Annabella_K

Hi, Anyone noticed Symbols acting strangely lately in Publisher? 1. When I duplicate a symbol on a master page and try to move it, it moves both instances together. If I copy-paste it, then the copy won't be synced. So the only way I can duplicate a symbol on a master, is dragging them one by one from the Symbols palette. 2. When I dpulicate a master page that has symbols on it, moving the symbol moves it on both master pages. Both of these only happen on master pages, they still work on regular pages. Tested in a new file too, so the the problem was not my original file.

Hehe, yes, as a foreigner, I totally agree. 😀 Sometimes it's really hard to find out how something is said in English. Google can give STRANGE results while I'm trying to figure it out. 😅

Thanks @Dan C for logging it 😀

Hi @MEB It's not enough if it only changes vector shapes. In designer you can use raster brushes to add texture, so a transformer tool should be able to change the raster elements too.

Hi @Dan C OK, I probably didn't describe the issue properly. It happens in every single document I use 600 dpi. Steps to recreate: 1. Create a new document with 600 dpi. My units were in millimeter. 2. Add either a new master with a different page size, or try to resize any of the pages or master pages. I only set the dimesnions (with a preset), I left the Scaling on the default settings. If you only resize one page, you can quickly see when flipping pages that it's not the right size, because it's gonna be tiny compared to the rest. But if you check the size again in the Spread Setup, it clearly shows it's half of what it should be. 3. Set the dpi to 300 dpi. Try to resize again with the same method -> it works. But you are right about that if I type the dimensions manually, and not picking a preset, then it works with 600 dpi too. It didn't work for me in the previous Publisher version, hence I didn't even think about trying that again, so thanks for pointing that out. 👍 So the problem seems to be the combination of two things, but it's good to know that it can be done in this way now. 😀

@Hadriscus @Dan C I had the same issue, only reversed, and I found out that the reason is the DPI in the document setup. When it is set to 300 dpi, pages get the correct size when resized. I usually set mine to 600 dpi, because it prints nicer, and the pages get half the size at both width and height. I can see you document is 150 dpi, that's why yours gets doubled. Of course this is not how it's supposed to work. I've just searched if this is a known bug or I should report it, when I found your post.

😆

@Old Bruce I think a lot of times it just that we don't use the same words to search as in the topic. And also there are always a lot of non-relevant results and it's a lot to browse through, easy to miss the right ones.

Thanks @carl123, I did a very quick search in the Publisher Windows forum, I guess I need to broaden it next time. I hope they can resolve the issue.

Before the 1.9 Update, my workflow was to make a master page with only the guidelines I needed on all pages ("Master Guides"), and then applied this as a master to all the different master layouts I needed this guidelines on. So when I applied those master layouts to the pages, the guides also showed up, but conveniently, I could edit them all at once, if anything changed. Now, with the 1.9 update, this is gone. They show up on those different master layouts, but not on the page itself. My question is, is there a setting now, where I need to enable this (which I couldn't find so far), or is this a bug? I can still add the "Master Guides" as a second master to the pages, but it's extra work, the previous method was WAY SIMPLER. I find handling multiple master pages applied to the pages problematic sometimes. Thanks in advance.

Thanks @thomaso but that workflow doesn't apply to my problem. The answer would be global layers. ☹️

@thomaso I'm not sure you understood what I wrote. My point was that, at least at first sight, their way of master pages and global layers don't seem compatible, so it would be hard to implement. Because let's say you have a master page that has objects using those 3 global layers you have in your example. In Affinity that master page can be added to the page like a layer, but the problem is, you can't just add it to ONE of those layers. That's why I wrote, that you could only add a master page to a global layer, if its every object is on the same layer, more like in a group. At least I think you can't have objects of a group on different layers. Exactly the hierarchy problem you wrote. Objects on the layer are children of the page (parent). Then a page (master or not) can't be a child at the same time. Only way I can imagine it to work is if master pages are not treated as layers, but then it's a fundamental difference. It seems complicated. Sorry if my English is hard to understand, I'm not a native speaker, and also pretty tired. 😅

