Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.8.0.502

[AdamW]

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Windows Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available

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Hi,

We are pleased to announce that a new Customer Beta of Affinity Publisher (1.8.0.502) is now available as a download from the link above.

As this is a 'Stability and General Testing' beta it is considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity where you may be adversely affected by the application failing, including the total loss of any documents. 

We hope you enjoy the beta, and as always, if you've got any problems installing or running up, please don't hesitate to post in this thread. 

Any problems actually using this version please make a new topic in this forum and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Please feel free to leave general suggestions and comments in the Discussion Forum. 

Many thanks for your continued feedback.

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New Features and Major Improvements

IDML Import

This build includes an importer for the IDML ((Adobe) InDesign Markup Language) file format. Many entities, attributes and properties are not currently imported. In general if a feature currently has no native support it is unlikely to be imported entirely successfully. In addition to this, please find below a list highlighting features we know are not currently supported fully.

Document
- Document User details

Spread / Page Items
- Promoted master page items
- Overprint properties
- Arrowheads
- Text on path

Transparency / FX
- Directional Feather
- Gradient Feather

Text Frames
- Content transparency / FX for text vs text + frame
- First baseline offset

Story Items
- Text layout can differ due to differences in composition and metric vs optical kerning
- TOC
- Index 
- Page number fields
- Hyperlinks

XLSX Import

This build includes an importer for the XLSX (Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet) file format. Excel files are placed as tables. The following are not currently supported.

- Formulae are imported as their calculated result value, which Excel stores in the file alongside the formula
- Local formatting is imported, but global Table Styles currently are not
- Overflowing cell content is handled differently in that Excel allows content of an overflowing cell to draw on top of adjacent cell if the cells are empty

Column Rules

The facility to add (vertical) rules / lines between columns in a multi-column text frame. The rules can be configured via the Text Frame Panel

Fixes and Smaller Updates

General
(Mac) Unified Toolbar tweaks
'Edit Document' for Linked Documents now works correctly rather than editing the embedded copy
Layers Panel should now maintain the expand / collapsed status of objects when switching spreads
Fixed issue for specific document where placed Designer file prevented Save
Fixed issue where export was causing application hang for specific document
(Win) Fixed crash dragging fill layer to bottom of layers stack
(Win) Fixed freeze editing colour from Swatches Panel

Master Pages
Changing size of Master Spread now offers option to update size of spreads it is applied to
Fixed issue whereby duplicating a Master Page Instance could unlink it
Blendmode / Opacity not working correctly with Master Page Instances
Adjustments were not working correctly when used with Master Page Instances

Picture Frames
Empty Picture Frames weren't showing in Assets Panel thumbnail previews
Replacing Master Pages containing Picture Frames with promoted context could distort content
(Mac) Original Size button wasn't functioning for Picture Frame content

Text
Paragraph Panel layout fixes
Fixed crash transposing characters (e.g. <Ctrl>+T on Mac)
Fixed Drop Cap anomalies
Leading Override can now be set to Auto in Text Style Editor
Fixed crash changing capitalization on multiple Text Frames simultaneously
(Win) Kerning in Base text style is now set to "Auto" 
(Mac) Custom text style shortcuts were not showing in Text Styles Panel
(Mac) Spell check not learning words originating from Master Pages
(Win) Fixed crash adding tab stop in Text Style Editor
(Mac) Paragraph leading, wrong separator being used with non-uk locale settings

DocX
Importing docx with no Text Frame selected fails to import style
Importing docx fails to apply 'Normal' style 

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To be notified about all future Windows beta updates, please follow this notification thread 

To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

[Seneca]

IDML and XLSX imports – fantastic, thank you.

[AdamW]

1 minute ago, Seneca said:

IDML and XLSX imports – fantastic, thank you.

Let us know how you get on!

[IndigoMoon]

IDML - Great! For my simple needs, printer templates for photobooks, already fantastic! Thanks Adam!!

[StuartRc]

Thank you....for all the work and a yet another big leap forward...look forward to trying to break it!

[jaftwo]

Back to the "Setup failed" again unless I restart my computer first. (•_•)

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, AdamW said:

Unified Toolbar tweaks

Great list of enhancements and fixes, Adam.

