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Feedback from an Ingrate


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Dear Serif

I wouldn’t want to cast aspersions which were wrong but I get the nagging thought that perhaps Serif has rather come down to thinking in a partisan way. Perhaps acting along the lines of the following convictions.

1. Only professional graphic designers use iPads and apple computers, those who use Pageplus especially those who require book capacities, tend to be amateurs.

2. These InDesign users are the ones we need to concentrate on to win them away from Adobe programs.

3. Although there is a driving need to produce an application to convert InDesign files to publisher, there is little incentive to provide an equal facility for Pageplus users because it is far harder to do this than it is for the much simpler InDesign.

4. Those who have used PagePlus, personally I have been on board since version 1.0 (I have the Manual to prove it on my shelf), seem much less deserving of Serif’s attention than the people who have paid exorbitant prices to Adobe in the past.

5. Just in passing I learn that the Apple version of Photo has the additional Apple featured set of colours.

6. I also note, in passing, that through all the tuition videos, only one book “Alice in Wonderland” appears to be referenced. All the rest seem to be Flyers and pamphlets of only a few pages long.

Now I’m not suggesting that I belong to a downtrodden section of your clientele but it does seem strange that the requests by those who put books together are treated in such an off-putting way. Especially when they ask for the following:

Footnotes, Endnotes, a way of putting chapters together as single files to be incorporated in a book, or a Text editor.

I seem to sense an attitude of standoffishness on the part of those who make decisions about the direction in which the program is going, a reluctance to share the thinking or the plans ahead.

A huge contrast with the old days when the users were treated with a lot more respect and friendliness.

But there again maybe I am acting purely out of suspicion and hurt feelings that have no substance in fact, I’m sure that other correspondents are ready and willing to put me right on everything I say.

From a genuine Serif adherent throughout all their history, from the times when they were ignored by Quark Express and Pagemaker alike as an inefficient upstart.

John Kay

 

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I'm not sure why you're talking about PagePlus here! Serif are no longer developing it, they are now producing the Affinity range. There are plenty of references to this in these forums.

9 minutes ago, jrkay said:

only one book “Alice in Wonderland” appears to be referenced.

I think you'll find they they use "Alice" as an example because it is out of copyright. Why would they need to use lots of different books just to demonstrate the basics of layout etc.

AFFINITY PUBLISHER IS NOT A NEWER VERSION OF PAGEPLUS, it is a new piece of software, "built from the ground up".

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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22 hours ago, jrkay said:

I seem to sense an attitude of standoffishness on the part of those who make decisions about the direction in which the program is going, a reluctance to share the thinking or the plans ahead.

 

Being a LONG time Aldus/Macromedia/Adobe user I have never used Serif's products before the Affinity range, but I can't help but feel that while Serif is still a small company it desperately wants to be seen as competition to the likes of Adobe, and behaves as if it already were. Adobe isn't going anywhere (that statement works on SO many levels). To me, this is missing the real opportunity for Serif to not only create something wonderful in it's own right with the Affinity range, but also redefine how companies work with their users to redefine what creative software (and the communities that use it) should be. 

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22 hours ago, jrkay said:

I seem to sense an attitude of standoffishness on the part of those who make decisions about the direction in which the program is going, a reluctance to share the thinking or the plans ahead.

A huge contrast with the old days when the users were treated with a lot more respect and friendliness.

From what I saw (with Affinity, not the legacy programs): Serif used to provide more information (e.g., a roadmap) for the Affinity programs, but it caused problems within the user community and with the community interaction with Serif. So they no longer provide info on their plans.

Perhaps in the old days the users showed more respect and friendliness toward Serif? Many users here seem to get angry if Serif doesn't provide exactly the functions they want to see in the timeframe they want to see them, or if they see Serif developing other functions instead of the ones they wanted.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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