vonBusing

Hi!
Currently, when exporting to pdf, the default area setting is set to "All Spreads" in the export dialogue. I'm not sure when this is actually helpful, but 99.9% of the time I use "All Pages" (otherwise I export current page/selection). Could this be the default instead or, at least, stick once it is changed?
I'd be glad to hear when and for what purpose people are using the All Spread area setting. 
ref, this thread: 
 

The app itself didn't do any of these things. If anything, macOS did it. I've noticed that macOS tends to use the newer version of the same app if both are installed. I don't know what you mean by "the folders set up by Publisher". The support folders of the beta are completely separate from the public release. Other than that, Publish doesn't create new folders.

Although I have had to get used to this as well it is extremely annoying that it is apparently causing new users so many problems after ll this time as well.
It seemed all that time ago when we first raised the problem (in the beta product version) that it was a no-brainer to make this a permanent change as otherwise there is absolutely no point having beta trials and then not listen to user feedback! Serif, please listen this time and save a lot of users frustration and disappointment. I know that it took quite a lot of time for me to resolve this when I first encountered it.
It does seem sensible to also make the choice a sticky one if that has not been done already.

The problem of defaulting to export as spreads keeps coming up around the forum. It is a constant annoyance to those of us who are used to the issue, but it is worse for those who are less familiar with the software or are less computer-savvy in general. Although I have already expressed my own desire for something to be done about it, I am returning to this old thread because it has caused my boss to become disgruntled over it as well.
I do understand that there is more requested of Serif than they can possibly do, but this request is so simple and so generally agreed upon (or have I overlooked someone who actually prefers export by spread as the default?) that I am surprised Serif doesn't just swap the default, even if they are not yet ready to either make this sticky or to make it so that it is saved with presets.
(I chose to resurrect this older thread on the issue rather than any of the numerous threads asking for the same thing because this one had some more discussion. It seemed the others were two or three posts apiece.)

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Available
---
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.9.0.874 is now available as a download from the link above.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is significant update from the 1.8 version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous or future versions of Affinity Publisher.
---
Improvements and Fixes
General
Fixed issues with Assets Panel
Fixed display of and snap to Column Guides
Snap to Object Geometry snapping to curve intersections was broken
Document profile PDX Export preflight tweak, falls back to CMYK profile for RGB / LAB documents
(Mac) Prevent accidental rotation of view by ignoring modifier changes during a scroll
(Mac) Fixed issue with New Template Dialog failing to show templates
(Mac) Fixed Big Sur title bar issue
Rendering
Fix for rotated or skewed filled rectangles not rendering correctly under OpenCL compute
Master Pages
Pinned objects from Master Pages were not showing in bleed 
Resizing a single page master could cause spreads that used it to be resized incorrectly
Guides lost from Master Page when changing from facing to single pages
Images and Resources
Fix for xlsx import currency parsing
Fixed issue opening heic files with extended characters in the file path
Fixes for specific PDF import failures
PDF Passthrough not automatically set if PDF drag dropped from Finder / Explorer
Fixed warnings about over-size export files
Resource Manager could scale cropped objects on Replace
Resource Manager now shows Artboard names instead of Page Numbers for placed Artboard documents
Resource Manager 'Replace' for Picture Frame content was not workign correctly
(Mac) Pasted (embedded) images incorrectly showed the document colourspace in Resource Manager
Text
Text Frame button missing from context toolbar for Text on a Path
More consistent handling of mid-word punctuation
Text wrap settings on images could become distorted after a document save and load
Fixed issue adding tab stops to the Text Ruler
Fixed issue where grouping could change text size due to anomaly in layer setup
RTF export / copy paste was losing hyphens under certain circumstances
(Mac) Paragraph Style > Bullets and Numbering > Restart numbering UI fix
TOC
Style changes not always picked up as out of date for TOC
Bookmarks created by TOC not in the correct order when exported to PDF
Data Merge
Fixed Data Merge crash with no source selected
---
Release Notes for 1.9.0.857
Release Notes for 1.9.0.850
Release Notes for 1.9.0.843
Release Notes for 1.9.0.829
Release Notes for 1.9.0.822
Release Notes for 1.9.0.801
Release Notes for 1.9.0.796
Release Notes for 1.9.0.742
---
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

Universal apps! incredibly overweight apps are back in town...

