Will Wallace
-
Posts
22 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Will Wallace
-
-
7 hours ago, MikeTO said:
Publisher does a good job by converting all section breaks, continuous and next page, to page breaks. It doesn't create sections at these breaks which I think is for the best because using sections with frames linked from one section to the next isn't particularly useful. It could be improved – Publisher could convert a section break to a new story (series of linked frames) so that it could create a section, but this might not be what you want and you'd have to edit the new sections with the section manager anyway.
No, it doesn't. My chapter breaks are formatted in Word using section break > odd page. Publisher completely ignored them.
-
Using that method to import a manuscript from Word, I have found that Affinity Publisher ignores my carefully placed SECTION (not page) breaks at new chapters. Shouldn't it recognize chapter breaks? I suppose there's a work-around to create chapter breaks, such as discussed in another recent discussion thread here, but why should we have to apply time-consuming, manual work-arounds for something that should be automatic?
-
That sounds like a lot of work to accomplish what Affinity Publisher should be able to do natively.
-
1 hour ago, thetasig said:
I created my document/book from scratch within AFPUB. I don't use Word (or Windows) and I'm not that familiar with HTML. I have Mac computers. For printing a paper book, the AFPUB exported PDF works fine. My foray into Calibre and Sigil territory met with mostly non-fixed pages and little of my original presentation seemed to be respected in the epub output. I am very novice at the whole topic just now.
Many thanks for any help you could provide - steps to take from AFPUB to epub and tips-n-tricks and would be a big help. I suppose it would be useful to be pointed to a good primer aimed at artists, not programmers
P
I hope to be able to publish the epub version at the latest in 2023. I agree that it is a sorely needed feature of AFPUB and hoping for the best from Serif.
There are two types of e-books (in both the EPUB and Kindle universes): "reflowable," and fixed layout. For most books that are primarily text and intended more for reading than for viewing, the first choice is reflowable. A reflowable e-book allows the reader to change the type size to suit his/her reading device, eyesight, and personal preferences -- and the text automatically adjusts line length and line breaks to fit the available screen width. Since most e-books are arguably novels, the default is for EPUBs to be reflowable.
The other choice, to use your words, "respects" the book designer's fixed layout. Fixed layout is generally chosen for cookbooks, childrens' books (which usually have illustrations occupying the majority of each page), and photo essay type books. When creating an e-book from a word processing file, you need to specify whether you want it to be rerflowable or fixed layout.
-
1 hour ago, Trevor A said:
And what is 10 days - or even 24 days - when one is starting out with such a complex program? Most of us also have other calls on our time and even though I viewed as soon as possible as many Serif videos as possible, I didn't discover the lack of support for footnotes until I was importing the text of a book into Affinity Publisher. Even then, I assumed that doing this was just another feature that I had not yet learnt. Starting with a program like this is overwhelming, with hundreds of details to be learnt.
Exactly. Ten days for a trial period is nothing. I don't consider a 30-day trial period to be long enough. I have a number of life activities and commitments competing for my time. Ten days isn't enough time to thoroughly wring out a new program even if you can devote all your waking hours in those ten days to testing the program. Most people can't do anything close to that.
-
7 hours ago, spinko said:
... and multi-page-spreads and a bunch of other niggling details ... but judging from the video, the new version should be all we are hoping for ... and ... much more 🤪 ... We'll have to see if the hype is justified. I would be prepared to pay for software that can break my dependance on Adobe (but no subscription, please !)
The video tells us exactly NOTHING. Judging by the video, I expect the new version to be "all hat and no cattle" (as they say in Texas).
-
1 hour ago, Last Chance said:
Agreed - I saw the nonsense video and assume the big announcment is for APub to become a grown-up program at last.
Here's a link to the video:
That right there is an extremely cringe-worthy video. "Nonsense" doesn't even begin to describe just how painfully idiotic it is.
-
2 hours ago, spinko said:
The current version reminds me of an app called Swift Publisher my kids used years ago to format their school publications. (Just checked and It actually still exists). Not a bad app by any means.
Swift Publisher, however, is only available for Mac -- not available for Windows.
-
16 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:
There is much difference between producing a medium on paper (CMYK universe, fixed positions, fixed dimensions, layering of objects, enormous file weight, high resolution) and producing a medium on the Internet (RGB universe, variable positions, unknown dimensions, no overlapping of objects, very light file weight, low resolution).
