mccluredave1
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Posts posted by mccluredave1
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On 4/5/2020 at 8:09 AM, noeaze said:
Hi,
Tried looking into the forums and I don't think I'm finding what I need.
What I want to do: export a PDF file with buttons where if you click, it plays a short audio file.
What I have tried: Right click on an object, go to "Interactive", then click on "Insert Hyperlink...". Then, choose choose "File" as the "Hyperlink Type", and put a check for "Include File for Export". Finally, I choose path of file.
When I export the PDF, this does not seem to work. The expected behavior of any interactive PDF would be to simply play the file. However, my PDF from Affinity Publisher 1. attempts to open a link on my browser, 2. the url in my browser is roughly the local address to the file I've chosen.
If anyone could help me with which buttons I'm supposed to click, that'd be awesome
Howdy!
This is for V 1.9 of publisher. I have always wanted Apub to have some multimedia capabilities like Acrobat or Mac Pages. It is the future. Serif is orientated to print and DTP. Oh well, they are still a great company. Hyperlinks will link to audio or video files via Url, but this requires internet access. My goal is for standalone PDF document or folder that plays video or audio without internet access, for example in the middle of nowhere you might want to read a book on a device with video etc. Well.... maybe this will work:
1) Link to an audio or video "File" on your local hard drive using Hyperlink function in Apub.
2) When you export PDF check the box that says "Include file on export". This automatically creates a copy of audio or video file and places it in same folder as PDF. Open exported PDF in PDF reader and click on link (I use Foxit Reader). It opens the video or audio file locally in your default browser automatically. If the browser is not open it will open automatically. This can all be done without internet. I have experimented by putting exported PDF and Video/Audio in another folder ( and it seems to work. This means that the video/audio file address is a relative location to the browser and should be in same folder as PDF export.
Other people trying to access multimedia in a PDF export with Apub without internet please chime in. I have not tried moving folder (PDF and linked Audio/Video) to iPad or a device yet. This is not the same as an embed (Pages or Acrobat) but it appears to be functional non internet approach just so long as audio/video is included with PDF in same folder. I have not tested this thoroughly on Mac or any other device.
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7 hours ago, Poziomka said:
Hi
I agree with mccluredave1.
ePub fixed format would be very helpful. Embedding audio or video in pdf requires a flash player to play and does not work on tablets (and desktop without FlashPlayer). Free iBooks Author generates publications only for Apple (iBooks), and what about PC? ePub floable can be done by converted from many formats using Clalibre .
It is harder with a fixed layout, I am voting for fixed layout!
Thanks Poziomka! Nice to see someone "Get's It"!
Anyone that has used ePUB format knows that it has a flowable format and a fixed format, built in. Take your pick for your application. The fixed format (fixed page numbers) is the ONLY viable format for textbooks with lots of diagrams, sound, animation.video capabilities (with manageable small file size). It is also "open Source" and uses HTML5 for video instead of Flash player. PDF and Flash are proprietary Abobe. ePUB can be used in most Browsers as a reader as well because it uses HTML5. PLEASE STOP USING PROPRIETARY ADOBE PRODUCTS and other proprietary formats for electronic books. Use cross platform "open source" ePUB as the choice eReader format! No doubt, electronic books should be open source so the author can sell anywhere! Stop giving your intellectual property "rights" away to these huge companies, unless of course you choose to do that. ePUB gives you a choice!
No college student is going to read their textbook on a phone or small device (altho it is possible with zooming).. They will use an iPad or Android device min 11" probably or desktop/laptop. The fixed, 2 column "landscape" is perfect and my choice format for textbooks as it allows reading a 11-13" device in "landscape' orientation instead of portrait. Fixed Portrait is possible with ePUB but landscape is less cumbersome as most people use device in landscape mode.
Thanks... Authors... please comment! Hopefully Serif will use ePUB and make it "better", but still leave it "open source".
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3 hours ago, fde101 said:
Not quite what I was thinking.
