levelbest

It appears that the email client I was using, MailMate, has been hiding or deleting some of my emails. I am not sure what is happening but, when I fired up my Apple Mail application to double check my messages, your old email showed up - as well as a few other important emails. Yikes. I will write the developers of MailMate and switch to Mail immediately as this is unacceptable. Sorry for being the cause of all the confusion.

Thanks very much. I will check that our straight away (after my first cuppa anyway).

I am not sure what being a beta tester means? I have been actively using the beta version and make a few comments on this forum and suggestions about what I like and was not liking in Publisher while I was using it. All I received was the standard Serif 20% pre-release offer.

Glad to hear it. I did check my Junk and Deleted folders days ago with no luck. Maybe I should be checking my servers online at gmail. Glad it wasn’t on your end then. Not sure whats up on my end. Added: not on the gmail servers either.

Yes, I did that with the second email. No luck so far.

This seems like an odd place to pose the question but, I am growing concerned. I responded to an Affinity email about ordering the pre-release version of Publisher. I emailed Affinity (Serif) on the 11th, and again on the 13th. But I have not heard any response. Is anyone else having trouble getting through to Serif these days? I imagine they are very busy with a pre-release going on. However, as this is a time limited pre-release offer, I am concerned that I am going to miss it. My order is a bit tricky as I am buying a license for a good friend as well as for myself. I had to go through some hoops the last time as Serif doesn't have a gift purchase method easily set up yet. I bought some Affinity products for my friend before so it seems perfectly legitimate to purchase two pre-release licenses. Obviously I can't do this if no one from Serif is going to respond. As I said, I am sure they are very busy, but its been 5 days now since I sent the first email so, I am following up here. Thanks.

I see, said the blind carpenter, as he picked up the hammer and saw. Personally, I enjoy word play, be it simile, metaphor, allegory, or something else. I am looking forward to the day when the escrow has been signed, the movers have arrived, and we can finally move into the completed house, open for business. Publisher in its present state is still under development and available in beta. I won't spend too much time in it for now as I need to get some things done. I have Swift and iStudio to work with. Either one will get the job done although Publisher looks quite promising.

At least now I know that this is about layers, thanks. That this app is not designed to allow bringing in multi paged spread PDFs is too bad. I am building a legal argument for a VA claim. I have many pages showing corroborating data as evidence. These documents are PDFs. Some are one page, some two page, and some a dozen or more pages. I was doing this in Nisus, my word processor. But Nisus can't handle dragged in PDFs very well. At least it doesn’t keep them as they were which is what I am looking to do. I know I can do this in Swift Publisher 5 which is what I am currently using. That is, Swift will not do spreads but at least I can drag in a page at a time. And that is apparently all Publisher can do. Publisher seems a far more advanced app than Swift. One would hope that it should be possible to use an app that is about publishing to assemble a large document such as I have described, using many pieces of evidence and allowing for text boxes, highlight arrows, boxes and numbering to point out what the evidence does, and does not prove. Darn!

The question remains, how do I use the results from what occurred when I double click on a dragged in multi page PDF? I am using neither Open or Place. I am dragging in the file I want to use and I am dropping it on a page in Publisher. Then, I am double clicking on the result and, it spreads and creates a separate tab with the results showing of the spread only. The rest of the document is no longer shown. You can click on the first tab to see the rest of the document, and now you have a second tab with just the PDF spread. But, how do I combine them (merge them)? I don't see a way to take any results of that tab showing the spread and moving them to the main document. Dragging a page out of the spread tab and holding it over the first tab does not spring open the first tab as Apple normally will do if you hold a dragged item over a folder. Either I can see either the first tab that shows no spread, or, I can see the second tab that shows the spread only. Added: I tested using Open and I am still getting od results. Open brings in the multi page document. When the results are all in Publisher, I can add a page and, use Open again to add another document. But then, I still get a separate tab with the separate imported results. Once again, how am I supposed to merge all of the documents I have imported as spread PDFs?

