vikingtone

Sounds like good advice. Thanks for that, I hope it is sorted at some point, cheers t

Thanks again Walt. I did something similar, but not as rigorous, this morning. Did a 'save' from books menu, did a 'save as' from books menu. As far as I could tell I was now working in the second file, and I did not see that there were 2 book files open. I finished, exported PDF then quit everything. I could open file 1, so then quit, and I opened file 2 and it was also fine, so quit. I checked the creation time, and replaced the 'unfinished' file 1 with file 2. I opened it again, and it was fine. I wonder what the morning will bring I am hoping nothing, as I hope the project is complete. cheers t

Thanks for that markw, now that is really interesting. I hate to use the term 'workflow' as I am a septuagenarian hobbyist - but anyway, my workflow involves always having all my 'work' files on external disks. 4 of them adding up to 4Tb. I don't have a big enough HD on my Mac mini, so, for 20 odd years I have worked with all of my data files on externals. I leave my HD to cope with nothing other than System, Apps, Downloads and immediate stuff like Photos, music & such. All of my data is only on externals. All duplicated. If externals may be 'tricky' then that's a problem for me. But, having said that, I have been using Publisher, Photo, Designer for a few years now (since Adobe became unaffordable, frankly) and this mornings problem was the first issue I have had. So, although I reckon that's a very interesting possibility, I would say it's been a non-problem, until potentially, today. I will have to live with the danger of it being a possible problem, because I don't have the possibility of having my data on my main HD. Thanks again for the input - very interesting t

Yep, I do agree. Though how it got itself immolated between working on it last night, and being OK, to toast this morning...... I just couldn't guess. But I suppose **it happens. The 'buttered side down' clause usually means your important files are the ones which corrupt. I would say, though, that rebuilding the book was simplicity, as I'd manually created consolidated files. 140, compressed to 11, so the book building is a cinch cheers t

OK, this is even weirder. I rebuilt the book, saved the afbook file, and exported the PDF. I closed the book, quit Publisher. I then opened the afbook file - with no problems. So I quit and re-opened the book file a number of times, no problems. I don't understand - but it looks like the perfectly good, earlier afbook file was somehow corrupt ??? but anyway the new one now works (or, works today, anyway.) So, I can only hope that the afbook file continues to be OK. I also think the error message of 'file type not supported,' is really misleading. But, as I have things on the level again I guess this thread can be marked as 'resolved' and 'miraculous.' Thanks again to walt.farrell, and anyone else who wondered what was up, take care all, t

Thanks Walt. I have had that arrangement of weirdness in the folder for 20 (I'm guessing) plus years. It's never been a problem before. It wasn't a problem when I created the book file, and opened and closed it numerous times to make fixes. Right up until the 'final' output yesterday. It's just never been an issue with any file or any program. Even Publisher was just fine, until this morning. thanks again t

I finished a 664 page book, yesterday, and output a PDF (I can send it if you like - 108Mb) The person I made it for wanted a couple of fixes, so I tried to open the afbook file this morning. As I say, I finished the book Yesterday. And now Publisher says it doesn't recognise its own file format. I am really getting fed up fighting this thing. I tried just double clicking the file, and I tried opening the file from within the app. Same result. So, I suppose, I rebuild the book? Fantastic, Do I sound upset? well, yes, because I really really am. sincerely

Thank you natecombsmedia, for time to provide such a clear explanation. I don't doubt at all that I have been very biased and easily annoyed, when I ought to have taken more time to understand and work within the paradigms of the program. I can make loads of excuses, so won't bore you with that. The main takeaway is that I went about the task with some very poor choices, but don't now have time to scrap the work done and start again, doing it properly. I just don't have time. Life, they say, is all about learning experiences and opportunities. I know that the Publisher program is a very capable tool, and I will make it do what I want, albeit more manually than I would have liked, but the bottom line is that to get to where I need to be, I shouldn't have started from where I did. It will be better, next time. If there's a next time. Thanks again t

