Affinity Publisher Customer Beta - 1.8.0.518

[AdamW]

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App 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 (1.8.0.518) 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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StudioLink

This build of Affinity Publisher, 1.8.0 Beta, requires 1.8.0 Beta builds of Photo and Designer for StudioLink to function. We hope to make these available soon.

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New Features and Major Improvements

New Document Dialog with Template Support

(Currently for Mac Only) A enhanced version of the New Document dialog with support for template files, previews plus more.

Embedded Document Bounding Boxes

There are more options for setting the bounding box of placed documents to bound only content, visible content etc

Fixes and Smaller Updates

Main Workspace
(Win) Scroll extents not recalculated when switching between Master and Normal views

Page Management
Allow you to add pages by dragging and dropping a master between existing pages
Drag and drop a master to a spread to apply it
Resizing master page via File > Spread Setup doesn't offer to resize associated document pages
Improved labelling of Master Page Instances
Can now lock / unlock objects under Master Page Instances

Merge Documents
Miscellaneous Fixes
Added import of Document Sections
Added management of Page Hyperlinks on import

Image Resources
Fixed possible crash / hang reopening documents with specific linked images
Fix for Embedded Documents not always remembering current active page when reloaded
Artboards can become out of sync if added / removed in linked afdesign documents

Effects / Filters
Fixed conversion of effect parameter values to depend on Document DPI
Fix for Live Perspective Filter in a document with bleed

Text
Can now set Text Frames column gutter from the context toolbar
A value of 0 for 'Allow Max Consecutive Hyphens' is now used to indicate no limit

Column Rules
Text Frame Panel sections missing or out of sync
Various Column Rules fixes

Hyperlinks
Expanded Hyperlink Studio character limit for Name field

DOCX Import
Installed fonts being incorrectly substituted after Word placement

IDML Import
Some placed images not imported
Text frame pinned within text frame not importing content
Fixed crash due to issue decoding URL strings of file paths

XLSX Import
Fixes for XSLX files imported from LibreOffice
Fix for last column shrinking on XLSX import
Fixed crash placing XLSX files into text frames
(Mac) Fixes for XLSX files imported from Numbers

Export / Printing
Can now export PDF pages out of order
Fix for PDF Export with certain adjustments
PDF Export can now handle text with linestyles including complex dash patterns
Inner bleed not respected when exporting to all pages PDF
(Win) Fix for custom paper size not saving / loading with profile
(Win) Fix for collate option not saving / loading with profile

Updated Help and Translations
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To be notified about all future Mac 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

[fde101]

4 hours ago, AdamW said:

Text Frame Panel sections missing or out of sync

The issue I had previously reported concerning the column rules section missing from the text frame panel is still present in the current beta.  The section appears if I set the language explicitly to "English" (UK English) and restart the app.  It disappears again if I set it back to "Default".

[AdamW]

5 minutes ago, fde101 said:

The issue I had previously reported concerning the column rules section missing from the text frame panel is still present in the current beta.  The section appears if I set the language explicitly to "English" (UK English) and restart the app.  It disappears again if I set it back to "Default".

Thanks, I see in fact our QA have re-opened, must be more to it than I thought.

[nwhit]

Thanks for adding the expandable Hyperlinks pop-up dialogue window! Really should solve the issue we had with many long URLs in a document!

[Old Bruce]

Liking the new Template feature but took me a while to figure out that we have to create/assign a folder for them first. Obvious when I stopped to think about it. For others there is a little + symbol next to the Templates in the new New Document folder. I couldn't see anything for the Export as Template... dialog, it looks like a regular Save Dialog.

[R C-R]

12 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Liking the new Template feature but took me a while to figure out that we have to create/assign a folder for them first.

To follow normal Mac conventions, the "Set template folder ..." window should have a 'new folder' button so if there is as yet no folder assigned for this & the user wants to create a new one at some location, they do not have to cancel that step, create the folder in Finder, & then assign the template folder to it.

Also, I will create a new bug report topic about this but for me after I created a new folder for saving templates, when I tried to save a custom preset to it, the beta froze (indefinite spinning beachball cursor).

Edited December 3, 2019 by R C-R
added link to bug report

[thomaso]

20 hours ago, AdamW said:

New Document Dialog with Template Support

(Currently for Mac Only) A enhanced version of the New Document dialog with support for template files

40 minutes ago, R C-R said:

11 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Liking the new Template feature but took me a while to figure out that we have to create/assign a folder for them first.

To follow normal Mac conventions, the "Set template folder ..." window should have a 'new folder' button so if there is as yet no folder assigned for this & the user wants to create a new one at some location, they do not have to cancel that step, create the folder in Finder, & then assign the template folder to it. 

By the way: on Mac you simply can use the build-in feature and set any file as template by selecting the according checkbox in its finder info window:

Such a file will auto-create a copy of itself in the same folder + rename it as copy as soon the template gets opened in any application. That means you can store such templates wherever and also at there 'final' place. Disadvantage: such a template creates a copy on the disk when it gets opened and doesn't move/delete it if you save the copy on a different place, or don't save it at all.