Sorry, I meant the beta Affinity Publisher. Right forum, wrong name dropped. Just edited my post. Still trying to get this page layout working through. Frustrating. I used the resource manager to make the document linked and not embedded. It says that I have done this. But the dropped in document, when double clicked still shows as a multipage embedded document that only seems to exist in its own tab. Clicking back on my page layout does not show this new double page spread of the document in my larger Publisher document. Publisher looks like a really great product. I can hardly wait for the beta phase to be over. Still learning the basics as this post is all about but, looking forward to mastery. I haven't enjoyed a good professional level page layout program like this since Quark - years ago.

I am very new to Affinity Publisher. I was just trying to learn how to do what I am going to ask about here, on the Affinity tutorials page, with no luck. I am building a document that is a collection of several PDFs and other text. Some of the PDFs are multi paged documents. Some are just two pages. Some are more than 30 pages. I am trying to build a document that will eventually have a table of contents, numbered pages, and use the inserted pages as reference material (evidence). When I drop a multi paged PDF file onto a blank AD page, not much happens other than the first page showing and nothing else. If I then double click I get this very nice effect where all the pages of the document are now spread over as many new Affinity pages as are needed to show all the pages. So far so good but then, it gets very confusing. The result is actually showing as embedded and is in a new tab. I can't see any of the rest of the pages anymore. When I am building my document, I want to see what I have added, but I also want to keep looking through the document I am building and see the new multi page addition as well as the pages that are before and after that section. But the tabs don't seem to want to do that. Can someone please point me to a tutorial on how this is supposed to work? Thanks very much.

OK, then that is a clear bit of feedback to the Affinity Designer team. Please make it so that you can expand or collapse either the left or right studio, or both of them. I am working now with Swift and I am opening and closing mostly the right side panel quite often with occasional use of the left side panel. Each panel has a way to independently open or close it. This keeps the most screen real estate available at any given time.

Thanks, there was no mention of how to do this using the help menu and no obvious way to adjust this in the view menus. It might be a good idea to think about how to make this more clear to the user. But, I'll take it. Can they be individually hidden or is this all or nothing? There will be times I want to see a strip of pages in a document that I want to quickly arrow back and forth. This seems to exist in the left "studio". Other times I want want to keep the right studio open to adjust some page elements and leave the left studio closed to maximize screen real estate while I am working.

I only just opened Designer. It looks promising. I looked through what I could find and I did not see any easy way - or any way, to open and close the wings. This means the left and right panels - not the skinny tools menu but the wide area for page views and adjusting colors, etc. Perhaps this is a known issue and will be out later in a beta release? I am working through something now using Swift Publisher. Not really in the same league but perfectly useful for what I am doing. I want to maximize my screen space on a vertical monitor while I work on a layout. Naturally I also want to open a side panel fairly often to adjust an element. This makes it imperative that there is a quick and easy method to open and close each wing so that the work flow is not interrupted. Swift allows this. I can't imagine why Publisher wouldn't also do this.

And, unless I am mistaken, there are no sales allowed on the app store. Apple won't allow it. I have often discovered great software through sales, bundles, etc. Where is the choice in the app store model? It is important to state that while the subscription model and the "we will control the vertical, we will control the horizontal" argument (outer limits throwback) sound good and probably are convenient to many users, this model really does benefit the developer more than it does the consumer. And, I can't completely argue with that. It must be a challenge to develop Mac software and then have to distribute it, keep up with customers, updates, etc. And all the while you know that if you stop innovating (haven't issued an update or an upgrade for years) then your customers are eventually going to leave you. I am saddened and still amazed when a great developer like Bombich who makes Carbon Copy Cloner decides to start charging for his years of hard work and then, some people actually complain that it isn't free or low cost anymore. What nonsense. But to a degree, such are the expectations of some in the Mac community. This is why subscription based distribution makes developers and their financial backers very happy. With a subscription model, now you can show a projected income stream. My concern with this is that it flies in the face of basic capitalist ideas where you expect someone to continue to make improvements and you continue to vote for their efforts with your cash. The subscription model can allow some developers to not be as keen to get things out the door as fast as they once did. Now that you have a captive audience, why hurry? I always support (good) developers. I very much appreciate how hard it is to develop software and to distribute it. I can't knock someone who finds using the app store easier than not using it. It's just that, I won't be one of them. Hurling my hammer ...

Not wishing to start any great bru-ha-ha here. I am glad that it has worked well for you. The Apple store does work well for some. But, it is definitely not the best solution for others. Not debating, just stating that's how it is for me. I am so very glad that this great app is now available to non app store users on the Mac. Hip hip, hooray!

