Paul Martin

I produce a simple A4 newsletter, typically 8 pages in length which I publish as a PDF. I expect most readers will either read that on screen or print it on a laser or inkjet printer for convenience. Initially, I copied the settings that I use in Serif PagePlus but as I have come to understand Affinity Publisher better, I have started to wonder if my set-up is either as attractive or as flexible as it could be. For instance, I often change the page-order as articles are received but I have never figured-out whether my "spreads" and guides are optimal. I would be grateful for any tips on getting the best out of this kind of job.

There was a time when Serif apparently had quite a lot of vicars among its customers, probably producing parish newsletters... On the subject of fancy - and more awkward to draw - crosses, here is a quick version of a Cross of Lorraine, apparently originating in Hungary or possibly Belarus. Apparently it was the symbol of the Free French in WWII. Paul

Much cuddlier, thanks, Alfred.

You're making a very good case for a dedicated tool...

We all know ways to achieve the objective, it's just a matter of convenience and "productivity" (eeugh), but a cross is surely one of the simplest, commonest shapes...

I've been a slow convert to the Affinity range but, aided by lockdown, I have put in the hours to become (almost) profocient enough to see the technically excellent power made available by a newer technology. But ease-of-use is not the strongest point so for those of us who didn't get the college course or in-company training, it's pretty hard work at times. But I am getting there and it has become fun.

Thanks RCR. It helps, of course, if you know to look for these options. Paul

Good question! I don't think I'd heard of "cut-outs" until Alfred mentioned them. The simple answer is that I expected a cross tool to work the way Serif Drawplus's version does, even though I know there is virtually no overlap in approach between the two programmes. I am completely flummoxed at the idea that anyone would think of using a "square star" tool, though Walt has kindly shown how it is possible. I will almost certainly use the modified rectangle approach as it's easier to remember, but it would be nice if somewhere in the help/tutorial there was a hint.

That's easier to use and quick. If you know where to look! Thank you, Alfred.

Thanks - yes, that was what baffled me. I don't think the help system even knows what a cross is...

Thank you, Walt.

I wanted to draw a simple cross, something like the one on the Swiss flag or a pharmacy sign and went to the shape tool. It has all sorts of wonderful options such as donuts (dunked and undunked) but could I find this simple, widely used shape? Nope. It could be that I have once again parked some brain cells inappropriately, I suppose... Anyway, it wasn't difficult to improvise. Create two rectangles, rotate one at 90 degrees, join. But why leave the cross out of the tool's basic shapes? Paul

I recently needed to include a table created in Excel in my Publisher newsletter. Trying to paste direct from Excel was unsatisfactory - I couldn't get the table to fit the page well. (I'm still struggling with the Place command.) Then I had the idea of using Designer as an intermediary, first pasting the table into it and then copying the Designer file into Publisher. The result was pretty near perfect. What I'm unclear about is why this worked and whether I was just doing it wrong the first time. What would be a more elegant way to achieve the desired result?

Sadly, I haven't a clue.

Ta very much, Ike. James Ritson as his usual classic, clear self. (Which you can't say for all tutorial presenters.) I don't think I fully understand him, but I will look out for pixel v image layers another time.

Thank you both - success! I had been trying to achieve this through the Layers studio panel rather than as shown in your video. Sometimes Affinity just baffles me. I still don't understand why I have to use Rasterize and Trim - I've never used a photo application that required anything similar. But then I was never and Adobe user!

Thanks, Carl, but I don't think I can do that. I'm trying to achieve "background blur, foreground sharp" with other images but so far unsuccessfully. How do you approach this task (which must be very common)?

Thanks, Ike, but in my case the whole image blurs rather than just the selected part.

I have been trying to apply gaussian blur to a selected area of a photograph, in this case the baclground to a picture of a rose. For reasons I don't underatand, the whole picture is blurred instead of just the selection. Rose and lizard first attempt.afphotoWhat am I doing wrong?

Thank you very much, Will.

For reasons that I cannot fathom, the page numbers for my table of contents are not appearing. (I would prefer them to the right of the text.) This has happened before, but I can't recall what affects the page number display. I would be grateful for a steer.

So we have a tool called "colour replacement brush" yet the Help system (such as it is) draws a complete blank. Always a warning sign, that. Time and again the questioner asks, "sure, but how do I select the colour to be replaced" and gets nothing useful back. Is this one of Affinity's famous black holes which is either due to there being no such working feature or because the question is "too simple to bother answering". My least favourite response is "you don't want to do that, you should do something completely different".

I am trying to insert a report written in Word and containing a table into an AF Publisher document. As far as I can see, AF Publisher cannot easily handle this as a single task. My work-around is to treat ordinary text and the table contents separately. So, text cut and paste into a Publisher text frame as usual. Copy the Word table(s) into Excel, arranging as close to final appearance as possible. Using AFP's Place command, insert the Excel spreadsheet as required directly on to the page. If there is more free text, create more AF Publisher frames as needed and paste in any additional text. Or is there a much simpler solution? PS for those of us who have not regularly used Adobe's over-priced products, the Place command takes getting used to as a sort of back-to-front cut+paste command.

I had never heard the phrase "police d'écriture" until today. There must be some awful puns about batons in the vicinity.