Affinity Publisher

[Ragged Apple]

Some of the tables from my InDesign file (IDML) have not appeared in the Publisher file. What am I doing wrong? New to this and trying to learn fast - any help - thank you!

[Joachim_L]

7 minutes ago, Ragged Apple said:

What am I doing wrong?

Welcome to the forums. You are not doing anything wrong, APu seems to have problems with your IDML. Perhaps you could upload the file here or ask a moderator for a private upload link.

[Ragged Apple]

Thanks for your quick response - much appreciated. The file and package is 69Mb - so prefer not to upload. However - I'm thinking that the issue is probably the way I formatted the tables in the original document (InDesign CS5). I have another question (and will probably have even more as I progress!) - page numbers did not transfer from the IDML document either. This may not be a big problem as all I'm trying to achieve is an understanding of how to create new documents to the identical layout and design of the newsletter produced in InDesign. I can't see how to set page numbers in APu? Please don't let me take up your time - I'm sure I'll get there in the end!

[Joachim_L]

8 minutes ago, Ragged Apple said:

I can't see how to set page numbers in APu? Please don't let me take up your time - I'm sure I'll get there in the end!

No problem. Create a text frame on the Master Pages, place the text cursor and then use menu "Text" -> "Insert" -> "Fields" -> "Page Number".

Regarding the table problem: Just make a sample page or two with your table(s), no images, no fonts. Not working are tables spanning multiple frames / pages (what I mean is, the table is there, but not spanning multiple text frames / pages).

[Ragged Apple]

Thanks for this - I had the feeling that the tables concerned were not transferring for the very reason you have explained. Thanks for explaining page numbering. I'm just about to upgrade my now very troubled MacBookPro (2010) to a new iMac. All my Adobe software will be useless( CS5) and so I'm trying to avoid paying a monthly subscription to Adobe. I am impressed by Affinity and so I'm putting myself through a steep learning curve! Thanks for your help.

[wonderings]

13 minutes ago, Ragged Apple said:

Thanks for this - I had the feeling that the tables concerned were not transferring for the very reason you have explained. Thanks for explaining page numbering. I'm just about to upgrade my now very troubled MacBookPro (2010) to a new iMac. All my Adobe software will be useless( CS5) and so I'm trying to avoid paying a monthly subscription to Adobe. I am impressed by Affinity and so I'm putting myself through a steep learning curve! Thanks for your help.

Just a suggestion, you could install an older Mac OS as a virtual machine and run your adobe apps that way. Obviously not the most ideal as you are not getting the full power of your machine but but it does work.

You should keep in mind that there is no perfect conversion from Adobe to Affinity, nor Adobe to anything else be it Quark or Corel. You will need to check each and every IDML file when opened in Publisher and will most likely need to adjust and tweak each one. This is not a big deal if you are doing it when files come up that need opening. When we switched from Quark to Indesign years ago we did not just try and convert everything, we just worked on it as the need arose. 

[Ragged Apple]

Yes, that's certainly an option - but what I'm aiming to do is to take key files into APu and then continue using the program - replacing InDesign. If that fails then I'll attempt to rebuild the template in APu with the imported assets. The bottom line is that I am determined to use Affinity to avoid the subscription to Adobe. Yes, I used Quark for some years before changing to InDesign - and I didn't find it too bad a challenge. I expected to have some teething problems in changing programs - I'm sure with a little time and some helpful answers to my questions I'll get there! Thank you very much for your advice.

 

[wonderings]

1 hour ago, Ragged Apple said:

Yes, that's certainly an option - but what I'm aiming to do is to take key files into APu and then continue using the program - replacing InDesign. If that fails then I'll attempt to rebuild the template in APu with the imported assets. The bottom line is that I am determined to use Affinity to avoid the subscription to Adobe. Yes, I used Quark for some years before changing to InDesign - and I didn't find it too bad a challenge. I expected to have some teething problems in changing programs - I'm sure with a little time and some helpful answers to my questions I'll get there! Thank you very much for your advice.

 

There are some serious issues with Publisher that you should be aware of. First off if you take PDF files from clients and need to bring them into Publisher as you would in Indesign you will be in for some headaches. Publisher was designed to make a PDF editable and while this sounds like a good thing it is a real headache as you cannot bring in a PDF into Publisher without it making it editable and to top that it cannot use the embedded fonts in the PDF so text will and does get messed up. Other things are missing like data merge, pre flight, etc. I would do serious testing of Publisher to make sure it will actually work for you in its present state. 

[Ragged Apple]

3 minutes ago, wonderings said:

There are some serious issues with Publisher that you should be aware of. First off if you take PDF files from clients and need to bring them into Publisher as you would in Indesign you will be in for some headaches. Publisher was designed to make a PDF editable and while this sounds like a good thing it is a real headache as you cannot bring in a PDF into Publisher without it making it editable and to top that it cannot use the embedded fonts in the PDF so text will and does get messed up. Other things are missing like data merge, pre flight, etc. I would do serious testing of Publisher to make sure it will actually work for you in its present state. 

Thanks for the pointer - I'll keep this in mind. I'm pretty much retired and my only commitment is to producing a village newsletter - so requirements are pretty much at the low end of the scale. However, I do like to fully understand the progams I use and any help is always welcome. I have used InDesign, Photoshop and Dreamweaver for years - and previously Illustrator, GoLive, Flash and Director. Always good to try something new - keeps the brain ticking! Thanks again.

[wonderings]

2 minutes ago, Ragged Apple said:

Thanks for the pointer - I'll keep this in mind. I'm pretty much retired and my only commitment is to producing a village newsletter - so requirements are pretty much at the low end of the scale. However, I do like to fully understand the progams I use and any help is always welcome. I have used InDesign, Photoshop and Dreamweaver for years - and previously Illustrator, GoLive, Flash and Director. Always good to try something new - keeps the brain ticking! Thanks again.

I am sure you can get it all done then with what you are doing, just something to watch for as a few people have been burned by placing PDF's and printing and finding out after that the text was messed up. The whole Affinity suite is a real value for the price and great for what you are doing. Next update I predict it will get closer to Indesign in terms of capabilities. 

[Ragged Apple]

3 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I am sure you can get it all done then with what you are doing, just something to watch for as a few people have been burned by placing PDF's and printing and finding out after that the text was messed up. The whole Affinity suite is a real value for the price and great for what you are doing. Next update I predict it will get closer to Indesign in terms of capabilities. 

Yes, I'm impressed by how quickly the Affinity group of programs is developing - real value for money and an excellent support system.