An EPUB book is not created with DTP software extension, but with specialized software (30 to €100). The extensions that exist for QuarkXpress and Indesign are pitiful and give a result that is anything but professional.
Serif PagePlus could export to EPUB -- and it wasn't through an extension.
Of course formatting a file for EPUB is different than formatting for print. Nobody said otherwise. But the program Affinity Publisher replaced could export to EPUB, yet after years of requests, Affinity still hasn't added that capability to Publisher.
There's an old saying: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." As far as I'm concerned, Affinity isn't interested in repeat customers, or in recommendations. I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone waste their time and money on Affinity Publisher. YMMV.
-
-
On 4/30/2022 at 4:56 PM, fde101 said:
Pseudorandom likely bad idea of the day:
I wonder sometimes if a feature that would allow a large number of footnotes to be balanced across pages before/after the one the notes are from would be appropriate in some cases. If you have a tiny number (or no) footnotes on pages 15 and 17 but there are a large number on page 16, then some of the footnotes from 16 would be relocated to page 15 and some to page 17 to help balance them out a bit better...
I can't think of a single style guide that supports this concept. A large footnote that's too big to fit on the bottom of page 16 may be continued onto page 17 (and possibly even onto page 18), but never started on page 15, a page before the location of the footnote reference.
-
13 hours ago, pixelstuff said:
I get the impression from Serif that they are primarily targeting the multi-page brochure market and not long form books. At least initially. You generally need PDFs and not eBooks for that.
I'm hoping version 2 will expand Publishers target audience to long form books, and include ePub support in the process.
Brochures is what Microsoft Publisher does. I bought Affinity to do books. I bought it as a user of the previous Serif desktop publishing program. They approached me with Affinity, and their marketing claim was that the new product was better in every way than the old product. Nowhere did they mention that the new product didn't include what I consider to be a core function of the old product: EPUB export.
As a self-published author, I issue my books as printed books, Kindle e-books, and EPUB e-books. I think most self-published authors do the same. Affinity needs to get with the program. Without EPUB export, I certainly can't and won't recommend Affinity Publisher to anyone. Bluntly, it's useless to me.
-
5 hours ago, PaoloT said:
I fear an additional feature in Publisher will not improve the sloppiness of so many publishers with their ebooks.
One of the reasons for so many badly conceived ebooks is maybe the reliance on an idea of instant single-sourcing from the same InDesign file they use for print. They export an EPUB, and that's all. It shouldn’t.
Paolo
I'm sure that's correct. What some "experts" churn out as e-books are so bad that a kid in grammar school could probably do better.
-
9 hours ago, Pšenda said:
There has already been talk of "replacing" old products - Serif does not present it in this way, and although he certainly has such ambitions, he is well aware that it will take a long time (just search the reactions on the forum).
The "new" and certainly developmentally demanding aspect of the new applications is the fact, that Affinity applications are developed for three different platforms (compared to only Win Plus applications), and the sharing of data files by all applications (+ StudioLink). This should be appreciated by everyone with sw education.When the company that sold you software contacts you and tells you that they have retired the product you are using and you should buy their new product in order to get the newest, safest, most up-to-date features, IMHO that's "replacing" the old product. You can try as hard as you like to parse the language -- I certainly don't have the old communications, because that all occurred many years ago -- but any normal person would have to interpret what they sent out as "replace."
-
29 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:
When has Serif ever said that the Affinity Suite is a replacement for the Windows only Serif products? To the best of my knowledge it has never been said by anyone from the company.
That's what we who had the Serif products were told when they orphaned the Serif line and replaced it with the Affinity programs.
-
23 hours ago, Vex said:
Amazon just announced they're ending support for MOBI and AZW, and they're finally moving to EPUB. I think supporting this format is more relevant now than ever before because of Amazon's switch.
Not exactly. Amazon is dropping the .MOBI format, but the format for Kindle e-readers will remain .AZW3. What they have done is add .EPUB to the types of files that can be uploaded to a Kindle using their "Send to Kindle" app or dedicated e-mail function. The file is converted to .AZW3 during the upload. The Kindle devices still do not directly support .EPUB files.
