GoGayleGo

I'm going to tentatively call this a success (after updating the graphics driver). I am able to open both files now, and copy/paste the text. There are other issues I've experienced, only more detailed work will allow me to know for sure, so that will unfold over time. Turns out the driver release number was abbreviated (they left off the first part), so it WAS the right series and I was out of date. Which itself is weird since I have the NVIDIA GE Force Experience on my desktop, which is supposed to automatically check for and update the driver. Ugh. Thanks again to everyone!

I did try disabling hardware acceleration to no avail. Interestingly though, I had checked the driver (within Settings) to ensure it was up to date. It claimed to be. However, when I went to the NVIDIA site and looked up drivers for this card, the series and release number looked NOTHING like the one installed. I'm in the process of changing/updating it now and will keep you posted. Thanks, appreciate your help!

Yes, no luck. But thanks for checking, appreciate the input!

I sent you a message, and links to files. Today, I cannot export these files either. Very frustrating! Today though, a crash dump file was generated, I've attached it. I've had multiple hangs/crashes this evening, but only one dump file. Very similar to before. 011d5620-528f-4b14-be8a-0afa5896fcde.dmp

Sorry, I missed this since it got moved to its own topic, and now the link doesn't work. I'm still interested in uploading files and crash dumps. Thanks!

May I upload as well? I'm finding the program almost unusable as well - very frustrating! My files range from 8- ~50MB. I have to save every few seconds to avoid disaster. Tonight I'm trying to copy/paste from one document to another, tried three times and get spinning/crashing each time. I don't want to upload my files publicly, but don't mind sending them to a Mod or Serif. Also - I "only" have four dmp files, most recently 10/2. I get a spinning circle, and cannot seem to generate a dump file manually via Task Manager (the option is grayed out) even though the program is effectively unusable at that time. I have to close it via Task Manager, it will not let me close out of the program directly.

Sorry for the delayed response...I am trying to minimize the file size before hand, under the assumption that the final exported PDF will be smaller if the original AfPub file was smaller...is that faulty logic? I also deleted multiple embedded images out of my master pages, and the file grew again. I am at a loss to understand how removing pages and/or images can result in a larger file size. To repeat from earlier, I do not have the history saved with the document.

OK, thanks, I will try that. But if that were the case, wouldn't those elements be in the original document? I didn't modify the document in any other way than to delete those 669 pages.

I did another experiment, I duplicated the 49-page document and deleted all the pages except one (it wouldn't let me delete all of them). I deleted the content from that page. So essentially I have my masters, and one blank page. That file is 21.2MB, which seems reasonable.

I have 49 pages left. I did not delete any Masters during this process, as the pages are all based on Masters. I deleted a bunch of pages, was trying to get down to one representative page for each type of page, so I can export as .jpg (rather than trying to figure out which of the many pages in the original document I would need to export). What's happened won't prevent me from doing that, but it seems really odd and I want to understand what, if anything, I've done to cause this so I can fix it and prevent going forward. My plan was to use this document as a template, swapping out backgrounds as needed. But if the files are going to grow wildly during that process, I'd need to rethink that. I in no way expected the file to grow at all, much less more than double in size after removing the bulk of the pages.

Thank you! I can confirm with certainty now that this option is NOT checked.

OK, I think I understand that, but I don't believe I have that. I haven't linked any text to any other text, and have no overflowing text frames.

I'm not sure what you mean by "but did you delete the content". I thought that deleting the pages deleted the contents? And most of the content actually resides in the master pages. This is a digital planner, so a calendar of sorts. There are masters for month, week (2 different ones), day, plus a few other things. There are very few pages that are not derived from a master. The masters consist of mostly images, either jpg, png, or pdf themselves, typically a full-page background image (a master in itself) overlaid with a specific content image. (A side note - in trying to minimize the file size and maximize the quality, I was saving some graphics as pdf. I recently opened two new documents - into one I inserted the original png image (let's say ~2MB) and in the other I converted that png to pdf and compressed it and inserted it (~150kB) - then saved each file - with no other content in either save for that single "image" - one png and one much smaller pdf. The file containing the much smaller pdf was something like 10X LARGER than the file containing the larger png, which I also don't understand. Mentioning this in case it's relevant to this issue.). So there are twelve pages using the monthly master, 6 pages for each month using each of two weekly masters, and 7 pages for each week using the daily master. The pages invoke the masters, then there are elements overlaid (e.g. text for the name of the months since they change, circles for the dates on the monthly calendar, etc.), and lots of hyperlinks. The hyperlinks are all separate objects (rectangles and circles) with no fill and stroke. That's about it.

