McJohn1980

First of all, I am a professional Adobe Indesign user in a huge design agency, so I work with Adobe Indesign daily for 9 hours straight for huge companies. It's fair to say I know Adobe Indesign very well, although I am always low-key concerning knowledge. In my opinion I always consider the fact that I learn every day new things is part of the road of experience. I hardly ever claim to be an expert, i'm even offended when others say that to me, because that's when you prove you're not. But that is just me, I always at times consider myself a newbie, which is not true obviously, but that's just the way I am. Having said that, I have bought Affinity Publisher purely for my own joy, to see what "the underdog" does to challenge Adobe in general. It's very good that it is like this, because Adobe Indesign is far from perfect, and is not always that easy for newbies to start with. I teach Adobe Indesign at night school, and that's why I know that the software itself it not always that "user-friendly", if you don't know what it's doing. My first impression is that the software looks good, many functions are straight to the point and although the working method is a bit different, it's very good and I'm eager to learn how Affinity does things to get the job done. Concerning the layer thing, I do understand the confusion it offers for people like me. I find it strange that the software creates a layer for each object you place on a page. Although some say it makes it more easier for people to identify the objects, it's from my perspective, a bit overkill. It makes the layer panel a bit messy imho. So after reading the comments in this thread, I do understand why some users have difficulties with this approach. It is purely because Indesign does it the other way for long-time Desktop Publishers like me. I have 20+ years of experience, started with QuarkXPress way back in 1999. Never used PageMaker, but i have heard from others it was a bit crappy, but I have no opinion on that part due to no experience with that software. In Affinity Publisher, same confusion popped up regarding the "Text styles" panel. Although it combines all styles, paragraph and character styles, related to text in one single panel, it is at first hand a bit confusing but, again, I do understand why other users find it more user-friendly. This is perhaps not really thread related, but another thing I have noticed is, when you want to format text to a "bold" or an "italic" is that you have the same kind off buttons you find in a Microsoft Word. Many Desktop Publisher or Designers, dislike MS Word. Purely from a typographic perspective, this is a sin, because you electronically format/violate your text instead of using the correct design font for a bold. Like for regular text you used e.g. "Din Pro Regular" and for a bold you use "Din Pro Bold". This is how professionals do it. But that is a different story. So in my opinion, at first hand, I find the software a solid mix between Pro-user and Hobby-user. Which is NOT a bad thing to be honest, it's just the way the software is build to reach as many users as possible with different backgrounds. I'm curious to find more about the possibilities the software has to offer, just for my own satisfaction, although I know that companies like the one where I work, will probably never make the switch because our workflows have been build with special plugins for Indesign for years (like EasyCatalog, for advanced data merge). We work with complex files and not every collegue is curious to figure out different approaches in non-Adobe-software.

I agree to be honest, that the whole registration thing is not user-friendly at all. It got me frustrated at some point and made me doubt my action to buy the software. I am a hardcore Adobe Indesign user, and I bought Affinity Publisher 2, to explore the software I have been reading about and expand my knowledge. (Or to train myself when you guys defeat Adobe Indesign, *wink*) This is where I, and perhaps other users, will get stuck. Hopefully my response on this forum will help other users. After the purchase from the macOS App Store, it still showed the "buy-warning" after launching the software. I discovered I had to login to a user account. One problem however, I didn't have one, … yet. I searched on your website and it told me I could create an account from the software itself. OK, fair enough, I found that button in the software, but the actual "register-option" is NOT seen. Which is very confusing in all honesty, or perhaps it's just me. I then relaunched the software, got that "buy-warning-popup" again and in my frustration I clicked the "buy-button" again, (hoping I would not buy the software 2 times) and THEN i could register an account and add the purchase to my freshly created account … and it worked! I am glad I (accidently) found how to do it, but again, it is a bit confusing. Perhaps it's just me, and perhaps there is some very logical explanation from your company's side why it goes like this. Like I said, maybe my response will help someone who reads this.