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

By the way: on Mac you simply can use the build-in feature and set any file as template by selecting the according checkbox in its finder info window:

I do know about that Mac OS feature but I still think the "Set template folder ..." window should have a "New Folder" button, just like all the Affinity (& many other) Mac apps have in the "Save as..." window. It is a useful feature that I hope they will consider adding to the next beta, or at least to the 1.8 retail version.

[R C-R]

18 hours ago, AdamW said:

18 hours ago, fde101 said:

The issue I had previously reported concerning the column rules section missing from the text frame panel is still present in the current beta.  The section appears if I set the language explicitly to "English" (UK English) and restart the app.  It disappears again if I set it back to "Default".

Thanks, I see in fact our QA have re-opened, must be more to it than I thought.

Well, just to prove that there really is more to it, on my iMac running High Sierra the Vertical Alignment > Stroke options item does appear & is fully functional, whether I set the language to "Default" (which for me is US English), "English" (which for me is UK English), or "English (United States)." Go figure! 

But sort of related so maybe this can be added to the column rules issue:

Hovering the pointer over the top or bottom gap numeric entry fields in the Vertical Alignment section pops up tooltips that say "Left Text Inset" & "Right Text Inset" respectively, the same tooltips that appear up in the General > Insets section for the right & left inset fields. Likewise, the stroke popup bar has the same "Frame Stroke" tooltip as the one in General > Insets, so I think each of these 3 Vertical Alignment items needs a more descriptive tooltip.

[Jeremy Bohn]

There's a lot to like about the new New Document window. However, I can see some room for improvements:

1. Should be able to resize the window. I have a large monitor and would like it bigger so I can see more without scrolling.

2. Popup menus should respect the dark mode setting. Currently they're light even though I'm using dark mode.

3. Most of the settings are wiped out if you pick a different page size. For instance, I set up a Letter sized document, set it to use Picas, set my margins and bleed, and if I click on the Legal thumbnail on the left, it resets all of those things. I should be able to change to a preset page size without wiping out my other settings.

4. The "link" to set Inner/Outer/Top/Bottom the same in Margins/Bleed should take affect as soon as you click it. For example, right now if you have them unlinked and all set to 0, if you change one to 5 and then click the link, they end up being 5, 0, 0, 0 which isn't right if they're supposed to be linked.

[Murfee]

Thanks, this is a very nice update. I really like the new document window, is there any chance that you can add the option to set a preset, either the standard ones or a user created one, as a default when creating a new file, so that it is the one selected when the window opens. 

[fde101]

@Jeremy Bohn, @Murfee - those seem like great suggestions, but they should be on a separate thread.  The announcement thread for a release is a dangerous place to put these as they may get lost in the shuffle when the next release is made and this thread gets locked.

[rrcplus]

Sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question, but how can I access this beta if I bought the retail product on the Mac App Store? The dialogue box states: "To participate in the beta you need to install Affinity Publisher Beta from the Mac App Store, or have a valid product key." Will you be submitting it to the Mac App Store soonish?

[R C-R]

27 minutes ago, rrcplus said:

Sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question, but how can I access this beta if I bought the retail product on the Mac App Store?

Just download it from the link above in the first post. You must have the retail version of Affinity Publisher installed on your Mac for the beta to run, but it does not matter which store you bought it from. The retail & beta versions are separate apps, so you do not have to uninstall anything, nor will the retail version be altered in any way.

[Patrick Connor]

The purchased build needs to be installed (found) into the root of the Applications folder (not a sub-folder) for the beta to "find" it. Is that the issue @rrcplus

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

The purchased build needs to be installed (found) into the root of the Applications folder (not a sub-folder) for the beta to "find" it.

That is unnecessary, at least on my iMac. I just placed the retail version into a subfolder in the root level Applications folder & the beta runs without problems.

[Patrick Connor]

R C-R,

Your Affinity Publisher retail is from the Affinity store, and for that there is "fall back code" to avoid prompting you for your product key. rrcplus had the MAS release for which I think this is still true. Happy to be proven wrong though.

[rrcplus]

Thanks for the replies guys. I tried to open it at work where I don't have the purchased version installed. I will try running it again when I get home and see if the beta works.

 

edit: it indeed works! Thanks again for the help.

Edited December 5, 2019 by rrcplus

[Johannes]

File > New = blurry

Some Text is blurry in the New File Dialogue

[Johannes]

Is this the build with Preflight panel?

On 12/2/2019 at 4:24 PM, AdamW said:

Customer Beta of Affinity Publisher (1.8.0.518)

[Jon P]

This build is not, the next one should contain the preflight panel

[Johannes]

2 hours ago, Jon P said:

the next one should contain the preflight panel

I love you guys

[Frozen Death Knight]

6 hours ago, Jon P said:

This build is not, the next one should contain the preflight panel

Looking forward to using the builds for the other Betas as well! Really eager to work with high precision tablet input without the current tablet bugs. I guess they are just around the corner I hope? *nudge nudge wink wink* ^-^

[KipV]

6 hours ago, Johannes said:

I love you guys

Yeah that's wonderful! I kept arguing with the Quark guys about adding pre-flight but they seemed to think the rules feature was good enough. That should give them a lot of competition given on top of the fact that the pages panel also works much better in Publisher than Quark as well.