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Ralph

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Posts posted by Ralph

  1. Yes Walt. I know all that, but I do expect to find that the developers have conducted some "due diligence".

    Even if PP was never looked at, if the developers think to include "Fit Frame to Text", "Fit Text to Frame" is an obvious corollary, unrelated to any other application. Though the fact that it is standard in both Quark & InDesign would make it (for me) an obvious function to include. There are other functions which are mysteriously missing (such as importing WORD - another thread I'm following) 

    Don't get me wrong, I think there is some ground-breaking material in Apub - I just wish it had been built on a foundation laid by its predecessors.

    Hey Ho - I'm putting Apub back in its box:33_unamused:

    All the best to everybody

  2. Hi Walt - knew you would be the first responder :)

    Yes, you are absolutely right. It is available in PPX9 and it makes life very easy when producing newsletters. Make a frame to fit the space, add text, then right click & <Size Text> to choose the option.

    Voila, the text is now resized to two places of decimals to exactly flll the space available. I am currently trying to build in PP and Publisher in parallel, 'fitted' in PP with a change in font size from 10pt to 10.06pt (!!) and then ran into trouble with Publisher.  There are LOTS of variations available in PPX9 - far more than in INDD.

    I guess if you don't know about it, it doesn't exist - but I can't see why/how that could happen if "fit frame to text" (of limited value, I find) does exist.

  3. In the same vein, there's a host of minor, but really useful UI which appear to be abandoned in AfP :-

    • Is there no Windows Quick Access Toolbar?  - Preview, PDF, Print, UnDo, ReDo, Save, New, Open …  Where do I get to customise my Windows Quick Access Toolbar?
    • The AfP Quick Access Toolbar seems to be patchy  and partially repeated on the Tool Context Menu.
    • Saving and holding defaults (as per embedded/Linked) need to work consistently 
    • Preflight & Packaging (as Mandu says)
    • Shape tool icon consistency (square & rounded rectangles get their own icon, all the rest (OK - except ellipse) are subsumed into one.
    • Frame wrap function appears with differing functionality in different places.
      • Text wrap is confused (sic! - and confusing), 2 occurrences (Menu, Icon) with different functionality. Does not exist in Context Menu.
      • What on EARTH is "Ignore text offset" all about !O.o Apart from the fact it generates lots of mouse clicks.
      • To wrap a text frame around a text frame, both have to have Wrap conditions applied.
      • Outside offset easy to apply. I'm still looking for internal offset -and how to apply line/stroke to border. I'd expect them to all be in the same place.
      • frame wrap does not appear to exist - but put a frame around text and it can be applied using "Text wrap".   

    I hope the designers have just left this lot, and other similar 'simple' functions till late in the development because they know how to implement them and are concentrating on all the stuff which is innovative in a DTP.

    This probably needs moving to a different thread ??

  4. Thanks Walt. That's worked -it's the exact opposite to the way I would instinctively do it! All I need now is a way of making the "Linked" preset, the default. That is, when I hit [Ctrl][N] the popup says "Linked" in the Page Preset text box.

    Walt???

     I keep finding that Serif have new, and usually very good, ways of doing things but I can't find out from the Help files, what they are. Thanks you to all forum respondents who help those of us who have had the Microsoft thought processes embedded in their minds since the 1980's:)

  5. Yes - I did all that before raising the post. Unfortunately I can't find anything which either allows me to name a new preset (each new one appears as Unnamedx) and no means of saving the settings. I can change the name - and in the process, <Linked>  miraculously converts itself to <Embedded>. 

    I see you are on Apple. Maybe it's not just my lack of brainpower but a bug in the Windows version.

  6. All the time, I find I need a new way of thinking to discover how Serif do it:) Once I have adjusted, it's really very good! So I guess 'Presets' is the way to create what I call a 'template' in other packages. That sounds imaginative, but I have to add that PPX9 is great in its treatment of templates: - "if it ain't broke ….."

    My problem now is finding out how to create a Named Preset - and save it ??? <Help> isn't helping a lot.

