PaoloT
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Posts posted by PaoloT
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18 minutes ago, Jetro said:
docx files are text format
They are a bit more than text, since they also contain text styles, links, images, variables. DOCX is an interchange format for complex documents, that can be interpreted by several different programs. That's why it is so important, and it allows interoperability between different programs, not at the exclusive advantage of Microsoft.
Paolo
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31 minutes ago, Jetro said:
If formatting is not a concern, go ahead and use .docx, but if you want to lock down formatting (and that's what you need in the kind of files we are discussing here) it is no use whatsoever. You're better of sharing a PDF and that's saying something.
I'm not totally sure that someone receiving my documents made in Word would be too happy to open them in Google Docs as a PDF instead of a DOCX file…
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46 minutes ago, SDLeary said:
no
Over 60% of wordprocessor users are now using online tools. Google Docs makes nearly three times the traffic of Microsoft Word. Among the remaining 40% of users, still preferring a desktop app, Word still gets over 50% of the market. Percentages vary depending on the country (LibreOffice, for example, has a larger use in Europe than in North America). I've never found complete, factual statistics, but everything seems to led to an ongoing change in the market.
Paolo
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That's a very strange omission, considering how much Affinity is promoted among the architects.
Paolo
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Hi,
When loading IDML files to Publisher, cross-references are replaced by – nothing.
It would be ideal to have them translated into the Publisher's equivalent.
If not immediately possible, it would be desirable to at least insert a placeholder, to prevent having the missing link going lost.
Paolo
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23 hours ago, Alfred said:
There’s a Search tab in the online version of the Help.
It's a different thing. This feature on the Mac is not just showing you an help page, but it is choosing the command for you. For example:
Since I'm one who sometimes forgets where I parked my car, I like this thing a lot…
Paolo
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I'm extremely happy with iMovie. In the past I had Final Cut Express, then Premiere; I have DaVinci Resolve installed; but nothing lets me create some quick videos as fast as iMovie. Love it.
Paolo
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9 minutes ago, Ian Sayers said:
just started with Affinity as Head of Enablement
Welcome Ian. I hope we will see Spotlight shine again!
Paolo
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1 minute ago, lepr said:
Has there been a statement that many Canva people were re-assigned to roles in the development of Affinity?
The aforementioned director's report of December 2023 directly alludes to integration of the staffs. It would be surprising if they wouldn't share knowledge and technologies. Machine learning being the most evident of them.
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26 minutes ago, lepr said:
I missed these statements of massive expansion.
The only official statement I saw is that the staff was not reduced.
At the same time, the merger has given Affinity a lot more personnel from Canva. I guess the new subject and object selection is technology inherited from the new labs.
Paolo
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From the company report:
"The biggest risk is ensuring the integration of the two companies is successful. We are already over the most
challenging initial period of integrating systems, people and working practices which has gone very well. This is
not something we are taking for granted […]"I guess the main issue, in integrating the staff members, has something to do with the language…
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15 hours ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:
Feels like Canva have already killed any future development.
Since the acquisition, we have only seen minor things, like native Windows Arm64 support, variable fonts, QR codes, AI selection, multi-page spreads, preliminary work for ePub export, improvements in pencil and stroke drawing… Development is clearly dead!
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3 hours ago, Ldina said:
to make a dent in the professional design market
I admit I know nothing about the design world. I'm a technical communicator, so I’m limited to that perspective.
As for professional printing: in the next couple days I’ll have a book printed at the major printer of my area. They used to print national newspapers, with huge trucks carrying paper entering their lot every day.
The book is published by a very well known small publisher, once too small to be served by such installments. Now, they are contending the small, but constant orders from this small publisher. I guess Affinity can have a place in a world where the big ones are becoming a bit more humble.
Paolo
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44 minutes ago, Ldina said:
Why would Adobe want to make it easy for Affinity
They have nothing to do. It's already done. The IDML specs are there, and all the page layout programs can read those files. Some can even save in that format. Software for translators can already read and write it.
The most used writing software should be Google Docs. Microsoft had nothing to do to help them use a common file interchange format: the DOCX specs were already documented and widely supported.
