Dear Matt,
I am Zakia. I worked with the Serif Page Plus 6 for several years and was able to do what i wanted to do with my documents -(watercolor pictures, drawings, etc. easily-cutting, pasting, changing sizes, backgrounds, copying, etc.) I loved using it because of the ease and simplicity of instructions.) However, this new Affinity Publisher I have not been able to use yet, because the instructional language is just not that easily understood. You need to provide simple language instructions along with your more technical instructions. I have not been able to do anything as of yet with your program but will keep on trying.