Here you go Sean.
Looks to me like my previous mac’s info, which was from 2010, is still in this Mac as well as it’s true identity?
I shall leave it to you to figure out what’s going on there!

It would certainly make things easier.
I would also like the team to implement data linking that remains in the original file but updates when the data file is updated.

Perhaps you can give the developers a moment of breath to come up with some explanations 😉  But there is nothing wrong to gather together some insights on how this works by us forumsters.
Actually it is worth going over to the Mac and Windows beta forums, because there are already some things to read (and learn). Among them it turns out that merging image paths seems not to work on Windows, currently. But there is also a short video showing how that works on the Mac.
Basically it works like this:
There's a new menu entry 'Data Merge Manager...' where you first set up different (or just one) data sources. These can be .csv or .json files or Excel tables. Then you go to 'Studio > Fields' where you find at the bottom of the list these data sources and their fields. Double clicking on a field name (this is important) inserts a field placeholder into a text element (text frame or artistic text). Note: this also works for image frames if the source contains absolute paths to image files (but with a bug on Windows). Finally, once your design is finished, you return to the 'Data Merge Manager...' and click on 'Generate'. This creates a new and unnamed document with the merged data. There is also an additional new tool called 'Data Merge Node Tool'. With this you can create grid layouts that exactly distribute mulitple repeats of one base layout. It is very similar to a label printing setup in a word processor.
Cheers,
d.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available
---
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.9.0.796 is now available as a download from the link above.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is significant update from the 1.8 version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous or future versions of Affinity Publisher.
---
New Features
Data Merge
- Use the Data Merge Manager (Document > Data Merge Manager) to create a new datasource based on a Text / CSV, JSON or Excel file
- Insert Fields from the datasource into text objects via the Fields Panel
- Fields that represent image resource paths can be applied to Picture Frames
- Optionally, use the DataMerge Node Tool in your source document to create N-up tiled source records 
- Use 'Generate' from the Data Merge Manager to create a new document based on your source document and datasource
Package
- Use 'Save As Package' and target an empty folder to create a packaged copy of your document and collect used fonts and linked images into subfolders
- The package folder can be moved in its entirety to another location or to another device
- On re-opening the package, links to images will be resolved and fonts can optionally be temporarily installed
- It is important to adhere to copyright and licensing restrictions if redistributing images or fonts
Other Fixes and Improvements
Import 
PDF import was getting tiling patterns wrong
Fixed crash the could occur opening PDFs containing objects with indexed colour spaces
SVG Importer stability improvement
IDML Import - Column rules
IDML Import - Increased use of IDML document defaults to inform the import process improving a number of cases 
Add Pages From File
Added option to 'Add Pages at end of document'
Added option to 'Add Before / After / Replacing Section'
Text
Hyphens not being displayed with certain fonts
Picture Frames
Add Picture Frame property 'Clear Picture Frame Background on Populate'
Converting a Picture Frame to Curves loses properties
TOC
Fix duplicate entries in TOC when heading paragraph spans frames
Preflight
Don't preflight check for missing fonts inside pass-through PDFs
---
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

Readers of this thread may be interested to try the first beta implementation of Data Merge in the latest Affinity Publisher Beta
You can find Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.9.0.796 for macOS HERE and for Windows HERE
If you are coming to this post late the latest customer beta can be found in the last post in the relevant one of these announcement threads on macOS or Windows

@the_t, @orjanbd , @Henry Audubon, @SarahPower & @Aprinti
Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums  
We are working hard on this and many other features. We do not tend to announce features before they are available in a beta.