-
I grew weary of waiting for Affinity to comment in this thread, so I contacted support directly. Here's the reply I received this morning:
QuoteThank you for your email and your feedback.It is important to note that we have only promoted Affinity Publisher as being Affinity Publisher and not as a replacement for any other product that may be available from other companies. We include a feature list on our site for each of our apps for individuals to read through to see whether it apps suit their needsWe have not ever included ePub as a feature within Publisher or as a future feature that may come to Publisher. That said we are aware of the requests for such a feature.We would discourage anyone from buying a product that does not do what they need it to.Kind regards,Steven @ Affinity Customer ExperienceTo me, this translates as, "We hear you, and we don't care. Don't hold your breath."
-
On 1/8/2021 at 10:05 AM, walt.farrell said:
I am saying that as Affinity has no support for exporting HTML/CSS today, it is not as simple a matter as you suggest to provide the epub support. If they already had HTML/CSS support it would be less work (though still significant), but as they don't, providing HTML/CSS is a pre-requisite.
And yes, it is something that all the applications will need, as they have a common core set of functions and can operate on each others' files. The good part of that is that only a single implementation of the function will be needed and it will cover all 3 applications.
I realize that this post is now more than a year old, but the predecessor to Affinity Publisher, Serif PagePlus, has an Epub export function. It's incomprehensible that the replacement for PagePlus omits a function that has become exponentially MORE important since the switch from PagePlus to Affinity Publisher.
-
On 2/25/2022 at 11:34 AM, ostonica said:
A few years ago I tried PDF2ID, with mixed results, but I gather it's improved now. It might help
https://www.recosoft.com/products/pdf2id/
BTW I've finally given up on Affinity. Apub is no use at all for what I need to do - (get INDD files from the (non-profit) publisher and make epub versions for them.) There is no inclination at all from Serif to do anything about supporting Epubs in Apub.Jim
PDF2ID is not an answer. It doesn't generate EPUB files from anything. It converts PDFs to InDesign .indd files. If you have InDesign, you don't need to be concerned that Affinity Publisher doesn't allow exporting to EPUB.
-
I had PagePlus X9, but it stopped working after a recent Windows 10 update. I finally uninstalled it, then reinstalled it. Last night I brought part of a current book project into PagePlus just to test the EPUB export. Yes, it is there, and it works better than Microsoft's stand-alone converter, better than LibreOffice's export to EPUB, and better than SoftMaker Office's export to EPUB.
Affinity Publisher is being marketed as an alternate to Adobe InDesign. InDesign has long included support for EPUB export, both reflowable and fixed layout. It is unconscionable and incomprehensible that we've been asking for this in Affinity Publisher for literally YEARS, and the company hasn't implemented it. It's like they want to send customers to Adobe.
-
One more vote for the absolute NECESSITY of having the capability of exporting to EPUB. Get with the program, Affinity. EPUB is not a "nice to have" feature, it's an essential function. E-books are exploding, and authors need a way to reliably generate quality EPUB files. The free and affordable converters do NOT do the job -- I know, I've tested so many of them my head spins. They all generate EPUB files that are riddled with formatting errors. One can't recognize center justification. Another doesn't recognize italic type. Most of them can't recognize a section break and start the next chapter on a fresh page/screen.
It's a jungle out there. I bought Affinity specifically for self publishing books. Without the ability to generate EPUBs, I've got less than half a loaf, because e-books are outselling paper books by a huge margin.
When I see that this has been on the waiting list for more than three YEARS I'm just amazed that any company can be so tone deaf. It reminds me of many years ago when users of a certain desktop publishing program requested a much-needed feature. The company said it couldn't be done. Well, it wasn't more than a couple of months before a start-up competitor came out with a program that did what "couldn't be done," and the company that couldn't do it went out of business.
Just saying ...
Text Overflows - I'm confused... Sorry.
in Affinity on Desktop Questions (macOS and Windows)
Posted
That's all well and good, but my chapters were already set up that way in the Word file. When it was imported into Affinity Publisher, Publisher didn't even recognize the chapter breaks at all -- I had chapter heads occurring in the middle of pages with the end of the preceding chapter on the same page.
That's not helpful. Why should I have to go back and re-do in Publisher what was already set up properly in Word?