Assets and populating

[grahamm7]

I am new to AF Publisher having used Serif Page Plus for quite a few years.  But now having to learn to drive this DTP app. I am using training videos to learn.  In one I learnt about Unleased under the Stock TAB and can search this amazing resource.  In the video the person showed how you could drag say an image from the canvas to the Asset area.  But when I did this no image appeared in the Asset area?  The image was still shown on an layer in the layer area.  The other thing struck me it would be good if the Asset area could be linked to a folder.  One could then put all ones assets such images for the publication in there to use for the publication one is buliding.  The training video was 7 Best Tips for AF Publisher.  

[jmwellborn]

Welcome, @grahamm7 !  Perhaps the video is older?  I am on my ipad right now, but I think I remember that originally one could drag the selected image on the canvas to the Assets panel to create a new asset.  If you will highlight the image (either click on the canvas or on the image layer), then go to your Assets panel, choose the category you want to use then click on the little icon with three lines immediately to the right of the category name, and choose  Add from Selection (at least I believe those are the right words), Your image will appear in your assets.  It is definitely a good idea to copy all your assets into a backup folder.   To do that, choose an asset category (such as My Stuff (🤔) and then go up to the hamburger icon at the TOP of the Assets Panel, click on that and choose Export Assets.  On MAC that sends you to Finder, where you can open a new folder or choose an Assets folder you have already created.   That way, if you want to store most of your assets outside Publisher,  in order to keep the app lean and mean, you can always open your Assets Panel, repeat the process, except this time click on Import Asset.

Hope this helps.

[grahamm7]

No that didn't seem to work.  I am using a Windows 10 machine not a MAC.  Following a tutorial under the Help.  I renamed the Asset Tag 'My Assets' then I created 2 sub-categories.  MyImages and MyTxt  I then inserted a graphics on the page.  Selected it and under the Subcategory RH menu box said Add selected and the image (or an icon) of it appeared in the Asset sub cat for images.  The graphics was still on the canvas.  But I could then drag that image in the sub cat asset onto the canvas if I wanted to.  I get that.  In the tutorial he seemed to be able to grab text and put it under Assets in say a sub cat called text.  I will have to play with this a bit more.  Bear in mind I am very new to AF Pulbisher having used Serif Page Plus and also I am on a Windows 10 machine.  But should be more or less the same on the screen.  But thanks for your answer.  I will have to investigate further.  One wonders where they store the images/icons.  It would be nice to link these to a folder on the machine where you could put all the images etc...

 

[jmwellborn]

I am on my iMac now.  Should be the same process with Windows 10, I think, for text.  Here is what I did.   I typed the text, using the Frame Text Tool, then reduced the Text Frame to the smallest possible amount do that there isn't any extra unused space around it.   Then with the Text Frame Tool, highlighted the text I want to save as an asset.   Then went to the Asset category (or subcategory in your case) and clicked on Add From Selection.   Because my example is in a large point size, only some of the text shows as an icon in the Assets Panel.   But I then dragged the asset onto the canvas and the entire phrase was there, just as it ought to be.   If you use a small point size (i.e. 11 pt or 12 pt type) your asset will appear as a very tiny little line of type in the Assets Panel.   It will still drag out to the correct size.  Here are examples of what I did.  The right-hand image shows the type-asset from the assets panel dragged below the same type entered directly in Publisher.   Will this help?

 

[walt.farrell]

In 1.8, dragging to the Assets panel works only on Mac. On Windows you must select the item and then use the burger menu to "Add from Selection".

That is improved in 1.9.

[jmwellborn]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

In 1.8, dragging to the Assets panel works only on Mac. On Windows you must select the item and then use the burger menu to "Add from Selection".

 

That is improved in 1.9.

That was what I thought.  In Publisher 1.7.3 it was easy to drag the selection on Mac.   Since then I have also  used the Add from Selection option. 

