jlhopes

When working in a document that has a lot of text styles, it can be hard to find the style for the current text -- it requires a lot of scrolling through the list of styles to find the one that is highlighted. It would be nice if the style for the current text (where the cursor is positioned) could always be visible in the Text Styles studio panel. Thanks!

I opened an IDML document exported from InDesign where one of the fonts (used for bullet points) was not installed system-wide, but was in a "Document fonts" folder next to the INDD document. When I opened the IDML in Affinity Publisher, that font naturally didn't display. So I went to edit the text style, but when I clicked on "Bullets and Numbering", Publisher crashed completely. This happened repeatedly, including when I saved the document as an AF Publisher file first.

I would like to see this, too. I use it all the time in InDesign to test fonts without installing them for the whole system.

Using Affinity Publisher, I created a shape, then added text on the shape's path. Now, however, I can't seem to change the color of the shape -- I can only change the color of the text. In the layers panel, I only see a layer for the text -- there is no separate layer for the shape. Is there any way to change the color of the shape (or, for example, add stroke) once text has been added?

"Lock Children" does not seem to do what it's supposed to in regard to images in picture frames. When an image is first placed in a frame (or an image is converted to a picture frame), the image still resizes along with the frame, whether Lock Children is checked or not. And if the image has been selected and adjusted within the frame once, after that the image never resizes along with the frame, whether Lock Children is checked or not. I am using v162 on a Mac.

Hi dominik, thanks, I appreciate the help! I am on a Mac, and neither Ctrl+click nor Cmd+click works as you suggested. Ctrl+click just brings up the contextual menu, and Cmd+click creates a duplicate of the picture frame, the same as Alt+click does. However, I discovered that double clicking on the image selects the image -- so that is useful! However, "Lock Children" does not seem to do what it's supposed to. When an image is first placed in a frame (or an image is converted to a picture frame), the image still resizes along with the frame, whether Lock Children is checked or not. And if the image has been selected and adjusted within the frame once, after that the image never resizes along with the frame, whether Lock Children is checked or not. I wonder if this is a bug... It's true, Publisher will have some different ways of doing things that may take a little getting used to. I just wanted to say that this a very common operation in layout work, and therefore should be quick and intuitive.

I am still having trouble figuring out how to easily make adjustments to an image within a picture frame. It seems that we need to select the image itself in the Layers panel and then adjust the image inside the frame. Once we have done that, selecting the frame and adjusting the borders crops the photo. But if we have not adjust the image itself first, adjusting the borders of the frame changes the contents as well. It seems very complicated. In InDesign this is SO easy to do and so intuitive -- I can't understand why Affinity would make such a common procedure so much more complicated. Furthermore, it seems that once I have made adjustments to the image and/or the frame, when I then go to Properties and choose from the various options, they sometimes do not do anything to the image. This might be a bug, I'm not sure.

Thank you, that's good to know -- coming from InDesign, I wouldn't have known to use the Transparency tool.

I too was trying to figure this out, so it's good to know about the Text Frame panel. However, there are still some limitations here. In InDesign, we can apply opacity and other effects to the whole object, or to just the text, fill, or stroke. It's a very useful feature, and prevents us having to create separate text frames and background shapes behind them.

I happened to have Publisher open while installing a new font. Publisher detected the change and a little window popped up with the message "Updating fonts", but it kept showing the spinning wheel graphic and never finished. I had to force quit the program.

Thank you for the tips about using layers panel! I see that the contextual toolbar also gives a lot of options. A few more questions: 1. I still don't see any option for using percentages in the Transform panel -- where is that? 2. I can now move an image around in a frame and resize it in the frame. But what if I what to get the image back to its original proportions? How can I do that? 3. It seems that if I turn a layer into a Picture Frame I can get some special options like "Properties". But, should I do this for the frame or the image itself? 4. The Properties dialogue for a Picture Frame doesn't seem to be changing anything -- am I doing something wrong? 5. The contextual toolbar for a Picture Frame has the "Replace Image" button twice (see screenshot) Many thanks again!

Thank you so much for all your work on this! It is exciting to think we might have a real alternative to Adobe soon! I use InDesign a lot, and here are a few things I noticed or would like to suggest: 1. One thing I use all the time in ID is being able to switch back and forth between seeing the document marked up with guides, text frames, bleed, etc., and then seeing it in "Preview" mode with no obstructions. ID uses the "W" key for this, which makes it so easy. I noticed that we can use Ctrl-W in Publisher for a similar effect, but having a toggle right in the UI would be nice, too. 2. Another user mentioned this already, but we should be able to see bleed when it's added (and turn it off for a clean preview). 3. The method for making images linked rather than embedded is not really useable for a large document with many images in it. Images should be linked automatically, no embedded automatically, or we need to be able to set a preference for it. And the Resource Manager gives us no ability to get to the linked image in Finder and possibly open it to make changes. 4. In InDesign, when you place a photo or image, you can of course change its size, but you can also move the image around in the frame, and use the frame to crop the image. I do this all the time, it is so useful. Would be nice to have this feature. 5. After placing an image, I can't see how to round the corners or change the shape of the frame at all. I can make a rounded rectangle, but I can't place an image in it. 6. Another useful tool in ID is being able to transform an object by changing its size by a percentage. Not essential, but it's nice. 7. Not sure what's going on with the file size. I've got a single page document with one text box (with effects on it), a couple of simple shapes, and two copies of the same photo (linked), and the file size is 8.6 MB. Seems way too big. That's all I've picked up on so far. Right now, on the whole, Publisher is feeling rather like Designer with a few extras thrown in for text and multiple pages (and other illustration-oriented features removed). I hope to see it evolve into a full-fledged page layout program! Thanks!