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Ralph

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Posts posted by Ralph

  1. Hi Sean,

    You guys are always so quick that I was beginning to wonder if I'd offended you :)  :)

     

    The sidebar of my copy of 'Emboss01' says "Fill opacity 100%" for both Pencil & Vector Brush tools - back to you :) 

     

    My other (not very well articulated) point is that documents set up using type "Print (Press-Ready)" from the drop down list do not exhibit this effect ('Emboss02').

    Maybe you could look at this too. 

    Thanks

  2. Thanks MEB and Pesala,

     

    Even this mechanism seems to work differently from all the other packages I've used. I don't know if it works this way for everyone, but I have to drag over the TAB bar in the GUI to open two files. Dragging onto the workspace adds the second file to the first (as with PhotoPlus).  

     

    However, my point was that a standard mechanism for opening multiple files doesn't (appear to) work. That is, double click in the Explorer window, as in (say) PhotoPlus.

  3. If I open AD, then open a number of files, each file is shown in its own tab - excellent.

     

    If I select a .afdesign in Explorer, it opens as expected. However, no more files will open.

    Typically I want to open two (or more) files simultaneously from Explorer - I find it easier to use the Explorer interface than application interfaces (not just AD). In AD only the first file selected opens. I have to go into the AD instance and open any further files from inside the app. Since, as others have posted, the folder chosen by AD as its initial search location is not necessarily the last accessed folder (haven't tried to get my head around the logic here yet!) this operation can waste a lot (relative) of time. It certainly adds to the "melting ear wax" syndrome ;)

     

    It would also be nice if all working files could be closed in AD without closing the app. (cf CorelDraw!). 

  4. Paste text works for me, from WordPad, if I have a text caret showing, and I use Paste Special and RTF or Unicode Text. So the basic mechanism works and there is probably some silly bug like trying to paste it as a metafile or something. We'll get it fixed. If it is creating a new text frame, that means it didn't have a text insertion point, and you need to switch to one of the text tools and click in the text where you want the paste to go.

     

    Clipboard contents PASTED into a document always seem to go in as an image. That is, it can't be edited but it can be zoomed. If I create a text frame in advance, complete with blinking insertion point, PASTE ignores it and produces its own frame.

     

    Why would I think of using Paste Special to paste simple text from the clipboard? However, if I do:

     

    [Ctrl][C] from a .doc file then Paste Special > RTF produces paste01.afdesign 

    [Ctrl][C] from a .docx file then Paste Special > RTF produces paste02.afdesign             (There's another thread with comments about this feature, but I don't know how to link to it!)

     

    From WordPad [Ctrl][C] then Paste into Affinity produces - nothing. no import at all;

    Paste Special>RTF produces the same (or similar!!) to paste01.afdesign

    Paste Special>Unicode sort of works - a frame appears on the screen but it does no enclose the text. The text can be edited using the Text tool.

    From Notepad (to the clipboard), it works OK.

     

    If I create an object, convert it to a text frame and make a text insertion point, PASTE creates its own frame elsewhere on the page, Paste Special>RTF works perfectly. With the proviso that if there is too much text for the object it overflows into a rectangular area immediately below the object. It can be edited but not flowed - as we know.

     

    As you say, Dave, the fundamentals are OK but there is/are silly bug(s) screwing up the fine detail.

    So far as the Paste bug is concerned, it might be quite nice to have an option which allows text to be zoomed within its container (!), but you (Serif) would need to document it. 

     

    Hope that's helpful.paste01.afdesignpaste02.afdesign

  5. Our leading is actually pretty sophisticated. We have it as a paragraph attribute, to help ensure leading is consistent over the whole paragraph, but we also have a per-character leading override for the rare occasions that's necessary. In the paragraph panel, you can set leading to an absolute value, or a percentage of the text's pointsize, or a multiple of the "ideal" leading specified by the font designer, or to "at least" an absolute value (where the leading will increase if some text is taller, but won't decrease). It may not work how you are used to (Adobe apps tend to rely on per-character leading override and don't have much at the paragraph level, so most people ignore it, while in Affinity it is key), but if you look into it you should find it is quite capable.

     

     

     That sounds like a bug. This Windows version is a beta so you should expect some teething problems. We'll get them fixed.

     

    You can. Layer > Convert to Text Frame should work on any vector object.

     

    Text avoidance areas, or wrapping frames, will be a feature of the forthcoming Affinity Publisher. Our approach is to offer a suite of programs, each specialised in different areas, that all work together and share a common file format. No one of our programs is trying to be a jack-of-all-trades.

     

    I haven't quite mastered the Multiquote yet, so please forgive this shotgun approach!

    LEADING:

    I had found [Text]>[Paragraph Leading] and was basing my comment on that. Now you have made me look further (!) and I've found it in the Spacing option of the Paragraph panel. It is - excellent! Mea culpa 

    I'm sure a lot of what I see as a bug or missing element is because I can't find it - or it might even be your intention to have it that way. Only by hovering my mouse over a drop arrow did I discover Leading in the Paragraph panel. In fact, most of the cases where I'm having problems Help (F1) doesn't help :)  much -- SO I forgive myself to some degree! Please continue to be patient. As I said in my reply to Mark, I've been around IT for about 50 years, and do understand Beta issues.