The "story" persona I was thinking of would present an existing story (existing text box on a layout) as if the entire page were gone but there were a scrollable text box containing the entire story matching the width of the window's content area, with the content wrapped to fit that text box. No tools (it would be as if locked into the text tool), only the relevant studio panels available (and all hidden by default in that persona), just the main toolbar to switch back to the other persona and the context toolbar showing text properties. Inline objects would be there; anchors could be there but the actual anchored objects would not.
Creating a story without a layout being present is really the domain of a separate program. Given that Publisher supports RTF, on the Mac I would suggest Nisus Writer Pro or something along those lines, since it is a relatively lightweight word processor that handles RTF files natively. On Windoze you might use WordPad or something like that (is that even still around?) No need for Serif to re-invent the wheel for this particular use case when there are already good options available.
No offense, disagree a bit. The whole concept of personas is the convenience of staying inside the main app. Imagine having a "SIMPLE" WP (with one big limitless page) Persona in AP and having your whole book text formatted and styled, spell checked, grammar checked. Then cut and paste to your page layout "template" the sections/chapters as needed, Linking, unlinking, adding text wrapped images etc and not have to worry about losing written content because if I make a mistake I can go get the written content again in the WP persona. I absolutely do not need to "keep up" or learn another bloated external word processor which entails the hassle of restyling when added to AP...Even if it is free, no thanks.
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Thanks for the reply. Yes fluid works better on many different devices and the text can be resized etc. The problem with fluid EPUB is when they are used for textbooks with lots of diagrams, the diagrams, pictures, etc sometimes end up on different pages and they don't scale /zoom well, if at all. I have tried it for what I want to do in MAC Pages and fluid format looks pretty bad. Textbooks need stationary page numbers for reference (homework) and images that can be, text wrapped, zoomed in without jaggies, text over semi-transparent image layout style, etc. Vector based images zoom nicely altho they are not necessary. Static TOC is also important in textbooks. EPUB is open source and avoids the proprietary pitfalls of Adobe PDF. The only way to put sound, video, into PDF is Adobe Acrobat subscription (as far as I know). No Thanks bloated "Jabba the Hutt" Adobe. EPUB also does sound, video, anim flawlessly. IMO EPUB will soon dominate the digital "Format Wars" while big tech tries to trap everyone into their own proprietary format with their own book readers, book sales. Serif should offer both EPUB formats just like Mac Pages does.Hope they do, but for now I will have to stick with "free" Pages. Most people that have lots of books, students, have tablets of 10-13"(11" is ideal weight/size combo). This size works perfectly for fixed EPUB with 14pt font size. The above attachment has a sound file in the intro and it is fixed EPUB highlighting the benefits of sound files in books (think the value of bird textbook with actual sound bird calls, not a birdwatcher tho LOL). Overall IMO, aesthetically, the fixed EPUB is much nicer than fluid and can utilize the "page layout" features in AP similar to beautifully designed magazine layouts. Fluid or Fixed EPUB is available for whatever style you want. Take your pick, I prefer Fixed. Good Luck
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1) Serif is on their way to "brilliance" as they say in UK!
2) AP is desktop publishing orientated, I get that, but let's face it, sadly, hard copy is on the way out, basically for everything, books, magazines, newspapers, etc. In USA, as soon as Barnes and Noble closes, hard copy will take an unsustainable hit. IMO.
3) Most Affinity users have dropped Adobe due to subscriptions (awful idea), so we would like to get away from proprietary Adobe PDF format also. (of course, should keep it as secondary format).
4) Please institute the open source EPUB format for export of digital documents. It has multimedia capability, sound, video( or animation) as well as fixed or fluid format. IMO the fluid "style" is only viable for novels with minimal graphics ("fluid" EPUB graphics don't scale or zoom well on devices). The "fixed" EPUB format is brilliant for textbooks (looks beautiful on iPad Pro 10.5, portrait style ) with lots of graphics and diagrams TOC, Index, and small sound and video animations etc. I am trying to move from Mac Pages to AP, but I use the fixed EPUB in Pages with a lot of sound and HOPEFULLY I won't have to wait to long for SERIF to roll out EPUB, hint hint LOL.