[grahamm7]

Ok so I'm on a Windows 10.  I am not trying to drag now. Although I seem to be able to drag images.  So I created a Text Frame used the Sample text.  Made it large.  I created Asset 'folder' MyAssets and two sub categories.  One for images say and one for text say.  I then Selected all the text and selected the add from the pull down RH context menu on the Sub category as shown.  But I don't seem to get the text stored as an asset under the Asset/sub-category-asset.  So I feel I am doing the correct thing as per the video I watched and the video on the AF help section.  

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, grahamm7 said:

But I don't seem to get the text stored as an asset under the Asset/sub-category-asset.  So I feel I am doing the correct thing as per the video I watched and the video on the AF help section.  

If you set the Assets to "Show as List" using the Panel's burger menu (not the Category's menu) you'll probably see it.

 

[jmwellborn]

@grahamm7 I tried the same thing with a longer group of text.   It still works.   From your screen shot I cannot tell which hamburger icon you selected , but I created a subcategory and everything still worked well.   It is very hard to see your assets panel with the dark UI but it does look to me as though you have three groups of text assets in your subcategory "Text."   Could you change your UI temporarily to Light, and then see what shows up in your Assets Panel?   I use the light UI but when I changed it just now, my assets panel looks like yours.   Dark, with very dark little groups of text.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

Note that it's much easier to see the text asset  in the Light UI, @jmwellborn

Thanks for showing that example!

[grahamm7]

Thank you now I have the light UI I can see it is working.   So I created one sub for images and one for text.  As shown:
However I thought thats a lot of text from the sample.  So I will select some of the text and delete it so that I have just a small piece of text to save.  This is a more likely senario.  There is paragraph of text you want to use elsewhere in the document.  Well bung it in assets.  So I tried to select some of the text within the text frame.  I could either have all the text selected but I couldn't by moving the cursor over text select it for cut/paste/del etc.  as I do in MS Word or any other editor.  The cursor would move over the text but pressing the normal mouse button didn't track the text and say colour it in someway.  Strange I'm thinking.  Any help what am I doing wrong.   But many thanks for all the advice and help so far.  I am rather a new comer to DTP and now that that you cannot import Page Plus into AF Publisher I am now a complete novice on AF Publisher.  I have been looking at videos and writing lots of notes to help.  Still think the break between the 2 is awful.  I published my first book in Serif Page Plus if I wanted to say re-issue it in revised form I cannot pull it into AF Publisher in any way.  Sorry for the moan Serif/AF.

[walt.farrell]

39 minutes ago, grahamm7 said:

So I tried to select some of the text within the text frame.  I could either have all the text selected but I couldn't by moving the cursor over text select it for cut/paste/del etc. 

It looks like you're using Filler Text. It is a solid block of text that will adjust to changes in the size of the text frame. You might want to right-click and choose Expand Field to make it normal text. Or you can change a Preference to have Filler Text added as normal text by default (but then you lose the potential benefits of using Filler Text).

[grahamm7]

Thanks guys for all the help.  I will now explore filler text v other text??  So I went on Affinity help and it didn't give much.  So I went on the tutorial videos and entered filler text didn't really give a good answer.  I have ordered the new book on AFPub and it should arrive shortly - hurrah.  I think with filler text the whole text is sort of linked to the frame.  I can play with this.  But if any of you know a tutorial video that might help.  That is how I have learnt so much.  I play the video on my LH monitor and then follow in AFPub on my RH screen.  But at my age my little grey cells are a bit slower than when I was a young spring chicken like all of you.

 

[grahamm7]

It says filler text uses Lorem Ipsum as the text and you can replace that with your own text?  Where?  I have looked in User/me/App Data/roaming which is where I would expect to find it maybe?  Any ideas

 

 

[GarryP]

You can change the filler text via Preferences / Filler Text.
Search for “filler text” (without the quotes) in the Publisher Help and click on the first link you are given for more information.