PatrickOfLondon
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Posts posted by PatrickOfLondon
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46 minutes ago, MJWHM said:
... nothing I have tried yet has come near to matching the quality, effectiveness and ease of PagePlus.
I just have to say, whenever I read someone praising PagePlus like this, I just have to echo the sentiment. Affinity Publisher still cannot match it for the three characteristics you mentioned.
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Likewise. I can understand why Serif / Affinity discontinued Page Plus X9 while they were hoping that Affinity Publisher would replace it in the market, but as AP still has not done so in certain functional areas, why not offer PP X9 as an old and unsupported but still viable alternative for certain types of user. When it became a legacy product it was on sale for about £20. Sell it at the same price as Affinity Publisher if you are fearful of taking too much away from Affinity Publisher sales — but at least offer it, while it still does the things that Affinity Publisher cannot do.
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2 hours ago, MJWHM said:
While PagePlus functions, Affinity is an over-complicated and inadequate alternative for me. There is little to encourage me to struggle with its interface which I find is not intuitive. Maybe others are not in the same position, but that is where I am.
Exactly the same place as me. Having tried to get to grips with Affinity Publisher, I have returned to and remained with PagePlus for the very reasons you eloquently describe.
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38 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:
L ’arbre de l ’abricot ou de l ’oranger d ’Espagne est l ’or de l ’hiver
Pyanepsion, I am sure you must have reported this as a bug in the appropriate place.
It's a very unacceptable "feature".
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Sadly, I can readily empathise with those sentiments, particularly about intuitiveness, and the subtle difference between (a) how a user might think of approaching something, and (b) how software might make it possible to achieve it, if indeed it does at all. Everyone has his or her own individual experience and expectations of using software. For some people, no doubt Affinity Publisher meets their needs excellently. My own experience echoes MJWHM’s.
In my case, wanting to produce relatively uncomplicated documents, I came to Serif PagePlus, around 10 years ago, from Microsoft Publisher. In making that transition, I found the learning curve very steep and arduous, but in the end, it was worth it, because I found PagePlus so much richer in features and fine control over layout; and once you got used to it, it did feel reasonably intuitive.
So it was that I came to Affinity Publisher from PagePlus. I wish I could say the same things about my experience of that transition, but regrettably, I can’t.
I had expected a gentler and more gradual learning curve because the products were from the same company. But it has been neither particularly gentle nor particularly gradual, and much of the time it doesn’t seem worth continuing down the path, because to me, it seems so much more difficult or time-consuming to achieve what I want to do than it is in PagePlus.
I bought all three Affinity products because I wanted – and still want – to support a small, ambitious, innovative, British company, and also (of course) because I like the price and the purchase model, rather than a subscription model.
Affinity Photo is something I use frequently: I find it good value and effective, even if sometimes lacking something in intuitiveness. But for publications, I always still turn to PagePlus, and leave Affinity Publisher alone, gathering electronic dust. I do appreciate that this is a case of sticking to what you know rather than moving to a new place; but change can be good, if it makes life better. However, attempting to make the move from the predecessor to the newcomer doesn’t feel worthwhile, to me, for my purposes; not yet, anyway, and surely not for as long as footnotes and endnotes are missing.
How one fixes “intuitiveness” is an elusive concept, especially at this stage of the product’s development. But one continues to hope that fixing footnotes and endnotes, by making them available, might not be too far down the road, now.
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1 hour ago, MJWHM said:
Thank you for a simple, cogent and powerful post. I continue to avoid using AP because of this, especially since the ancient fore-runner was capable of doing it a decade ago. PagePlus still remains my go-to program for all sorts of functions, including PDF editing.
" PagePlus still remains my go-to program for all sorts of functions..."
I couldn't agree more..
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I regard this thread as a platform that was established for people to record their surprise and discontent with the omission from Affinity Publisher of footnote and endnote features, and to ask whether they would be included eventually.
That degree of surprise and discontent, and that question, has already been registered many times by various contributors to the thread, and Serif / Affinity have responded by indicating that they are well aware of these sentiments, and that they will in due course be including the features in the product.
With that in mind, to me it is nugatory to keep on making the same fundamental point — "the product doesn't have these features, and we wish it did" — over and over again, from however many different angles.
I don't view the thread as a platform for parading my personality, or making personalised accusations about people "hiding behind other people's backs", or "suggesting some kind of censorship", or "dodging the question", or for creating the basis of "a coffee table book". For those who may wish so to use the thread, I will leave it to them to use their time in that way.
