nwhit

Sadly, the ability to copy/paste from ID files apparently no longer works after the last beta (58) and newest (128) updates. Now get all text as singles lines of text and not the ID text blocks. Same happens when using Place with a PDF. Can't even select a single ID text block and copy/paste. End up with multiple lines of text as a "group" but not functioning as a text frame (block). Opening a PDF does keep most text blocks intact, although it also ties multiple blocks together that don't belong together. I hope they get this fixed since we can't really proceed with much testing since everything we do is related to past ID docs needing updating or serving as a template, etc. Running Sierra on iMac.

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Good to hear. I might just give it a try on this business card order! On this b-card, I did simply copy and paste from the ID file, so for a simple job like this, can use legacy ID files. Might be tougher to do with many of the multi-page pubs we do. As I mentioned in another posting, I tried to import an ID-generated PDF into APub, but many of the text blocks were joined together from across the page (headlines, subheads, body text, etc.), thus making it a really tough job to go through and recreate all the new separate and properly flow-linked text blocks. But for a simple copy-paste document, looks like it will work. The other issue we have (besides the normal flakey beta issues) is the lack of hyperlinks within a pdf from APub. Much of our work today is producing publications distributed as PDF's, and hyperlinks to websites are a must, not an option.

Yes, very familiar with workflow. Our media production company does a lot of it. But I am also concerned as to whether the APub PDF output will have the fidelity required or any other issues. Although we use Photo and Designer, we've never sent any of their PDF exports to a printing company, so not real interested in possibly blowing a print job for a client. On screen, the APub pdf looks fine, but you never know. May decide to wait until others have done it without issues.

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Thanks for the info!! I was finishing up a business card (2-sided) in ID, but based on your post, copied and pasted to APub. Seems to have copied without any issues! Not sure if I dare send this output to the printer, however! Might be some other little surprises we all might find since this is a beta!

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+1 on hyperlinks. Need them almost every week for documents distributed as pdf's.

I agree with Robinp. In the many years of using ID almost daily, never had the desire or need to open that pane any larger much less full-screen. And the APub Resource pane doesn't really have that many columns of useful info requiring much enlargement -- other than to occasionally detach it for longer scrolling needs. It just needs to be handy for routine use. It will also help once they set the default to "linked" images/assets as opposed to the current embedded default. But it still is a routine workflow to be modifying and updating linked items. It also would be important -- as in ID -- that this pane have an indicator warning symbol that the linked item has been modified as a reminder to decide whether the document's item(s) needs updating.

It's common when building and remodeling complex documents for a client that numerous bits and pieces related to that client are stored on the "artboard" (ID) or Background (APub), off the canvas/publication. These elements can be moved around, copied/pasted elsewhere and generally stored as "stock" items for a company's publications. Also allows trying out various elements for a particular spot. Currently in APub you have to set the background grey light enough so that you can see blocks of normal/black text, etc. However, it would be really nice when you do the Clip To Canvas (\) that the background would go dark/darker as in ID when switching between Normal and Preview. Would just dress it up a bit. And would also probably make more sense to call it a Preview mode rather than a Clip to Canvas. What designers want is a Preview check as they build the document. Thanks.

If I select an image within a document, then go to the Resource Manager, that item is not pre-selected within Resource Manager. Thus I have to search through dozens of items in a normal document to try to locate the one I need to work with. Very used to ID, etc. where when you select an item, the "link" is highlighted in the panel/list, thus allowing you to relink, update, etc. As part of this, would think it would be much handier to have this Resource Manager as a panel that can be added to the sidebars since it gets used a lot in building, modifying and working with media-rich documents. We routinely modify linked items and need to update them within a document. Never done as a mass process, but done as items are moved, placed, changed, etc., so would be much preferred to have it in a readily available pane within Studio just like Paragraph, Character, etc.. Thanks.

I guess the main issue now is that we need to be able to create a Table Style that can be used in multiple documents, and if the Table Style is updated/changed, it will propagate and be available in the many other documents that need/use that Table Style. Obviously, it would not automatically change existing tables within a document, but it should change the Style itself so that a designer can go through an existing document and update the tables to the new/approved style. As it is now, it appears that a person has to: 1) Change a Table Style in one document; 2) Go into all the other documents that need/use that Style; 3) Delete the old style and import the newly modified style. Like a color palette or other common settings, if updated somewhere, should propagate to the other documents where it is used. Actually be nice to be able to create Global Table Styles that simply show up in any document, and those Global Styles would auto update. Save a ton of time. And time is money to the client.

I did find out that by selecting the text or cells, I can change the vertical alignment. And I did (finally) find it when editing a Table Style. But in doing this, I noticed that when I have created a table style, then imported it into another doc, the imported one does not update if you edit the original. Be nice to have that choice to save having to update every doc that uses that table style.

I see that but for a table it is greyed out, plus how do I add that to a Text Style? I don't see that option in the Edit Style panel.

Been playing with tables but simply cannot find where you can set the table text to align to the Top/Middle/Bottom of the cells. Kinda required for tables, but I must be blind. Even looked at the Styles editing panels and can't see it anywhere. Does anyone know where it is? Thanks.