Question: Should that one have been marked (Mac)? Or is there a Unified Toolbar function for Windows that I missed?

[AdamW]

Hi Walt,

Yes, thank you. Done.

[Petar Petrenko]

Wow. Really greate update. It should be named 1.9.

[Petar Petrenko]

Publisher freezes when I tried to open an IDML file. I got message "Missing Resources" and I could not click on "Yes", "No", "Resource Manager".

[AdamW]

20 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Publisher freezes when I tried to open an IDML file. I got message "Missing Resources" and I could not click on "Yes", "No", "Resource Manager".

Hi Petar,

Is this with all your files or just one / some? Either way it would be great if you could start a new thread and upload a problem file so we can investigate.

[Petar Petrenko]

15 minutes ago, AdamW said:

Hi Petar,

Is this with all your files or just one / some? Either way it would be great if you could start a new thread and upload a problem file so we can investigate.

I'll open a new thread. Thanks Adam.

[Tom Schülke]

I didnt figure it out yet..
Where do i find the Import funktions for idlm?

[Jon P]

@Tom Schülke Just open it as you would an afpub file, or File > Place etc

[Tom Schülke]

thanks...

 

[Uwe367]

Thanks a lot for this Beta and the new Features. Installation went well and IDML Import works good so far. I will test more at the weekend.
Thumbs up

[softsound]

Thank you so much for this! The idlm import worked great!

I was about to post why importing pdf's to get around the idlm wasn't working for me and here the solution was given!

Here is an example of the impact importing gives me!

This is huge! Now if I could just get the older version of .indd I'd be all set with a publisher I work with but this is still great! ;3

[Malemuc]

Hi,

how can I try out the beta version?

Martin

[Joachim_L]

2 hours ago, Malemuc said:

how can I try out the beta version?

https://store.serif.com/get/publisher/trial/windows/

If you do not already own a purchased version of APublisher, you can get a trial from the above link.

[Patrick Connor]

@Malemuc

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums

The beta is only available to people who have already bought the retail version, and can be downloaded from this thread

[subetha]

This was the one missing feature that chained me to Adobe CC still... and kept me from buying the complete Affinity suite. Did so today for my PC, and will probably buy it for my Mac as well! Thank you so much!!!

[subetha]

I just imported an IDML into the beta, worked on it for a bit and than saved it as afpub. When trying to open it again in the retail version I can't. How can I get around this? What use is it for me to play around with the beta when I am not able to use the files in another context again??

BTW will there a possibility to also EXPORT into IDML format to exchange files with Indesign users, or will my designs be locked inside the affinity ecosystem forever?
How about exchanging files with other users who own lower/older versions in the future, thinking about Publisher 2.xx? One of the annoyances Adobe provides to its Indesign users are the constantly changing file formats, will I have to expect the same from Affinity?

[Joachim_L]

11 minutes ago, subetha said:

What use is it for me to play around with the beta when I am not able to use the files in another context again?

Beta means next level up on the evolution ladder. So some functions are missing in the older versions. But you can try with copying all the elements from the Beta document and paste it into the Retail document. Or wait a little while until 1.8.x is published.

[subetha]

Thanks for the comment - but this points exactly to my concerns mentioned later in that post... there should be a possibility to save for older versions.

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, subetha said:

One of the annoyances Adobe provides to its Indesign users are the constantly changing file formats, will I have to expect the same from Affinity?

It is common with complex file formats that the formats evolve, and when that happens the newer formats cannot be understood by older software releases. Yes, it happens with Affinity, too.

Generally an Affinity application has a version number like 1.x.y.z (e.g., the current 1.7 release of Publisher on Windows is 1.7.3.481. The current beta is 1.8.0.502. When either the first digit (1) or the second digit (x, e.g., 7 or 8) changes, the files will not be compatible with an older version of the application. Changes to y and z generally will be backward compatible as far as file formats go, and thus 1.7.3 files can be opened by 1.7.0, 1.7.1, and 1.7.2, but not by any 1.6.releases. And files from 1.8 cannot be opened by 1.7 (or 1.6).