@Patrick Connor Might I suggest you make that a "recommended post" for this thread so that it won't get buried. I think it succinctly makes clear 2 points
that Serif is actively working on this feature, so it will not be necessary to keep saying how much we want it: Serif clearly has got the hint and has decided to make it happen. that Serif is not typically in the habit of responding to the many "any updates?" posts on unannounced features.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available
---
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.9.0.742 is now available as a download from the link above.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is significant update from the 1.8 version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous or future versions of Affinity Publisher.
---
New Features and Improvements
We are still very early in the beta process for 1.9. We have additional features we expect to integrate over the next few weeks.
PDF Bookmarks
Bookmarks provide a listing of flagged content that are present within a PDF document.
Bookmarks can be added via the Anchor Panel or automatically generated from a Table of Contents.
PDF Passthrough
It is now possible to flag placed PDF files for PDF passthrough. When such a file is encountered during PDF export it can be embedded verbatim in the output PDF ensuring 100% fidelity.
PSD flattened image representation
When placing a PSD we now use the flattened bitmap representation in the file rather than interpreting the file content ourselves. This will generally give better results on output.
Convert Pixel Layer to Image Node / Picture Frame
It is now possible to convert a Pixel Layer to an Image or Picture Frame plus content.
Initial Text Baseline Advance
Text frames now support an ‘Initial Advance’ property. This can be helpful to keep text aligned with other page elements and ensure predictable consistent layout.
Path Text
Additional controls now make it possible to avoid flowing text onto both sides of a curve. Additionally it is now possible to hide overflowing Path Text if desired.
Configurable Bleed and Margin Guide Colours
The colours used for Bleed and Margin guides are configurable by the user and saved with the document.
---
Known Issues with New Features
The following lists some of the more important known issues we currently have with new the features:
- PDF Passthrough: Crash exporting specific PDF - If you have crashes exporting we would love to hear about them
- PDF Passthrough: Preflight warns of passthrough pdf when it is set to interpret. Some preflight checks drill into PDFs flagged for passthrough and report spurious errors.
- Convert Pixel Layer to Image Node: Converted image resources can end up with no name
- Path Text: Path text overflows on wrong side, hiding overflow hides all text
---
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

Nice! Question. What's a Contour Tool? 

Well, the reason I want it is because it makes it a bit easier to create selection patterns with precision. Not to mention it makes using all the tools a little more consistent. I use the selection tools quite a bit when doing artwork, so any amount of extra control is much appreciated. If you only have one source point to draw the selection from the centre it makes it a bit easier to do this stuff shown in the video below. It also allows you to combine the rectangular and elliptical selection tools with better precision (i.e. creating a rectangular/square hole inside of an ellipse/circle selection at the centre or vice versa).
Desktop 2020.09.14 - 18.14.04.04.mp4

Another +1 for data merge. IMHO absolutely essential feature for Publisher and I would actually love if Designer can do that as well.
Absolutely amazing would be also option to do it from script. E.g. run publisher similar like following `Publisher.exe -input my_publisher_file -output data_merged.pdf -data datafile.csv`. This way the processes can be hugely automated.
 

Yes this is a very annoying behaviour, it would be great to be able to set default behaviour even if it was per document or have default set to all pages automatically. 

I agree. Remembering the user choice would be the best, but barring that, why should export as spreads be the default choice? It has its place, but it seems exporting pages to be the far more common operation.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Affinity Designer Beta 1.8.4.3 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.3 version currently available in the store to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes Since 1.8.4.2
- Fix for 'Expand Strokes' failing to consider 'velocity' as a width controller.
- Fix for focus issues when tabbing between text entry fields in the Colour panel with Text objects selected. (hi @dcarvalho84 - lol!)
- Fix for operation of Command+Right-Click on an object to show the tree hierarchy of the selected node.
- Allow certain documents created on Windows to open correctly (if the document contained a saved reference to exporting as Windows GDI formats).
- Miscellaneous text fixes and improvements
 
Changes Since 1.8.3
- Fix for incorrect rendering of grids in OpenGL past certain zoom levels.
- Fix for poor functioning of 'Force Touch' trackpads in pressure-sensitive tools.
- Speculative fix for occasional lockups in Pencil Tool.
- Added option in preferences to re-enable the old behaviour for deleting objects (we used to previously favour empty selections).
- Added ability to show folders as icons in the layers panel.
- Added option to always show folders as “small” in the layers panel.
- Improved dragging behaviour in the layers panel (make it easier to drag child items around within their container without affecting parenting).
- PDF import performance improvements.
- Document save performance improvements.
- Text performance improvements.
- Assorted small bug fixes.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