5) This EPUB digital format addition will really get the suite of Affinity products some "press", so to speak, and put them on their way to fame and fortune for years in the future, when the "printing press" disappears.
6) Thanks
PS: I included an attached unfinished project, titled "Attitude Instrument Flying Workbook" in EPUB format (from Mac Pages) for everyone to view. It has sound in the introduction. The images are done in AD and AP. Maybe in the future everything can be done in Affinity. File size 31mb. There are plenty of free EPUB readers for MAc, Windows, Linux, as well as the usual culprits iBooks, Adobe digital editions, etc. Please view this document on an Android or preferably iPad Pro 10.5. I used a slightly larger 14pt font and small margins so a single page looks nice in portrait without zooming in fixed EPUB. I feel a minimum size device for reading digitally, comfortably is 10-11", although any size (iPhone etc) can be zoomed or scrolled in EPUB "fixed".
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On 7/10/2019 at 3:46 PM, fde101 said:
A "story" persona in Publisher would make a LOT of sense actually... you would select a text box that may or may not be linked to other text boxes to form a story, then switching to the story persona would give you a more word-processor-like interface to edit that story in isolation from the rest of the layout.
I like that idea.
Exactly. That is what I was getting at in my comment. Why use some bloated external program like Word (uugh). A SIMPLE (almost as simple as text editor with AP text styles) Word Processing Style Persona would work perfectly. For example: You type some text in the Word Processing Style personna with the styles/fonts that you plan to use in the "Layout" then simply cut and paste to layout area perhaps replacing filler text. The only feature needed is the Text/Paragraph Styles so that when I cut and paste I know approximate size, text color, font etc. I can link the flow in "layout" as needed. I am sure there is lot's of "open source" code that Serif could use, making it an affordable effort.
I use Mac Pages extensively but I am looking forward to the integrated Affinity products as I already own all 3 but I can't leave "Pages" yet because lack of EPUB format in Publisher. I am going to make feature request for more Electronic export formats, with sound files and small video files. perhaps mp4. Do you know if some of the newer PDF formats allow multimedia?
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Hello!
I use Pages on Mac. It has a document mode and page layout mode. In document mode (word processor style) there are no text boxes. The text flows from page to page in 1.2,3 columns, whatever and will do automatic TOC with Chapters, sections, etc. If I add text to middle of book, the whole book gets resized automatically with page numbers etc. APublisher appears to be only a page layout style program. Please help. I don't get the difference. I do PDF documents of 200 pages etc with lots of pictures, chapters, TOC and index. Basically a PDF book. I need auto page numbering etc. Will AP do what I want or did I make a dumb purchase? They advertised TOC and index so I assumed it would do technical manuals. Thanx.
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AEC industry, CAD, PS, Ill, etc for 30 years. Dumbest selection process I have ever seen. You absolutely must be able to Marquee ANY OBJECT and it becomes selected all the way from front to back, whether it is on one layer, sub-layer, within a group, hidden, whatever,. If it inside the marquee (or crossing if you prefer) it MUST become selected. This is how you locate missing objects. I have thousands of objects easy. What am I supposed to do scroll thru the layer list inside a group....using "select next" or "select previous" or clicking with option key down? ...What if you forget what group an object is in and you have 2000 objects within many different groups? Unbelievable...frustrated!!! Sorry.....Makes this otherwise decent and affordable program unusable.
