[Masks in Photo and Importing to Publisher]

I opened a TIFF file in Photo, which was created in Photoshop CS5 (Mac OS X). The photo contained a channel mask. When opened in AP, the mask was applied, rather than showing the entire image. With the TIFF image, if I go to the Background Alpha channel, I can Invert it (reverses what's revealed) or Fill it, which removes the mask altogether. When the same Photoshop image is saved as a PSD and opened in AP, I can find the mask, load to the Pixel Selection channel, and then create a mask layer. Not very straightforward.

What I can't find is how to place either image in Publisher and select the channel. With InDesign, I can place an image and can choose whatever channel mask I want, even if there are multiple masks. This makes placing variations of images in a document very easy.

I can't be the only person with lots of Photoshop images I would like to use with Affinity. It makes transitioning difficult.

TIFF file attached.

Boothe Memorial Park.tif

[AD and AP - more precision please]

I second Rob123456789's second point. InDesign and QuarkXpress allow fractional text sizes to a much finer degree than Publisher, which increments files sizes a tenth of a point at a time. A tenth of a point will serve most purposes, but there are times when that tiny extra fraction makes a big difference in fitting copy.

[Borders on Text Frames and Objects]

View/Studio/Text Frame does provide some basic capabilities. InDesign CS 5 (I don't know about later versions) gives similar capabilities, just approached a little differently. QuarkXpress includes some border frame designs, which can produce a variety of nice frame options. I have used Affinity Designer to create more of a custom frame and imported it into Publisher, but I don't want to spend a lot of time creating this sort of thing. Does Publisher have, or will it have, provisions for extensions?

Border.afdesign

[GREP find/replace]

One more vote for GREP. I have used it in two long InDesign documents, and it just saves tons of work. I would add that being able to group several GREP commands together would be incredibly useful. But I'd be more than happy with individual GREP commands. 

[Table features]

Publisher doesn't seem to allow creating a table within a text frame (Mac). It has to be created off to the side and dragged in.

Other programs, e.g., InDesign, allow a table to be expanded by tabbing past the last cell. It's a convenient shortcut.

Moving a table's position seems to require a trip to the Move tool. It would be convenient to hold down the Command/Control key while in Table mode.

[Automatic text windows in master]

This may be redundant, but... InDesign and QuarkXpress both allow text frames to be defined on master pages, and used on document pages. To have to add frames on document pages that merely duplicate what you can see from the master page, and link them over and over again is counterproductive. Looking at how the competition provides these capabilities should carry over into the design of a competitive product. If you can improve on them, fine!

[Word count - please, please don't tell me there isn't one]

A word count in Publisher facilitates composition directly in Publisher. Text doesn't always originate with a word processor or text editor. It's not that unusual to have a layout with graphics and a limited amount of space for text, and there can be limits on the amount of text. A word count can tell you how close you are to the design specs.