Whoops, sorry - I jumped the gun, I did as you suggested, the file is now "down to" 135MB. It still makes NO sense to me.

Was 62MB when it was 707 pages. I deleted 669 pages and it's now 162MB. I've saved, re-saved, closed and re-opened AfPub, etc. Still stands that way.

I'm not sure what that means...how do I check that? ETA: I did not intentionally make that choice, and don't believe I accidentally made it either. I've checked both the original and modified file, and the "Save History with Document" option is still available. I'm assuming this means it has not been invoked, intentionally or otherwise? If that's the case and have not saved the History, what else could cause this?

I left all the Masters intact. Literally deleted most of the document, and the resulting (afpub) file is WAY bigger. I really don't understand what's happening here...thanks for any input.

That is probably true - but exactly why I want a PDF without layers. I'm experimenting with different ways of saving/compressing.

Thank you! I do own the full suite of AP products. If I rasterize everything, wouldn't that be a "lower" quality file? I'll try doing it side by side and see what happens.

Hi Joachim, I guess I'll have to think about that! I was shocked a few months ago to realize that my exported PDFs from Illustrator had layers in Acrobat (full version). In my mind, a PDF was kind of a static snapshot of what was on the screen - which turned out to be a totally wrong impression. I had left the "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" box checked in AI when doing my Save as PDF, it defaults to that and I'd never given any thought to the implications. I'm assuming (can't remember if I specifically checked) this means if someone were to import that PDF file back into Illustrator, they would have access to the objects on the layers. When creating digital products for sale using graphics purchased from others (even with CU license), frequently the TOU require providing a flattened file to the end customer, so they can't just grab those original graphics. I understand that someone very motivated could find a way to do this, even without the layers, but I need to make every effort to avoid this happening. Again, with my current file, there is some lagging when the pages load, and I can see the "background" before the "foreground" - literally there is a background element covering the entire page which can be seen in total before the elements on top of it load/show up. This is in Acrobat Reader, on the exported PDF from Affinity Publisher. If there are truly not layers (which I don't think there are based on 1) the fact that they don't show as layers in Acrobat Pro, and 2) I never specifically clicked "Add Layer" in Affinity Publisher) So I'm at a loss to understand how it can load the background before the foreground.... I wasn't unhappy with a final document size of 7MB, was more interested in whether it should really take 10 minutes for a 40MB file to export. I reduced the file size via Acrobat Pro late last night, not sure exactly what compression results from that, but the 7MB file is now down to ~2MB. I will load that up today to check 1) the quality of the graphics, 2) lagginess, and 3) whether or not the background still loads before the foreground. Thanks for your comments, additional advice also appreciated!

Hi Safia, Yes, as of yesterday (when I corrected some of my incorrect hyperlinks) I was still able to add them. I probably have 1500+ page hyperlinks in this document, as well as one URL hyperlink on a master page. While I've been working on the document for about a month, all the hyperlinks have been added in the last week. I'll check out preflight - I thought I had done a pretty thorough job of deleting unwanted/unneeded/unused items, but I'll take any help!

Thank you both - Joachim and Fixx. I am having a hard time with this concept! I'd read other forum posts on this topic, but really wasn't getting it. I'm used to "normal graphic layers", as you've described them, in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. I even did a test yesterday in Illustrator to make sure I wasn't crazy, that when I have objects on different Illustrator layers and export as PDF, that they show up as layers in Acrobat - and they do. I'll do some fiddling around today in Affinity Publisher with the information you've provided, to see if that helps me to understand. The objective is a small, high-quality, fast-loading file that cannot be edited (e.g. elements cannot be easily extracted) by others to whom the file is provided.

I was expecting the "without layers" file to be smaller. I also found it interesting that I exported both ways, and when I looked at both files in Acrobat PRO, there were no layers even when I saved with them. Can someone help me understand this behavior? Should the file be smaller without layers? Also, when I open either exported PDF in Acrobat Reader, there is some lagging when the pages load, and I can see the "background" before the "foreground" - implying that there ARE in fact layers. And finally, the export is taking around 10 minutes. It's a 700+ page, ~47MB .afpub file that exports to a ~7MB PDF. Help, please! Thanks, Gayle

Hi Safia, I am also working on a digital planner, 700+ pages. Hyperlinks in masters and on some pages. My hyperlinks are working (the only ones that didn't were my fault, once corrected they function properly). I am having similar issues with slowness and frequent crashing - very frustrating! How did you solve the "slowness" issue? Thanks, Gayle

I responded to another post as well, but have been having issues with Publisher crashing as well - at first I thought it didn't like me having two documents open at once, but it's happening still with only one open. I'm on Windows 10 64-bit.