Bad_Wolf

Thank you Alfred, you are a very sharp reader. To be honest, I did not notice it at all. But yes, it does what Affinity does for Android. You are very good with words, so I am sure you are a talented writer. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Chris

Hi again, Just found out when reading other threads on the Affinity forum, they will never plan an Android version like I will never buy any Apple device. However I have to draw on my Android based tablet and do not like to use any Adobe software too. So I looked for a replacement so I can finallise my sketches on the tablet in Affinity Designer for Windows. I installed "Infinite Design" which is free with the possibility to purchase additional content (which I did). I am still learning this nice app, but it looks a very promising alternative to Affinity Designer on Android. So if you are in the same situation like myself, try Infinite Design. I am sure you will not be disappointed. Chris

This is not possible in any of the Affinity programs... yet. What I do is saving the empty file with the styles, formatting, colors and then open it again and use "Save as..." so not changing the original file. I know it is not optimal but works for me.

Hi, There is affinity Designer for iOS. It should be nice if there will also be an Affinity Designer for Android. Any plans for creating an Affinity Designer for Android? Thank you. Chris

If I remember correctly someone of Affinity mentioned that e-publishing is not a target of Affinity Publisher. If you want to create ebooks for all the platforms you mentioned, go for Jutoh. Jutoh is relatively easy to learn and very powerful and precise. I tried many ebook creation softwares including Scrivener and none of them get close to Jutoh. I am using mainly Jutoh and sometimes Kotobee Author (for true interactive ebooks because it is easier in that category). With traditional desktop publishing, layout is very important. With ebooks it is just the opposite, mostly the reader controls the layout and the ebook reflows accordingly. For example, a font in an ebook can be choosen by the reader as also the fontsize. So your beautiful crafted ebook with fancy looking fonts, can easily gets lost because a reader choose another font. Or are you going to put a message at the start section of the ebook, please don't change the font, mine is better? Something else I do not understand, is that and correct me when I am wrong, you want to use the same layout for DTP in an ebook. I assume here you want to publish a paper and electronic version of your publication. For the reasons above, that is simply not possible and practical. Chris

If you rather prefer to put your fate at Microsoft instead of Affinity, go ahead. If you want to use bloated software based on a decades old codebase; it is your decision. I know why I am choosing for the whole Affinity range for sure. When you compare Microsoft Office 365 then you have to admit that Affinity is cheap. Most updates of the Affinity range where free. If you already have Designer and your DTP needs are not so demanding, you better use Designer. I used it to create one or two page documents and it works fine. Also Affinity Publisher has a more comprehensive toolset for images and drawing than MS Publisher. As you said yourself, you are doing minor skilled publishing work. Why not keep your old publications in PagePlus and do any new work in Affinity Publisher? On this moment it is in beta stage but I have the feeling Affinity Publisher is on the right track. Give Affinity Publisher a chance, download and try the beta. Only then you can make the right decision.

@Martin Hutter Affinity has to move forward not backward. You are using PageMaker 7 which is now a decade old but is an excellent tool even today. Since 2008 the DTP market changed dramatically which makes it hard to keep up. Because I started DTP in 1991 with Quark Xpress, I also keep comparing with Quark. This is only human I think. However we all need to evolve to the latest innovations and keep up. Despite there is nothing wrong with working with PageMaker 7, it means basically standing still while the world around you moves fast. I myself are using RagTime, a document processor since 1994. I can still remember that when I started with RagTime (the company I started working for used RagTime), there was nothing good with it. Quark was so much better. However I kept hanging on and succeeded in creating great documents with it. Even today, I am still using Ragtime together with Affinity Designer and Photo and soon Publisher. RagTime is still unique in its own right but it is aging fast, the same with PageMaker 7. We both have to adapt to new ways of working and our experiences builded up during the years will help us with that. Does that mean we have to give up the softwares we know best? Probably over time, but for now, we can just keep using them for projects we believe they are best or better. That also means the change is less abrupt and we can adapt more easily. Since the end of Augustus when Publisher beta became available, I am learning to master it. I know Designer (Photo lesser) and find my way around it. When used to Designer, it is much easier to find your way in Publisher. If you have difficulty with Publisher, maybe it is easier to start with Designer. What is keeping you from sharing your insights in DTP here on this forum? It is always interesting reading about how other people do their work or learning about different insights.You can specify what you liked in PageMaker and how it could help Affinity Publisher. It is possible the Affinity development team pick some things up they find usefull, who knows? You will also receive feedback on your ideas from other people, which is invaluable. I wish you very much success and fun exploring Affinity Publisher. Chris

