jmwellborn

Your reload has downloaded perfectly. Came in as fireworks-2.assets 33.1 MB. Thank you so much!

@v_kyr These are lovely, but for some reason, the file will not install even with Designer open and running. Have tried several times, including downloading the asset file several times. Wonder what I am doing incorrectly this time.

@carl123 thank you! What a nice Christmas gift for everyone!

@Cazz I do hope your ankle gets better soon — or at least the first painful broken bones bit goes away. I like your first attempt!! I posted my first pass with Designer about 5 minutes after I downloaded the software just before Christmas last year. The forum members were apparently appalled. I thought I was being funny with my creation, but they were obviously unamused. Several hundred people viewed the topic (under Share Your Work: “And Then There Is THIS”). Precisely 2 people evidently got the joke. I predict a vastly different future for you!!! Happy New Year and a swift departure from crutches. Jennifer

There are many extremely professional users who are very generous with their time and knowledge on these forums. I knew quite a lot about publishing, using Pagemaker and InDesign for many years. Then in 2016 I bought Affinity Photo, based on the wonderful tutorials that I vaguely grasped. So just to make it exciting, I also purchased Designer a year ago. It was trial and error, but I plugged along, using about 10% of Photo and Designer capabilities. So when I started with the Betas in Publisher, I was still worse than the village idiot regarding the Affinity interface. Publisher was the easiest to learn, once I had the User Interface figured out, because writing is my thing. As for photographs and vector stuff - oh my!! Yes, there is a learning curve but I have discovered — at least in my case — that browsing through the Forums is a wonderful way to learn intricate “How To’s.” The trick is to see who is doing the explaining by looking for the avatars of people who are consistently helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and invariably patient and courteous. The Forum section on Tutorials is also a good place to browse. These are all free, and by using the pause button, it is perfectly possible to stop and start, jotting down steps along the way, until the tutorial is concluded. Personally, I have made my own “HOW TO’s . .” based on many of these tutorials and from answers to questions posted in the forums. The Affinity team are also really helpful, and always ready to help out. We are all beginners at something or other at some time or other. The trick is to have help as we jump into the deep end of the pool. There are so many lifeguards to help in these forums. Perhaps a daily scan of topics would give you more familiarity with the apps. And when you post a topic, don’t be afraid to enter something like “Can’t find my tool bar,” or “Confused about Blend Ranges,” or “How do I Import Assets.” There surely isn’t anybody on the Forums who — once upon a time — didn’t know how to do something either. Most importantly, the members of the Affinity team treat everybody on these Forums like people, rather than like VISA receipts. And only once in a blue moon is there a customer on the Forums who is holier than thou. So Ask Away! If I can learn them (and I am a Very Old Bat) you will find yourself up to speed in no time flat!! Newbies become Old Hands. Merry Christmas!

Couldn't resist this. At my advanced age, laughter is definitely the best medicine.

I just put “Catalina” in the Search box for these forums. Several entries. Personally, I don’t see any reason to gum up my iMac with it.

@William Cartwright Use @GarryP‘s solution. It is the correct one. I have done several books now with hundreds of images with captions, using this method. Works perfectly. Be sure that before grouping, the caption’s text frame is the same horizontal width as the image’s frame. Merry Christmas!

@Don Lee Perfectly beautiful!

@el-bo if you have enough time to learn the basics of Publisher before you start your project, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t just use it! For years I used Pagemaker and then InDesign to write books, and at no time did I fiddle with a “word processor” for anything. Publisher has spell-check too. Why not just do your writing, saving regularly as you go along, and then after you have proof-read your work, work on type styles, formatting, and text flow around any potential images. You can always create the design in a new file, and then FILE>PLACE what you have written and saved in your original document. I predict that you will really like Publisher, once you start!!

That little girl is even more charming wrapped in her fur and scarf. Her quality of serenity and stillness is phenomenal. What a beautiful photograph, @v_kyr!!

I rather suspect that the vast majority of us are not suffering at all and assuredly feel that since it is their software, the Affinity people have a perfect right to design it the way they choose. “Persist in knowing better” with “basic stupid decisions” is not a very nice way to solve your issue, even should Affinity decide to do it. (Which I strongly hope they do not!) Why not just use @Old Bruce‘s solution above, and leave the rest of us to adjust our leading to our hearts’ content? Just a thought. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas @MEB! I would suspect that there must be thousands of us who would be really happy campers if this suggestion could be implemented.

@v_kyr Lovely! Thank you so much. And for the beautiful child, now gazing from the envelope.

Er muss nur der maus zum Thema Dezember Challenge Festivalfieber im Share Your Work Forum folgen. (Mitt freundlicher genehmigung von deepl.com). Frohe Weihnachten!!

That little fellow needs to find his way into the December Challenge topic as well. Charming.

It would seem to me that the VTI heading would need to include the fact that the postings were created by users, not Serif employees. Otherwise Serif might occasionally be put on the spot for something they hadn’t intended. Could create unfortunate situations if not everyone searching for a solution turned out to be a gentleman or a lady.

How wonderful! And how well-deserved!! And how fortunate we are to have such an incredible group as the Affinities, creating this masterpiece. The award is a splendid Christmas gift to you all for having created for everybody else the gift of StudioLink. Smooth as silk and a delight to use! Onward and upward. Or as Santa put it: “Up, up and away!!”

Et moi aussi. Mais y compris Photo et Publisher. Tout un délice. Comme le sont vos coeurs. (Thanks to deepl.com!)

@v_kyr I am so glad you were kind enough to include your beautiful designs again here! A few weeks ago I posted a comment about your glorious Christmas trees (which I spotted last year), purposely hoping that new forum members would see it and discover your spectacular work. Here is the perfect spot!! I am in such awe of your genius. And so grateful for your generosity. Happy Saint Nicholas Day to you -- 5 days early!!

If you have not done it already, you might try using the lighter user interface. For many people -- especially those who are older -- the dark interface is really hard on the eyes, and quite difficult to read the printed assistance. Adjusting the three sliders to suit your own preferences might really help.

Perhaps these forum postings will help. I am not at my desktop right now, so haven’t tried them out. Hope so!

Welcome aboard! So glad your Christmas came early!! Be sure to browse through the Resources part of these forums. You will find all kinds of Styles, Brushes, and Assets kindly offered by Forum members that you can download and install for your use. Regarding changing your avatar, if you will look in the SEARCH box at the top of the Forums page, and type in "New Profile Pic" you will find several good answers plus a link supplied by Patrick Connor. Hope this helps.

@Multi4G These are really fun! And so much easier than fiddling with Effects, Motion Blur, Gaussian Blur, etc. and a gazillion layers!! What a lovely winter surprise! With your Pro Pack freshly downloaded, it is currently snowing all over some fall scenery around here! B'r'r'r'r'r!!

How can anything improve a Japanese Maple in the fall? A judicious crop and straighten, plus a slight Curves Adjustment. And a veto at trying to inpaint out the water puddle. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!