Fairportfan
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Posts posted by Fairportfan
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9 minutes ago, pcdlibrary said:
I do not need a PagePlus manual. Thanks. Perhaps some confusion exists, because there is commercial equipment called Affinity.
Didn't figure you DID, but on the off-chance...
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5 hours ago, pcdlibrary said:
Are the vintage PDF manuals available to download free?
Do you actually need a PagePlus manual?
If that's what you need, here it is: http://dl.serif.com/pdfs/pageplusx9.pdf
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7 hours ago, PaulEC said:
Thinking about it, it's obviously much cheaper to only provide downloads, rather than incurring the costs of disc production, packaging and postage. Not to mention the printing costs for manuals. So you can see why the Affinity apps are actually cheaper than the old "Plus" range used to be (at their full price!)
I agree that a PDF manual would be handy, I do find that it's often easier to "flick through" a PDF (or hard copy), rather than searching for the right entry in the help files. But, at the same time, I can see that the cost of paying people to create user guides/manuals for all three apps, allowing for the variations on the different platforms, and keeping them up to date, would probably be fairly expensive and could take resources away from development of the actual apps. I suppose it's a balancing act with available resources.
I had a friend who's a professional tech writer.
She worked for Ashton-Tate - editing manuals and support documents, and she was so important to them that when she emigrated, they established a small office in her new home country so that she could continue to work for them.
Until they downsized her department.
You should hear her talk - at length and with heat - about the relative costs of providing and maintaining good manuals and of providing technical support through other means.
It's not pretty, though it is rather amusing if you don't have a dog in the fight.
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5 hours ago, garrettm30 said:
Software used to come on physical media back then. Is Affinity even for sale on physical these days?
Irrelevant to the question of "Why no actual manual?"
I have observed that some software distributed only by download includes PDF manuals that are at least as good as the hard-copy ones were, and easier to search {if properly designed}
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32 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:
Do you have some specific objection to using the built-in Help, or the online version? That Help is basically a manual. By itself, or supplemented by the tutorial videos provided by Serif, I think it does a good job.
I have tried to use the "Help" {scare quotes intended}.
Like the "Help" in PPX9 {note that i didn't mention the "Help" in PPX9 in that post}, it is essentially useless unless you pretty much know what you want to do and are just looking for last-minute detailed advice.
As for tutorials - they really don't seem to work out for me; again, i can use a tutorial to touch up my knowledge of things i already pretty much know, but they are time-consuming poorly-paced annoyances that take longer and cover stuff i neither want nor need to know in addition to what i MIGHT want to know.
I guess i was spoilt by being a Navy electronics tech and then working as a tech at several companies using test and assembly equipment whose makers supplied detailed and easily-used manuals for it.
I am used to having either hard-copy or PDF support documents that i can sit down with, refer to the index or ToC, find the actual specific knowledge i need without having to wade through extraneous clutter, and synthesise a solution.
If Serif is no longer willing to provide simple, clearly-written documentation that its users can search at their own pace and in their own manner, then i guess it's time - after twenty-plus years - for Serif and myself to part ways.
{I have been observing a tendency in the electronics and computer industry - at least in the general-public-facing parts - to provide less and less detail on use and maintenance of equipment. I built this computer from parts, as i have several others over the years ... and if i HADN'T been building my own computers for years, the "documentation" supplied with the motherboard and semi-modular power supply MIGHT have been sufficient - but i found myself having to fill in things that had been glossed over in the "documentation" that came with things.}
- Uncle Jack and Maudie1942
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This is what i'm talking about - you got it as part of the PPX9 download.
Would it kill Serif to provide similar for Affinity?
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3 hours ago, PaulEC said:
Presumably because it would cost too much money!
How about a PDF "manual"? Wouldn't cost anything beyond the original cost of preparing it and the negligible cost of keeping it available for download, and could be easily and quickly updated as program features change.
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7 hours ago, ellaryk said:
I only do one publication. It's a monthly newsletter. So I create the one for the new month by modifying the one for the previous month, updating those items relevant to the new month and replacing articles from the old month with new ones. So I never create a new publication. And if Affinity Publisher does not yet have all the functionality as PagePlus why would I migrate to it until it does?