    CONVERT TO TEXT FRAME: 

    Very nice - hadn't spotted that. But you can't paste text into it from the clipboard!  That creates a new rectangular frame. If you type more than the frame will hold, it overflows into a rectangle and you can't flow into another frame .........!!! It does, however, provide a optional workaround for the lack of frame wrapping. Possibly fixing the PASTE bug may help some of these anomalies.

    PUBLISHER: 

    I take your point, but I first encountered the features I'm looking for in CorelDraw - a graphics design package. I'm not looking for tables, indexing, table of content, section & page numbering etc. However the border between DTP and Graphics is very blurred as the extent of your text capability (now that I've found it!) demonstrates.

  6. Please don't forget that you are using the first public beta of the product. There are bound to be problems, which we will aim to fix before the official release.

    Understand that, Mark, having cut my IT teeth about 50 years ago with Hollerith cards! It's just that I haven't got anything much involving text to work yet! As I say, I'm going to keep trying and the patient feedback which you guys provide is enormously helpful. Another problem I'm having is distinguishing between my inability to find something (see Dave's reply about leading) and a missing/broken feature. 

  7. I'm empathising with all the issues being found with text manipulation, and am also experiencing the strange behaviour reported by DGillbert. Text handling really is awful, even for a graphics design application!

     

    Like KoBu I've been using CorelDraw since Version 3 and have watched text management progress over the years to something which competes with DTP applications. I rather expected AD to parallel its capabilities albeit at a lesser degree of penetration in each area. "Leading" is a perfect example - AD allows leading but only at a very simple level. This is not what I am seeing.

     

    For example, I have another active post about the Paste command which imports any and all (I think) text blocks as images. To my mind, not only is this bizarre, but it suggests that another application can't be used as a text editor before importing to AD .... but since AD majors on layout (the essence of a vector graphics package), importing a rectangular text box is pretty useless. And why can't I convert an object to a text box? (This would also provide a work around to there being no frame wrap capability, another graphics feature which has even made its way into WORD!).

     

    I don't want to diminish the effort the developers have put into AD, but I'm sorry to say that I am having real problems seeing it as a fully functioning application. I'm going to persevere because when it is good it is very,very good and I'm an optimist. Maybe Affinity Publisher will solve all these problems, but one has to compare the cost of multiple Serif applications against one out-of-date Corel package (Versions X4/5 can be picked up quite cheaply)

  8. Hi Mark,

     

    I could upload a DOCX to Dropbox, but I think the key issue is the way Paste (& Special) work. Do you intend them to treat text blocks as images? And the RTF import for DOC is truly ground-breaking :wacko: Wrote my first program in 1968 and I've never seen anything like it. ;)  Maybe you could consider adding DOC to the supported Affinity formats. 

    Incidentally, sometimes I receive an email to tell me that a reply has been posted. Sometimes not. In this case - NOT. It does add another dimension to keeping track of posts.

  9. The first circle I tried to dome created a perfect shape.

    Ever since I've been unable to do more than lift the edges (like you).

    So I think we're both missing something, but I don't know what! I feel sure it has something to do with the sequence in which we have tried to change the properties of Fill or Stroke and maybe which of the options is being used (Menu or Sidebar etc) to make the change.

    That probably doesn't help a lot, but at least you know you are not alone :)

  10. I copied ([Ctrl][C]) from a WORD document and was given the options of RTF, Unicode, Enhanced Windows Metafile & Windows Metafile. Both the latter are imported as images - as though I was pasting. The file I attached was created in Build1.5.0.4.

    Your questions triggered my brain and I realised that the WORD format was DOC, not DOCX So I tried a DOCX file and the RTF import worked - in Paste Special. The layout was corrupted, but at least I have editable text. Paste is still importing text as an image.

     

    I'd like to upload a DOCX file to see if you get the same result but I'm being told that I am "not permitted to upload this kind of file". I am, however allowed to upload a DOC file !!! :(  :wacko:

  11. Thanks Andy, that answers the question.

    I've been using CorelDraw for over 20 years (which is, of course, a graphic design application) and was hoping/expecting to find similar capabilities.

    I'll wait for Publisher - any idea when??

    HOWEVER, I see I number of people want to create multipage PDFs and would have thought that text flow was an essential.

  12. Before exploring some of the more imaginative parts of Affinity for Windows, I thought I'd play   experiment with an existing WORD file and base my research on results from other software (such as InDesign and CorelDraw). So far I can't find how to:

    • import a WORD file for editing
    • flow text to another frame
    • wrap text around an image
    • create additional pages

    IF: it's all there in a tutorial I apologise - and could I have a link please? 

    ELSE: can anybody help?

     

    In the (extensive) search process so far, I have to say that the app has some awesome features - and should really benefit from the Beta testing :rolleyes:

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