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Yeah... Thanks for the reply Walt.farrell. Having to verify the correct tool is PITA. Oh well, still a good program. In a 4 hour period I have the wrong tool 4-5 times. Breaks the flow and raises my BP. Ha! The " last tool" toggle is basically unnecessary. Dammit, when I hit the B key shortcut, I want the paint brush tool. I don't want to "look away" from canvas to verify. I think you get what I am saying. I am sure some newbies might like it. All I ask is a way to turn that option off in preferences. Maybe if more people chime in like you did, we might get some action. Good Luck
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Great program for price. No major complaints.....except the annoying tool toggle. For example, when I hit the "B" keyboard shortcut for brush.....I want the Paint Brush tool....not the last tool used or any other tool....PERIOD. I come from the production AEC architecture community for 20 years etc. CAD etc where speed is key. I absolutely, do not want to have to "verify" that I have the right tool every time I hit a shortcut key. Sometimes you stop the flow to do something else..forgetting which tool you used last, hit the "B" key, start working and you end up with the "whatever" tool and have to undo something because it was the wrong tool. BTW there is no obvious way to verify the tool you have selected except to read the bottom notification bar or search the tool pallet. This interrupts the "Flow" tremendously. All I want is the option to turn this "Toggle to another tool" off or on in preferences, because I am sure that many like this option or are used to it.
Thanks No offense.
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I use snapshot feature several times when using liquify. I don't think there is a way to create an "adjustment layer" type of non-destructive editing if that is what you are referring to.
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Hitting the keyboard shortcut for a tool sometimes brings up another (previous tool used). For example, Perhaps I use clone and then brush tool. I stop or get distracted and I forget which tool, so I hit B shortcut again for Brush tool and it goes back to clone tool. They look very similar, circle + crosshairs, so I start painting and I get clone tool. I then have to undo etc. This is not a deal breaker because AP is a great program for the price. I am production and I have to move very fast. This happens at least 3-4 times a day. It is annoying. When I hit a shortcut key, that is the tool I want. I don't want to scan the toolbar to confirm my tool selection etc. At least give us an option in preferences to turn off this feature. Thanks
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Is there a way to turn off the automatic "Last tool toggle" in preferences? For example, If I have the Move tool selected and then I select the Brush tool, hitting Brush tool again, brings up move tool, or any other "Last Tool". More often than not, this leads me to have the wrong tool selected or I have to check to see which tool is selected, which I find is unnecessary. All I want is a "preferences" toggle to turn this auto last tool functionality off.
Does anyone else find this as an unnecessary function, or at worst, rather annoying? No offense, love Serif products.
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Thanks for the Great AD and AP. DTP is still used by commercial houses, but honestly, the world seems to be moving to e documents. I use Apple iBooks Author. It is free, but if you want to use all the widget functionality ( 3D Collada files, Video, etc) you have to publish to the iBooks store and give Apple 30% (the file format is xxx.iBooks instead of xxx.ePUB). Yes, you can publish anywhere in the open format, PDF or ePUB, but you lose all the widget functionality. I guess you can guess where I am going....sure would be nice it Serif would create the widget 3D, video capabilities, Q and A testing, etc of ePUB in a more open environment for eBooks. Thanks
Shortcut: Quickly switch from Text tool to Move tool
in Pre-V2 Archive of Affinity on Desktop Questions (macOS and Windows)
Posted
Maybe this will help. Yes, I too, found myself typing vvvvv's too often. When the cursor is blinking in a text box it has to assume you want text. That includes shorcut keys. One has to "release the blinking cursor" before hitting shortcuts. Hitting esc esc then V works, but is cumbersome. Clicking outside of text frame works, but sometimes inadvertently creates tiny text boxes. Hovering over text frame works and temporarily brings up move tool also, but only on that text frame.
Try this: I reassigned the move and (text frame/table/artistic) shortcuts to non-alphabetic keyboard keys F2 and F3, respectively. This allows toggle functions as normal. Back and forth from move to text works nicely. No more vvvv's. Even if you forget the cursor is blinking. This is speedy and one-handed. Occasionally, one still has to reset blinking cursor insertion point in your text frame area of choice with mouse, so aPUB knows what/where you want to type. This is to be expected. Setting text tool from T to F3 is not necessary, but I like to hit shortcuts without looking at keyboard.
Try it you'll like it. Give me some feedback if this works for you.
Also, if you find yourself with wrong text tool often, then I would use shift modifier key setting in Settings box. I mainly use text frame tool so I use shift modifier to cycle text tools and other cycle tools.
One can always take their mouse for a walk, back and forth from toolbar to text frame or wherever, naaaah. Ha