I'm sure there are many PagePlus users in the same boat as I. So Serif is losing revenue by not creating an easy migration path.
I bought Affinity Publisher when it was made available - i paid less than i had for my PPX9 upgrade - but i have yet to actually USE it, because it's pretty non-intuitive and it's hard to figure out how to do anything with anywhere the ease i can do them in PPX9.
I really assumed that there'd be some way to migrate my PPX9 files to AffPub, and that it'd be as easy as PP to figure out; i never had to actually read the manual as i moved from one version of PP to another, starting, as i said, with about PP5 {huh - looking back just now at the version-release dates on Wikipedia, i must have started with PP3 or so}; it was intuitive in the extreme.
Granted, i had to use "Help" or the manual occasionally to suss out some little trick, but that was pretty seldom.
AffPub? Not so much.
So it's on the computer, and so long as it's getting updated for free, i'll keep it current ... and someday i may be bored enough to sit down and really work at figuring out how to use it to, pretty much, do what i already know how to do in PPX9.
Or until Serif actually publishes a genuine usable comprehensive manual.
And i shan't be buying any more Affinity products until they do.
As ellaryk said {more or less}, i see no reason to spend money buying a product that almost seems to be deliberately obscure that doesn't seem as if it will really do more for me than the product i already have and thoroughly understand.
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2 hours ago, fde101 said:
I don't think that was ever a Serif product? The link you gave is to a PDF of a PagePlus manual...
Yeah - it was the DTP i used before PP {on an Apple IIgs} - i think my first PagePlus version was about ver 5 - and i had a senior moment there while i was typing.
Oddly enough - before i bought PP5, i had another DTP that i got from a cut-rate software publisher for $5 ... and it was identical to Page Plus.
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Ah and also hah.
I did use a different e-mail for some obscure reason.
Oops.
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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:
It might not be under the same email address as you use for these forums. When the offices are open next week someone from the Serif team will be able to check for you.
OOps. Nevermind. The e-mail i found was for a different order.
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6 hours ago, Alfred said:
As an aside, I hope no software publisher has ever seriously considered releasing a DTP product under the name Publish*t!!
Oh, yeah - it was a program for Apple II, back in the days before Apple turned into the Evil Empire and Jobs oversaw the murder of the IIgs, which was vampirising the sales of his then-money-losing baby, the Mac.
It's still available in a PC version; i don't THINK the hyphen was part of the name WayBackWhen...
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8 hours ago, walt.farrell said:
Where did you purchase Publisher? If from the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store that would not give you an Affinity Store account. And in that case you wouldn't need one until you want to buy something from Serif or take advantage of a free download that might come with Publisher.
If you purchased from either the Microsoft or Mac Stores, and you have any free downloads coming, you should have an offer on the Publisher Welcome screen. Click on the offer, and you'll be taken to the spot to create an account and download the free product.
Pretty sure i bought it from Serif online; i don't use the MS Store
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Well, i suppose that i can just use PagePlus if i want to create HTML pages, i guess.
{Arrgh! i just realised that i referred to PagePlus as PublishIt, the DTP i used before it, in another post.}
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On 4/18/2019 at 7:31 PM, walt.farrell said:
It is unlikely they'll produce a PDF manual. They have had several years to do that for Photo and Designer and haven't done so.
As a long-time Serif PublishIt user {i think i started about Version 5}, used to the sort of documentation Serif used to provide, this is very disappointing to me.
Does anyone have any idea why they do not provide manuals?
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Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but a search doesn't seem to be finding anything relevant.
I thought i had established an Affinity account when i bought Publisher, but apparently not.
How do i?
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If i am unable to directly import my PagePlus documents, i guess PPX9 will be the end of a long association with Serif
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Been using Serif PagePlus a longlong time - v2, maybe?
Since i understand Affinity will be replacing a lot of the current *Plus line, i'm interested.
Where can I get a manual for Publisher?
in Feedback for Affinity Publisher V1 on Desktop
Posted
Publisher looked so good. I bought it as soon as it was available.
I'm still using PPX9