On importing PDF's created in InDesign, I tried that right away on a typical 4-6 page publication. Unfortunately, it really screwed up many of the text blocks by merging several of them together from far away places on the page. Would require a good deal of work to recreate the numerous text blocks, recreate the flows, etc. We, likewise, really desire ID import. We're stuck on ID CS5 and have never desired to go on Adobe's subscription program. We have tonnes of routinely used documents for clients in ID files that we are always updating. If we had to rebuild/recreate every one of those, our clients would not be willing to pay us for that. We would be stuck doing a bulk of our work in ID. Thus it is important for us to be able to import and get better fidelity than I got trying a couple ID PDF's so far. Thanks.

I agree that the Table Format/Styles needs some work. I've been playing with the format panel and for the life of me cannot get it to do any "normal" table formatting such as header rows, etc. Seems there should be included some fairly standard table styles available as a starter, then it should be easy to modify those to a style that could be saved in used in other related corporate documents. The way it is right now appears to require far too much work (and guessing) to get just a fairly simple, but styled table. The current interface is just non-intuitive as far as setting up a savable table style. Thanks.

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A key difference is/was that Adobe had already bought what was a very mature (at the time) PageMaker from Aldus (as well as FreeHand). During the transition, many of us kept on using PageMaker until InDesign caught up. But we always had a translator to go back and open PageMaker docs in InDesign for quite some time. Our work was not hugely interrupted nor did we face an issue where what we were doing and creating in PageMaker would be "lost" later when moving to the newer InDesign. Many of us weren't thrilled at the time about having to eventually move to ID, but at least Adobe did a somewhat reasonable job of helping the transition of PM files to ID. Thus we have to hope that Affinity can/will be able to offer a similar path. We will have to eventually be able to bring our legacy files into their Publisher app, and sooner would obviously be better for a more rapid adoption of the new app. Just like many apps can open, read and save-as Word documents in word processing, ID files are critical to many pro designers and shops.

Suffice it to say that InDesign is and has been the predominant software for the creation of professionally printed documents and their associated PDF derivatives for various uses. Ever since PageMaker and then InDesign, this is the most-used "creation" software by professional shops. While there are many others (and I've used and taught most of the biggies over the years like Quark and FrameMaker), professional media creation shops still mostly use InDesign to create documents for offset printing and pdf versions of that print job; and print shops will most often have it as well if it is desired to have them open and adjust a file. Therefore, as per my earlier post, we as a creative and media production shop have thousands of client documents/files already created in InDesign. It would be essential to be able to open and convert them in the new A-Pub. If that cannot be done, about 60-80% of our client work could not be done in the new app since the clients are not going to be willing to have us recreate existing documents (but needing updates, etc.) at their expense. And we sure aren't going to do it at our expense! As I said in my earlier post, for Affinity it's a matter of a slow rollout versus a faster rollout. If media production shops cannot use it to integrate into their InDesign workflow for clients until much later versions, then it will only be used for a "new" job or messing around. But even then, why create a client's job in a totally new format if that's not supported at other agencies, clients and print shops? In the pro world, you really do need to be able to share editable files and currently InDesign is the one most have/use. I would love to adopt Affinity Pub. It looks good in the preview video and we do like AP and AD. But we need to be able to correctly open InDesign files in order to actually use the new app for more than playing around. That's just business.

The upgrades to Mac AP and AD as of March 1. The "news" is this thread and the preview video in the first post.

While noticing today's new upgrades for AP and AD, I stumbled across this news and the video. Sounds great! While I oftentimes hate to admit it, I started out on PageMaker 1.0 with the then brand new LaserWriter ($6k+) and Mac SE. I not only used virtually all early DTP/graphics software and new iterations for many of my companies (including a media production company), I also taught the software during its several-year rollout. Also evangelized and set-up numerous ad agencies, media producers, newspapers, printers and university "commercial art" departments in the "new" electronic publishing and graphics methods and equipment/software. Over the years, I used and taught most of the popular software packages. Some good, many terrible. I came from the "manual" world, so understood what was really needed for day-to-day production versus flashy features. My 2¢ on the new A-Publisher is that I hope it can correctly open recent InDesign documents (we've stayed pre-cloud). While I saw one poster who wondered why anyone wanted to open an old document, the reality of media production has been and still is the ability to use the thousands of client files we store to either update materials, specifications, pics, etc., or to use an old publication/document as the basis for a totally "new" design -- but a "new" design that uses much of the old design as its basis. Just how it is for commercial design/publication work. And clients most often aren't willing to simply abandon otherwise good publications. Many just don't spend money for total from-scrartch redo's. Thus recycling is critical to a normal workflow. If accurate import of InDesign (notice that I didn't ask for import of PageMaker docs???? ;-D ) is not available or working well, it would terribly slow down the adoption of this new software. Just can't spend client's money rebuilding hundreds and hundreds of previously created work. There are many other "base" features that are important in DTP, but I assume Affinity has studied ID for quite some time. But it doesn't hurt to verify with people who make their living with this software every day for many, many years what are "nice to have" versus "critical". Could mean the difference between rapid adoption versus a multi-year roll-out. I'll keep my eyes and ears open to see how this all shapes up. Very encouraging. While our staff still occasionally curse and swear at things that can't be done in AP and AD, overall have been very pleased. So that bodes well for Publisher!