request for official guidance on publishing a book

[project_2501]

I think it would be incredibly helpful if Affinity published a detailed guide on how to use Affinity Publisher to create a book.

The reasons for this request are:

• there are many ways to achieve some tasks, but some are "hacks" and some are not the "AP way"
• the tutorial videos are nice but they're short and sweet, not big enough for a large topic like this
• some guidance is hard to find, or maybe doesn't exist - put it all in one guide

 

Some of the themes to be covered should include:

• footnotes, index and contents
• parts, sections, chapters - maybe even multi-filebook projects 
• images and embedded content (despite what some say, it is not intuitive and suggestions don't support workflows which need say 200 images in a 500 page book) - I've previously posted video screen recordings showing how this is confusing.
• gotchas in things like style definitions - eg changes which accrue even if you undo the style options, how to avoid this (experiment on a copy - yuk?)
• good practice - eg should you avoid in-app editing of images to avoid confusion on where the true source is? should you always inherit styles from Body? or create new ones from scratch? why?

 

I'd suggest a long-form tutorial with embodied short video clips.

 

I really wanted to use AP for my next book but sadly some of these issues have prevented me. I hope the AP develops consider AP from the perspective of DTP tasks like publishing technical books with 600 pages and 200 images and use this to think about how the workflow and usage could be made efficient. The answer will be different to the task of designing a 2-page pamphlet or 4 page magazine spread.

 

Can I politely and gently request that people don't reply with "it works for me" and "its version 1 what did you expect" or "we have 30 years of DTP experience what do you know". 

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by tariq
typo

[Rick G]

Affinity Revolution has a nice beginner's course for Publisher

https://courses.affinityrevolution.com/

[project_2501]

Thanks @Rick G - does that course address the points I raised?

(the promo video shows a book with only a very simple one with titles and main body text )

 

[Rick G]

Send them an email and ask them. It apparently does but I have no idea of what kind of depth you are seeking. They do cover TOC and footnotes and at the end they walk you through creating a magazine which is not a far jump from creating a book at least as far as a learning process is concerned

[Patrick Connor]

I would expect this to be a chapter of the forthcoming Affinity Publisher Workbook. I will find out if I'm allowed to reveal the chapter headings

[project_2501]

it would be better to put howtos online free for all to see rather than behind a pay-for-book

 

[Patrick Connor]

It would be right for this sort of guidance to appear on AffinitySpotlight.com too (in the Learning section)