@Paul Martin Thank you for your reply. Remember that Affinity Publisher is still in beta mode. Therefore things can workout not as expected. I think before sending anything to a printer for production, that you wait at least until Publisher is in the final release state. If you intend to sent your PDF file to a printer, I think it is best to check the PDF file in another PDF reader like Nitro or Adobe Reader. Be very carefull when checking the generated PDF. Do not check it only on screen but also print it with an office laser printer. It is no guarantee that everything is correct for printing but you add an extra safety net where you can catch possible errors. LIke you, I am very much interested in Desktop Publishing. In 1990 I followed evening classes typesetting on an Agfa MCS 100 system. I was very good at it and used it with very much pleasure. Then in 1991 I bought Quark Xpress 3.0 which I preferred above PageMaker because of the frames. I upgraded to version 3.1 and used that until somewhere around 1995, the year my Mac SE died. For what I do, Quark Xpress is too expensive and the subscription model of Adobe does not work for me. When in Botswana, I only have very poor internet. I am also using Affinity Designer since it became available for Windows together with Photo. I like what I see in Publisher very much. They are not so bloated as Adobe's applications and the Affinity codebase is new, the one of Adobe is decades old which is showing. I am sure there are still functionality missing in all three Affinity applications, however within a few years, Affinity will soon catch up with Indesign - Photoshop - Illustrator and Quark Xpress. Something to look out for. chris

@MikeW Thank you Mike for your fast reply and your explanation. It is from the mid-nineties I made such documents and my knowledge about the subject is not up-to-date. However, I intend to take up this activity again in Botswana (printing in Botswana but creating from my laptop). The last version of FreeHand I used was 3.1 and Quark Xpress also 3.1. Both had the overprint function. I was looking to Publisher and Designer but neither of them has this function or I cannot find it. When I am in Botswana at the end of the year, I will ask printshops in Gaborone if "overprint" will be done automatically, so I don't need to care about it. After being busy with Publisher, I realise I have to learn much to up-date my knowledge about Desktop Publishing. I liked it in the early nineties and now I take it back up. @padura Like you, I follow this subject with very much interest. Thank you. Chris

Hi all, Imagine a four color printing press which has 4 plates for the colors magenta, cyan, yellow and black. Because of some tolerance differencies between the colors there will be a small gap between adjacent colors possible. To avoid this small gap, I used "overprint" in the past (early nineties) with applications like Freehand and Quark Xpress for the outline of a shape or text. I do not know if I make myself clear. Therefore an example here : I have a yellow square in the CMYK color format. I place a magenta circle over it in the same color format. Now theoretically when it finally prints in the printing press, I have a yellow square with on top a magenta circle. However, when I leave the drawing like this because of some inaccuracies of the press there will likely be a small gap visible on the outline where the two colors meet each other. What I did in the past was give the line a 0.5 to 0.8 thickness and selected "Overprint". This mean there will be a color overlap of 0.5 to 0.8 from the top object (in this case the circle) over the bottom object (the square). How can this be done in Affinity Publisher? Thank you very much for your input. Chris

True, it is called a "Tooltip", however that is not an answer to the question. I tried it myself and found out that for most tools the mousepointer does not block the tooltip. However, move the mouse pointer slightly will let you see the tooltip.

You have to wait until the 1.7 versions of Photo and Designer are available to use these functions, if I understand correctly. However, on this moment these functions are not working. Be patient, they will come. Chris

+1 for the presentation mode. I agree, Affinity Publisher is great, even in beta. Keep up the good work!

Thank you Patrick, that worked. However, you are right, there must be a better way to do this.

Patrick, I agree with you. I experimented for some time with the method I suggested and it is simply impossible to get good results with that workaround. When I have a problem or something which doesn't work as expected, in whatever application, I always look for a way around the problem. At the end of the day, I have to make the job done. My suggestion didn't work out and I admit that. Also for myself as also for Serif, a PagePlus importer/convertor is not on my list too. In this case, it seems a feedback loop we are in. People looking to their problem as if it is not solvable without importer/convertor. I am sure when they invest the same effort to find a workaround as the energy they waste by complaining here, somebody will come up with a way that works. The first limitation on this moment is that Publisher doesn't have templates. A template is an empty framework of a publications on which you can built many other publications. I know it is not the same but lets say creating an empty Publisher document containing all the necessary styles and base objects could be a good start. Later when Publisher supports templates, we can convert that empty document into a template. When I have long text, I always write that in a wordprocessor. Personally I am using Atlantis Wordprocessor for that which is an excellent tool for writing long texts. So when the framework of the book is completed, at least you can import the text and format it. I know this all is a lot of work, but it has the advantage that your book or publication is completely ready for the future. Even if there was an PagePlus importer/convertor, still there should be quirks left over. Even when I import my docx documents from Atlantis to Jutoh, there are things which are not going well. It is also said over and over again, that PagePlus will not stop working overnight. So if someone really wants to remain using PagePlus, keep with Windows 7 or the present Windows 10 and do not update. In this way, you can remain using PagePlus for years to come. Chris