Thanks Oufti, I will read it. t

I found the guide a couple of days ago, thanks Oufti. I've been drowning so didn't manage to read it yet. What I meant to say was that a lot of 'tutorials' cover the simple 'this is how it works,' but don't get into the nitty gritty of what can be the reason for when it doesn't work. Pitfalls, escape mechanisms, etc But as I say, I haven't read the guide yet. When I stop drowning I will check it out. t

Ref your follow-up - I think applications need to make things as simple as possible. I have tried to read a lot about the books function - and I only seem to find the 'beginners guide' type stuff, which is a very simplified overview of how it's meant to work. I need something which gets down into the guts. One of the concerns I had was how much the books feature might alter the input files - call them raw, if you like. I was concerned that if there were changes there may be problems with version control, etc. I think it all needs a great deal of further explanation. Foe example, I still haven't found a decent, detailed explanation of the 'synchronize' part of the books feature. There may be a good source of info out there, but I haven't found it yet. So far, the books feature feels like a good idea, but not really fit for purpose yet. t

Yes indeed, and when methods in one arena aren't the same as methods in the alternate way of doing similar things, well an old fart like me can sure get into a dark place. But, I have learned over the decades that sometimes the old trudging manual methodical ways at least provide confidence that if you just do the same steps over and over it eventually pans out. The real test will be what happens to numbering when i bring all the consolidated chapters into a new book. It ought to number them perfectly, if it doesn't I will be peeved, t

A reasonable point OldBruce - I suppose I liked the apparent flexibility of the books function, and because it was new I thought I'd give it a go. I guess it's my fault for making assumptions of functionality, before confirming. I just figured stuff would work. Anyway, my 'workaround' is to open the first file in a batch, import from Document:Add Pages from File, then readjust every maladjusted page, check every heading is a single style, change the section start from fixed, to follow, and so on. I am building batches of 15 or so original chapters into consolidated chapters. I will try to build a new book from the 10 or so consolidated chapters, using the books function, but if I can't I will just carry on doing it the old way. It's laborious, but I suppose I will end up with the book the way I need it to be, eventually. I built the thing originally as one year per chapter so I could easily send them to the customer for him to peruse. I figured it would all be easier. I have learned a hard lesson. But, as I said to the guy, I can fix it so it will eventually look like there were no issues, all it will take is a bit more time. Unfortunately the Publisher files are quite big, as I also made the decision to import all the spreadsheet (three per chapter) as PDFs - and they can't be downsampled because they are text and small enough as it is, so the PDFs are quite big. I know, I imagine there was a better way to import 500 or so Excel files, but again, I made a decision which might bite me. thanks for your interest. t

Thanks for that. Not to take too much time, I use the same master throughout - but it has a bigger gutter than edge margin, because the book will be so big. As there will be around 800 pages my customer doesn't want blank padding pages where a chapter finishes on the right and the following chapter 'ought' to start on the right. So, I ask it to 'merge. ' All it does is put a right page, with the right master, on the left. So what was desired, a large gutter, now becomes a small gutter and a large edge margin. If you know a way (smart merging, do you call it?) I'd certainly love to know it. As I say, I can't live with blank pages. But I also can't live with small gutters. If I can get the numbering to work I will output the book as PDF, open it in Designer and 'joggle' all the pages into their correct position. I didn't experiment with the book feature before doing a lot of the book, because (yeh, I know.........) I expected it to do these things, they seem rather fundamental, to me thanks again t

Simply changing each one to 'follow.' Yep about 170 chapters. And what promise do I have that once fixed, they stay fixed. Sorry if I sound jaded, but the things I expected to work, just don't. The TOC doesn't work (different thread on here) the merging of chapters doesn't honour the chapter master. Page number have to be cludged manually. The amount of extra work it puts on me is enormous. Too late to start again - and, once I have the pages numbered correctly, I will have to adjust all of the 'merged' pages, because I wanted an asymmetric master (because it's going to be close to 800 pages.) I'm sure Affinity has a very solid response, but for me these things are all failures. thanks again t