100% agreed. Apples first commercial message ironically had an athlete run into a corporate group of lemming like IBM executive looking corporate "suites". They were all sitting at attention listening to a screen drone on, telling them all what to do. The athelete runs into the room and with a large hammer, hurls it shot put style across the room and smashes the screen everyone was being commanded by. The message from Apple was, "Hey, wow, Think Different. Use an Apple. Be your own creative person. Up the corporation! Power to the (thinking for yourself) people (who think different)! ... etc." Except that now, unfortunately accelerated with the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple has decided that it is time for their voice to be the one on the screen that every one should listen to. I for one tossed my metaphorical hammer of refusing to take part in app store purchases at the app store long ago. I prefer to interact with the development teams that make and sell the products that I use.

Affinity Mac licenses are there for anyone because I just got one. Hooray!!!

And finally, this policy has been relaxed. I just joined yesterday by purchasing a license through the Affinity website. Hooray! I also purchased the Affinity Photo book that is currently on sale. Now I am looking forward to getting up to speed.

I have watched Affinity since it first came out. So far, I have resisted purchasing a license. But, I did subscribe to this forum and I have enjoyed watching may Affinity tutorials. I am just having a hard time getting past the idea that I have to purchase this nice app, on the app store. I really dislike the app store as I strongly dislike Apples intrusive nature in the name of "my convenience". 
Point A: Serif has a web portal so that Windows customers can purchase directly from Serif's site. Why not allow this with the mac versions as well? The system is already in place ... why not use it? Serif would probably have to create a sister version of both apps as Apple probably has rules about that sort of thing. There goes Apple’s control again. 
Point B: There are many, many others who feel as I do. I think that Serif is missing the boat and would increase their sales quite a bit by making a direct purchase option on Serif’s site available. If someone enjoys purchasing from the App store then I say, that’s great. I am not making commentary here against using the App store by others. I am not trying to force my personal disdain about using the App store on others. 
Point C: I am trying out Luminar right now. I still like the design of Affinity Photo and I can already see that Affinity has more of what I want - barrel distortion correction for one thing. This means that eventually I will probably hold my nose, get an iTunes card at my local supermarket, and purchase Affinity Photo through the App store. Of course, I will have to take several showers after that. ;-) But at least I will finally share a seat at the table with other users of this fine app and fine company I am sure. This is a feature suggestion thread, right? Respectfully, me.

Hi folks, I just discovered this app today, Apparently, this is only sold on the app store so I am not sure I will be able to come fully to the table. That is too bad as this seems to be a brilliant piece of software, or "kit" as the developers probably say. I loved Pixelmater and I was greatly saddened that after v1 they went 100% app store. I can still use v1 but have not upgraded after that. I use Acorn which is OK, just. I declined upgrading to their latest as It is just OK, "meh". But Acorn will allow purchase and upgrades independent of the app store so they are still alive in my book. I have used Quark, Illustrator, Freehand and a few other apps in the past. I have done some web development and though currently I am dormant in that area I recently updated my license for Rapidweaver. Much of the art I make is for web deployment or illustration of my models I am writing about. For me It always comes down to left brain and right brain thinking. Software can be brilliant but those who write tutorials often don't know how to describe It. From my perspective dumbing down software for the average user should not have to mean actually removing features. The best software is designed so that if you really do have a poor memory, when you next approach a project It won't take all your time to relearn It. This is an introduction, and that was important to say because, I strongly dislike modern Adobe subscription schemes or being forced to do business through the app store before I am allowed to do business on my own. Color me, strongly independent. Not throwing mud at the app store per se, although I dislike how upgrades are handled, discounts and sales are discouraged, and a few other things. I am currently back in school so student discounts are always appreciated, something usually not allowed in the app store. I am highly creative and poorly organized. I have talent in writing, music, speaking, photography, and graphic design. I have been working through some internal "issues" related to a head injury and some other things I won't get into here. I very much appreciated seeing the layout of the tools and the design of this software offering. I have to say, It looks like a great and user friendly design. If anything will get me over my dislike of the app store It is this app. I will optimistically hold out hope that the development team may at some point also make this available to non app store people like myself. Added: I now have a profile blurb about my take on photography.