I'm feeling really honoured to be mentioned in a beta feature list of fixes That was quick @MattP Thanks for fixing this Designer Team 😉

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available
---
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.8.4.663 is now available as a download from the link above.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.3 version recently released to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
---
Improvements and Fixes
General
Fixed recent regression when saving Linked Image placeholders which was causing large document files
Recoloured K-only images with transparency lose their transparency
(Win) Can now import .afassets file via drag drop 
Text
Avoid generating infinite filler text when leading is zero
Further improvements for ideographic line breaks, mainly for quote-marks
Allow OpenType kerning between glyphs with different settings (if they are the same font and size)
Fixed 'Indent To Here' not working if lines are broken by drop cap or wrap shape
Fixes for line-breaker around Fixed Spaces
Import / Export
IDML Import - Text frame corners are now scaled correctly
IDML Import - Fixed instances where text wrap path could fail to import, or be scaled incorrectly
IDML Import - Generic OpenType features not being imported from IDML file
IDML Import - Effects settings not scaled correctly on master page items
IDML Import - En-Space in numbered list imported as a 0
IDML Import - Elements could be positioned incorrectly in some instances
IDML Import - Question mark in file path breaks link during the import
IDML Import - Initial Words not scaling correctly
IDML Import - Placed EPS files are slightly clipped
PDF Import - Better handling of restricted files
PDF Export - Fixed issues exporting to PDF/X-4 with content with embedded profiles 
PDF Export - Export could fail for glyph ids that happen to match surrogate pair values
Index
Index Find - match words with following punctuation
Partial loss of parent topics when adding pages from file
Further fixes, made since the release of 1.8.3, are listed in earlier 1.8.4 betas
---
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I wouldn't be so quick to make that comparison.
Swift Publisher is missing some very basic features such as vertical alignment of text within a text box (it won't automatically center it vertically for example).
It has no professional standards-based PDF output capabilities (PDF/X, etc.), no equivalent to "global colors", ...
It is a very basic consumer-oriented layout program.  It is nice for what it is, but a substitute for a professional layout tool it is not.

I am not understanding entirely yet.
– Have you set all used texts & text styles to English?
– Or is there anywhere "en-NO" appearing in the language menus within the Character Panel if you select with text tool a text passage which creates a missing message?
– Can you detect why a few Spelling Mistakes are not missing the dictionary and seem to report as expected?
– Workaround: Have you tried to rename a copy of existing dictionary folder/files in your macOS according to Affinities needs?
Apparently we cannot deactivate spelling messages selectively in the preflight preferences.
In case you want to deactivate spelling preflight completely: In the Preflight Panel click the hamburger menu right to the profile menu > choose either "Edit Profile" to edit the existing "Default" or choose "Create preset..." to create a new, custom set, maintaining the apps Default preset. In the next window select the "Spelling" option and click "Disabled".

I have a customized Mac with an English MacOS version and a Norwegian keyboard, since I am Norwegian. However, much of the DTP work I do on Affinity Publisher is in English. A big project I'm working on at the moment is entirely written in English. However, when I run the Preflight check I get a mile long list stating:
I have followed the instructions here 
but the problem is that I cannot find any dictionary named (en-NO). And I have switched on every Norwegian and English dictionary in System Preferences in my MacOS and restarted Affinity Publisher, but the error messages persist. Now I just want to exclude that type of error message, because in the first edition of the document I was working on, some important error messages had snuck in between the enormous amounts of "Missing dictionary for language (en-NO)" which I didn't notice. I enclose two screenshots, and as you can see, it is extremely difficult to spot the real important messages in the sea of nonsensical "missing dictionary" messages that reports on every page over and over.
Since the missing dictionary message isn't important, and the spell checking of the English text in the document works just fine, I would very much just get rid of the dictionary error messages so they don't inadvertently hide actual important error messages.

How do I do that? Is it even possible, or is there a workaround?