Paolo
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3 hours ago, Ldina said:
Professionals who are getting paid regularly to do design work, and who regularly need to collaborate with other designers who use InDesign, should probably be using Indesign themselves.
But consider these use cases:
- You can work in Publisher, but need to have your documents translated. The only file format understood by the translator's software is IDML.
- You can exchange Publisher documents in its native format with most of your collaborators. But not all of them: for example, in this moment those who work on RTL and Indic languages can't. So, you give them an IDML file exported from Publisher, and they can reuse your original file with ease.
Being able to use Publisher as the most common program would put the users of InDesign in a disadvantaged position, since it would only be a program one is forced to use because Publisher is not yet supporting their language. It's not the Publisher users who have to find a way to be compatible with InDesign, but the other way around.
Paolo
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5 hours ago, ianstudio said:
Markzware could help
A third-party converter made to try to recover as much as you can is not the same thing as a native conversion. Either Publisher has good compatibility with the IDML file format, or there isn't enough compatibility to be used as a reliable exchange method.
Paolo
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I'm doing a proofreading work in UPDF (for Mac, but it is available for other systems as well). It's really nice. Much more pleasant to use than Acrobat, apparently much less buggy than Apple Preview. Apparently producing notes that can be read by Acrobat on a PC.
Again, be cautious when purchasing, as it automatically added a subscription for the AI features when I did. Apart for this, it looks like the Acrobat replacement I've been waiting for for years, and that PDF Expert (Mac only) was on the verge of becoming for me.
Paolo
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IDML compatibility in import and export will shape the future role of Publisher. A small, niche page layout program for monolingual small projects from isolated small publishers, or a tool ready to be included into a wider professional network?
Just imagine LibreOffice, Google Apps or Apple iWork without the ability of exporting to DOCX or XLSX. Would they have any use, apart for small personal documents?
Paolo
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How I would like to see this implemented?
1. Open the Publisher file.
2. Open the Resource Manager.
3. Choose the "Replace files" command.
4. In the file selector, open the folder containing the TIFF (or any other format) files.
5. Choose the Replace command.
6. Not finding the original files (say, the image.afphoto or image.jpg file), Publisher will ask if you want to replace the missing files with the files in the selected folder, having the same name but a different filename extension.
7. If you confirm, files like image.jpg will be replaced by image.tiff file.
This would be great when starting from a Markdown document conceived for a web site, where all the images are JPG or PNG files. Import it into Publisher for the printed version, and you can quickly replace the lower-quality images with higher-quality TIFFs.
Paolo
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Hi,
I'm currently working on a book that has up to three streams of footnotes:
- the author's
- the original editor's
- the new edition editor's
This is not all that uncommon in essays. Unfortunately, the world of software is stuck with a single stream of footnotes (I think only Mellel, a wordprocessor and not a page layout program, can do more).
Publisher is already doing better than it’s competitors as far as notes are concerned. I ask for one step more, and allow multiple streams of notes of the same type.
Paolo
- garrettm30 and sfriedberg
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4 hours ago, ronnyb said:
leave the UI to the operating system developers
I fear the UI is a layer overlapping the OS, made to allow development in multiple operating systems. It's a common practice, but others have done much better in avoiding the original UI to be hidden and weakened so much.
An alternative solution could be to end development on Windows, and only continue the one on the Mac and iPad… 😁
Exporting into IDML please?
in Feedback for the Affinity V2 Suite of Products
Posted
The most typical case that would be comfortably solved by having IDML export in Publisher.
1. Export the page layout document as an IDML file.
2. Create a new project in the CAT software.
3. Load the IDML file, and let the CAT software segment it.
4. If you have the translation of a previous, similar project, align it with the imported and segmented IDML file.
5. Be happy translating the missing or slightly different segments, correctly aligned sentence by sentence.
6. Compile the translation as an IDML file.
7. Open the translated document in the page layout program, with everything in the right place.
The alternative:
1. Extract the text from a PDF file.
2. Translate it without support of translation memories.
3. Apply the styles again.
4. Load it into the page layout program.
5. Rebuild the original document by reimporting the images, creating the links again, adding any variable.
6. Ask an exorbitant price for the work, that took an uncountable number of hours more; or
7. Be competitive, and ask a price that will not cover the time you spent on that work.
Paolo