ScottFromWyoming

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If it is Linked then you can't Edit it. If it is Embedded you can.

The irony is, because this just forum layout, the example I gave was in fact done manually, and I broke it where I preferred the break (I prefer the longer line on top). As you noted, you "prefer" it another way, and of course there is room for different preferences. However, in view of the fact that preferences on where to divide the line manually do vary, I respectfully disagree with your statement that doing it manually is "much better."
But whether longer line on top or not (or perhaps rather division by semantics or not), I prefer even more the savings of time. I recently had a project involving many hundreds of pages of poetic line where each line of verse was a hanging indent. Many of the lines extended beyond a single line by only a word or two, meaning the overflow line was short, and the overall look of the page struck me as hectic, as though the columns of text looked like a comb. I started out by spending several hours manually breaking the lines, but I wasn't even 10% complete and I was running out of time on my schedule. I tried the automatic balance ragged lines in InDesign, and I liked the overall balance of the page better. In fact, I went back and undid most of my manual work and opted instead for the automatic for a clean, consistent appearance.
Also another reason: as a general principle, I avoid as much as possible achieving format by inserting elements into the text.
It is clear that not everyone has the same use to this feature, but it does have its use.

No, I took OP's request as wanting something like View/Screen Mode/Preview in InDesign, which turns off all extraneous marks and nonprinting items, grays out the pasteboard. I can toggle it on and off by just typing W.

The first thing I tried to do was set up a doc using picas. Of course I can redesign the page but 1p is so much easier to type than .167in 

Hi there to you guys,

I've been waiting a long time for AP to come out.  I have Designer and Photo already and they are amazing.  
I've been doing book layout design for books my wife and I write and up until now I've been using Adobe InDesign CS6 which has worked extremely well.  I like their "book" feature where you compile individual chapter files until you are done and then compile the book up through the book feature.  There the table of contents is implemented, synchronising of styles, etc and then the entire book export to pdf and ePub. 

I am not sure what Affinity Publisher will be able to do in that department.  InDesign has a very good layout ability in terms of spacing of words in a block of text.  Word Processors do not possess such ability.  Text spacing and layout in Apple Pages is not on a par with InDesign.  I was hoping that Affinity Publisher would offer better layout of block text than InDesign.

I am still checking Affinity Publisher out at the moment and hope that we'll see something amazing coming forth with the release of the commercial version soon.

Regards.... 

... and we should be able to use the standard format when entering units, e.g., "7p3", "0p9", etc.

In which case I apologise for my misunderstanding, thanks for the clarification

The first thing I tried to do was set up a doc using picas. Of course I can redesign the page but 1p is so much easier to type than .167in 

Hello. The beta doesn't appear to support picas as a unit of measurement. Will this be added? I work in picas most of the time.