Thanks for the explanation @thomaso I couldn't imagine how global layers work. But now I checked out Scribus too, and I think I understand the concept. Just thinking out loud, but I'm not sure if it is compatible in this way with Affinity's approach of mater pages. If I understand correctly, with global layers, you put every page element on a Global Layer, regardless that it's on a single page or a master page. But in Affinity, master pages are like layers on a page: you can stack multiple master pages on a page, change order, etc. So at the same time, you would need to place the master page on a layer, where elements of the master page, are maybe placed on a different layer. It sounds problematic to me unless you CAN'T put master page elements on separate layers. Then they'll always be on the same layer as the master page. But maybe the stackable master pages were their way of implementing global layers (kind of) in the first place 🤔 I'd like to hear their take on this. Luckily I'm not used to a different approach, and so far this master page way was enough for me, it can be pretty powerful too, IMO. I only wish they would stay "global" also on PDF export. But I can see how this master page approach is not enough for the language changing problem, for example. It would only work with one-click if you had the same layout on every page. And that's hardly the case.

I think it makes sense to have per page Layers too. But there should be global layers. Though I think what I miss about global layers is different from what people mentioned in this thread before. When I export to PDF, I just don't want to have the same layer from a Master page 200 times in the document. I want to switch them on/off with one click - I mean in the PDF viewer too. @keith s could you tell me a practical example of the global layer use you mentioned? I'm relatively new to DTP software and all I know is master pages, I use the method @walt.farrell mentioned above for everything. Though sometimes the logistics need a lot of thinking.

+1

Oh, I was looking for the same thing in Publisher, but I guess it's the same there ☹️

Hi @Dan C Thanks, this is interesting, I'll experiment

I noticed that despite having Transparent background unchecked in Publisher, the PDF I export behaves like it had a transparent background. Namely, antialiasing shows up as a grey border around shapes. Unfortunately, it also prints that way. Adding a white background manually solves the issue, but I don't know if that's the right way to go, as it adds to the file size. I also tried using the Force pixel alignment option, but sometimes that just isn't enough to prevent this. And when the drawing unit itself isn't pixel, then it gets confusing too. What are some best practices for this antialiasing problem? In some cases I just can't avoid rasterizing things. Thanks in advance.

Thank you again, Walt, I see you here a lot. 😀 Yes, that's my problem, I can't try it either. Actually there's a simple workaround for that. At least when the symbol is a group, you can copy--paste the elements of the group not the group itself, then they'll be detached. I agree that without the Symbols studio it is limited, but most times I don't use symbols in a complicated way. For example when I make my weekly planner, I make the daily sections symbols, so I can see the design changes on the whole week at once. Detaching and pause-syncing may not be even needed features for this. But being those elements linked to each other is still useful for later editing. Interesting, the first tutorials I found about symbols, the Symbols studio was in Publisher, I was disappointed when I didn't find it there. I had to buy Designer almost solely for this feature. For drawing (just simple things&icons) I still prefer Inkscape, for multiple reasons. But at least it's easy enough to copy paste the drawings from there 😀 And the exporter is awesome in Designer.

I see that when I create a Symbol in Publisher through the Designer persona, I can edit that symbol later straight in Publisher, without switching to Designer persona. I was wondering, if the symbols are used in a Publisher template for example, then someone, who doesn't have Designer at all, can see / edit those symbols. Or will they be detached?

I'm not sure people got it, but the only reason I brought up InDesign is to show that Adobe incorporated form tools in their publishing software too. But if it's not that good, then that's just more opportunity for Affinity to create a solution that beats Adobe 😄 I'm using PDFill for now to make the forms, I like that you can import the fields from another project too (though I may found a bug there with calculated fields). Overall it's not bad, but I could imagine better user experience. And I like how at Affinity they think outside of the box, so I really hope they will make this 🤞

Any news about this? I'm still having this issue in all apps (Photo 1.8.2.620, Designer 1.8.3.641 and Publisher 1.8.3.641, on Windows 10). Very annoying.

It would be useful to be able to name the hyperlinks in the properties panel when creating them. When you make documents that contain a lot of hyperlinked objects, it can get hard to find the new one in the list to rename it from "Hyperlink X" to something meaningful.

Thank you ☺️ And there's Go to Source too, perfect 😀

In Word there's the option to CTRL+click the hyperlinks in the document to open up the URL/jump to the target. Can I do this in Affinity Publisher too? I'd like to check if all the hyperlinks are correct without exporting to PDF first. Thanks in advance.