, a couple of whom do an excellent proofreading job. This way they can follow progress, send me late articles, etc. It’s just 4 pages, but we are all overbooked volunteers. Attaching a copy of the last issue; Autumn is now about 2 weeks late—the first one to be late since I took it over a couple of years ago; not sure why this one has been so difficult. NewsAndViews24SummerPrintVersion ac.pdf

So we can edit each other’s Affinity files, and if someone creates a file in Canva and exports it, we use it in Affinity just as any other graphic file, right?

O.K., I am a cochairperson of a nonprofit organization that was just notified that we are eligible for free Affinity software. What I can’t figure out is whether I can, or I hope how to, share documents I create in my own, personal, Affinity program with the Canva team at the nonprofit. I have been creating our newsletters in Publisher, exporting PDF files for fellow members to proofread, etc. It would be great if they could do that directly in Affinity, now no $$ block for downloading, but looking at the Canva for Nonprofit instructions for using Affinity, the instructions are to (1) download the app (which I have no need to do) and (2) sign in with your Canva information—I never have to sign in when using the Affinity apps for which I paid for a perpetual license—so I am stumped. I can of course continue to use Affinity, but will my colleagues be able to open, edit, and return my files to me to use on my nonCanva Affinity programs? Will I be able to edit what they create? I have searched FAQs here, searched on Canva, and don’t see an answer. Help? (I guess I can just ask one of the others to download the program and try it, but thought maybe someone else had this question.)

Yes, also pushing 70, and not thinking more than another version or so; just thinking about younger folks, and hoping change doesn’t come too fast. . . . I might upgrade my Mac laptop once more; it’s an early-2015 model running Big Sur and there is no way to add memory, and I think newer operating systems are not recommended, some possibly even not possible to run.

Good point, though eventually one will likely need to upgrade, or maintain an old computer that is compatible with the older software. I did that for almost a decade after jumping off the InDesign bandwagon after CS4, when there was no longer a stand-alone version, until I found Affinity Publisher. (I started my journey with Aldus PageMaker, I think version 2 or 3).

It’s simple—public companies have pressures that private companies don’t. Look at Patagonia; had it gone public, its workplace/environmental/ethical standards would have been compromised long ago. As he looks to a succession plan, founder Yvon Chouinard set up a foundation to hold the majority of the shares so that the mission would remain intact. Protonmail just did the same thing. Wendell Potter, author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, talks about how so much is driven by the need to have good numbers for Wall Street analysts every quarter; that imperative distorts company behaviors. I just read an article about Campbell’s (the soup company, of course way more than that), which just bought the maker of Rao’s sauces. The article stated that the purchase was the only reason the company had positive growth at teh last report—what will they do next quarter? Why does it matter if profits grow, as long as they don’t drastically decrease? If, in a hypothetical company, 10% profit was good last year, why do you need 11% next year? Should you panic if it goes to 9% one quarter? If Canva is in the design-software business, should its executives have to worry about such things, or should they be able to focus on improving the software, satisfying customer needs, and promoting their product?

The article is behind a paywall, but that is one heck of a price increase!

I just tried ignoring text wraps, and that did it, but of course the text went all across the logo, so I am going to have to find the hidden wrapped object, or manually break a lot of lines. . . . Thanks again! O.K., I made a new master page, realized that wraps on master-page items will be honored by an individual-page text frame, so instead of replacing the old logo, I just imported the new logo onto the blank page and created a wrap for it, getting rid of the picture box—all is well! Image of successful wrap attached.

The logo is on the master page, the text in a text box on the individual page, so the picture frame is used to create a wrap. I just realized looking at your outline that it is like the shape of the older logo (attached), so maybe there is a ghost wrap outline on the master page; will look for that. Thanks! BTW, my question about “looking at invisible characters” was more word play than finding how to turn them on; seems oxymoronic or something to look at the invisible (or maybe a superpower?).

One paragraph of my document (text copied/pasted from Word and styles applied) has short lines, as though there were line breaks inserted (not seen when looking at “invisible characters” [how does one do that, anyway?]) or a right paragraph indent (which there is not; set to 0). When I copy and paste the mischievous paragraphs at the end of the document (the 4th page), the paragraphs behave properly, stretching across the full width of the text frame. The paragraph above the 1st of the 2 miscreants are to the left of a logo, which has a text wrap on, and that wraps properly. The bottom wrap setting is 0p3, so at most the first line might be expected to wrap, but not the others. I am mystified. Screen shots attached. (In the course of creating these, I saw that the first bullet point under “Fort Lee” also misbehaves when it moves up to replace deleted problem paragraphs, so it seems to be something in the document set-up?) Thanks in advance for any ideas.