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I didn't infer any insinuation of "censorship" in garretm30's observations. I read them as merely a gently humorous reminder that the absence of the features in question, footnotes and endnotes, is already well known and well debated in this forum, so that continually making the same point in different ways becomes an arguably futile activity.
We all want Affinity Publisher to have the widest possible collection of features (and many of us continue to wish, currently in vain, that it could at least match the full set of features that PagePlus provided). We know, because Serif / Affinity have already told us on more than one occasion, that footnotes and endnotes will come along eventually. My present estimation is that "eventually" means in version 2.x.
Until then, when I need footnotes and endnotes, I will use a different product.
- garrettm30 and PaulEC
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43 minutes ago, Ralph said:
... and to be boringly repetitive, the Serif package (PagePlus) that Affinity Publisher has replaced (for the benefit of Newbies!!), does it all extremely well.
Yes, what a shame it can't still be bought from Serif (as it could until October 2019) as a low-cost, unsupported legacy product, by those for whom -- despite its "legacy" nature -- it would provide the functionality they need.
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5 hours ago, PaoloT said:
This is a test I really had to do. It's just the default settings of both applications involved in this test. Would a bunch of expert users like us be able to tell which one is the layout program, and which one the modern wordprocessor?
Purely to extend the comparison...
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Courier New and Times New Roman — I think.......
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garrettm30, thank you for this, reminding everyone that Serif / Affinity are already very well aware of the need for these features, and are going to introduce them, when they are confident that they are ready.
I had wanted to post the same point here yesterday, but couldn't find it — after having searched in vain for the phrase, as I mistakenly recalled it, "it will be worth the wait".- garrettm30 and IAmMatt
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On 7/2/2019 at 11:16 AM, Callum said:
If you go to View Customise Tools you will see the option to increase the number of columns towards the bottom of the window that appears.
Thanks, Callum.
But (note to Serif/Affinity).....
why on earth isn't this under
Edit > Preferences... > Tools,
instead of
View > Customise Tools ?Why not have them both in the same logical place ?
Thanks for the generally fine product, though.
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1 hour ago, MJWHM said:
Perhaps this is the answer. If Serif were to resurrect the availabiity of PagePlus X9, which is presumably simply making it available again to buy, that would answer the immediate need. It could be sold with the caveat that official support is unavailable, but that there is a user base of expertise which may help.
It would show goodwill, and provide a first-class DTP. I have (yet again) today been recomending PagePlus yet again, but without a clear idea of where the individual may find a copy.
Sudden feeling of déjà vu.....
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43 minutes ago, MJWHM said:
... I have just published my latest 350-page book using Serif PagePlus, which was put out to pasture far earlier than it should have been, and frankly knocks spots off the young pretender. I have been a longterm user of PagePlus, and still find it does things I had not realized were available. It is a truly world-class program. ...
100% agreed — and reminiscent of over a year ago...
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Pyanepsion,
Well said.
Of course, Affinity Publisher is still a relatively young product; no doubt the features many people want will be added over the years. But in a product that purports to be a professional publishing package, some of these features have been a long time coming.
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2 hours ago, adrm said:
After a lot of deliberation (and a wish to use APub), in the end I decided to use PagePlus X9 for my book in February. My gut feeling was that APub 'isn't quite there yet'.
Hmm, reminds me of an older chapter....
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It is still good value at the price, and is available on a free trial basis for a while — why not give it a try for free and see whether it meets your needs.
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Hi Pyanepsion,
Just as an aside -- noting, in passing, and with some embarrassment, as an Englishman, your comments on the French translations in Affinity Publisher:
-- I'm sure you will already have reported this to Affinity, using an appropriate forum thread (and I acknowledge this is not the appropriate one), but if not it might be worth adding to the list: isn't that yet another mistake on the French Texte menu shown in your screenshot....
...shouldn't "Interlignagede paragraphe" be "Interlignage de paragraphe" ?
This is probably not at the top of your list, but the journey towards perfection is a long one.....
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Hi Gabe,
Does that mean that you were able to reproduce this behaviour?
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Michail, thank you for looking at this.
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Confirmed here.
Footnotes/Endnotes
in Feedback for Affinity Publisher V1 on Desktop
Posted
Your point is well made and well understood.
But at least the modern motorcycle still has a braking system, just like the old bicycle did – and probably an even more effective one...
it hasn't completely thrown away its braking system, in the process of becoming "new".
Anyway, that's enough moaning from a nostalgic PPX9 user. Let's hope November 9th brings enough benefits and features to keep (most) people happy.
☺️