  7. Hi Walt,

    That's my point - maybe not made as clearly as I ought :) 

    If I tick the "Portrait" box any future documents default to - portrait. I anticipated image placement (link/embed) to work in the same way - if I set it to "linked" then the next document will open "linked" It came as a surprise when that didn't happen; after all we expect it to be available for text styles (and other parameters I can't think of at the moment!)

    I am asking the developers if the feature could be incorporated. 

  8. Thanks Dave,

    … but why is one part of the key command sequence [Defaults] in a list at upper left when the other part [Save Styles as Default] in a 'hidden' list on the right of the real estateO.o 

    That's a rhetorical question! But it is frustrating to find that the Serif Way of 'hiding' access to some really important/powerful functions continues past the xxxPlus products;)

    Thanks again - keep up the good work, it is a great product.

  9. I have the same problem as 'hhauten' - I think!

    I want my text boxes in new documents to open with my favourite text style. It seems that to do that I have to change [No Style] into [My Base Style]. Picking up on Dave & Old Bruce's suggestions, I changed [Base] to be [My Base Style]. The next time I opened APu the [No Style] was …. exactly as before:). I found the "Save Styles as Default" option, changed [No Styles] in a text box, changed [Base], even saved the document I was using as my base. The next time I opened APu the [No Style] was …. exactly as before:).

    I must be missing something …… because I can do it in PagePlus and other DTP packages.

    I'm thinking ADe has the same issues??

  10. Quote

    Some while ago I started to use Pageplus in preference to WORD in the sure and certain expectation that, when APu came along, the one file format it would be able to import would be PPP. PLEASE asap for all of the formats requested in this thread. I like what I'm seeing in APu, and it seems to do an awful lot of really clever things really well - but at the expense of the basic stuff.

    Speaking of which - how do I reset the default [No Style] style which populates the opening text boxes? I know, I need to put that query somewhere else, but this seems to be the right population of readers!

     

  11. I'm told that in Windows AD, when an object is converted to a text frame, Fill & Stroke properties are discarded. To place text in a converted object with Stroke & Fill properties it is necessary to copy the object before conversion. Not a major issue, but it would be nice if the properties were maintained with zero Stroke width and no  Fill being special cases (just as 0 (zero) is a special case on the arithmetic scale (... -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 ...) )

  12. In CorelDraw I can import a bitmap (say a JPG logo which has been copied so many times that it is long past the scruffy stage) and TRACE it. This function finds the edges and creates objects from them. It approximates the colours of fills and the end result is a vector graphic which can be edited back to its original condition. Also very useful for creating vector graphics from scanned drawings. 


    This feature is essential for more than half the vector graphics I create. Please put it on your ToDo list. 


     


     


  13. In CorelDraw I can import a bitmap (say a JPG logo which has been copied so many times that it is long past the scruffy stage) and TRACE it. This function finds the edges and creates objects from them. It approximates the colours of fills and the end result is a vector graphic which can be edited back to its original condition. Also very useful for creating vector graphics from scanned drawings. 

    Does AD have anything like this?  - I can't see any references in the Help system (which has a lovely UI!)

     

    Which reminds me that I can't find any import options from Twain or WIA sources.

    Does AD have anything like this?    - I can't see any references in the Help system (which has a lovely UI!)

     
  14. I'm sure this didn't happen in Build 1.5.0.4

    1. Create object and close
    2. Add coloured Fill and create wide & coloured Stroke.
    3. Convert to Text Frame - Fill & Stroke disappear

    My recollection from earlier builds was that the Fill & Stroke remained as set.

    Apologies if I'm wrong, and how do I retain the object properties?

     

    [in the draft the steps have bullets! - they have disappeared in the Post!]

    ConvertToTextFrame.afdesign

  15. Gotcha!

    I was looking at the wrong 'Fill opacity' data - the 'Effects' tab. I understand the thinking now. I hope the tutorials will explain it well when they are written - it's a very imaginative feature but not something I would ever find without direction.

    On 'Emboss02' the Colour opacity is set to 100%. Reducing the opacity creates the same effect so AD is working entirely consistently.

    Thanks again. 

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