Newbie - Designer or Publisher

[Damodee]

Good Morning Everyone,

Can someone help me on two points please - I have been watching videos on-line but are non the wiser!

1. If I want to produce a PDF document, which will be a guide on how to use Microsft Teams at work, that contains pictures, bitmap images of windows screens and text which programme would be better - Designer or Publisher?

2. When I try to import a bitmap of a screen grab, like a snip of a windows programme (if you follow), into Designer as soon as I resize it becomes unreadable. If I do the same in MS powerpoint I can re-size it big and small it never loses any of it's detail. Am I doing somthing wrong?

Thank you in advance for you help.

BTW I'm finding the learning curve in Designer to be a bit over whelming even when reading and watching the guides.

Damian 

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @Damodee
1) If you need multiple-page PDFs and use a lot of text then Publisher is probably best but we don’t have enough information about your full requirements to give a more detailed answer.
2) Can you give us more details? How are you “importing”? How large is the screen-grab in pixels? What do you mean by “resize”? What do you mean by “unreadable”?

[Damodee]

Thanks Garry for your quick response! I'll try and explain more:

1. My requirement is to have text which includes a paragraph underneath with a small picture of what steps to follow if you need to send a invite in Teams for example. -Kinda of like a software manual?

2. I'm importing by using Windows snip it tool, and then crtl-v into designer.It appears small and when I resize it to what I need it looks pixelated. If I do similar in power point it doesnt do this and it seems as if powerpoint is smoothing it out? I understand why it's pixelating it but I dont know if I should be saving the screenshots and then importing using a special menu.

 

I love Affinity Designer becasue it has more tools than powerpoint but if publisher will let me do the same as Powerpoint I dont mind paying for it. 50 quid is a steal!

Damian

[GarryP]

Publisher is probably a better choice for user guides and manuals.
You can export to multiple-page PDFs much easier and you have text flow options which are not available in Designer.
You always have the choice to buy Designer later if you need its extra functionality.

I’ve just done a test, copying with Snip & Sketch and pasting to Designer, and copying with Snip & Sketch and saving to disk then Placing in Designer and I don’t get any difference in image quality, see attached image in which the document has a DPI of 72 (pasted image on the left, placed image on the right) – you may need to zoom in.
You may need to check your document DPI – images on the clipboard are 72 DPI – and also make sure that your image is aligned to the pixels in your document (integer pixel values when document units are pixels).

[Damodee]

Thanks Garry I will give that a go!

I may get publisher anyway just for the flexabilitly!

Happy New Year to you!!

[AlanPickup]

I do a lot of helpsheets in publisher using the snip and sketch tool, one thing to consider is the zoom level of your screen when you snip. If you only want a small part of the screen increase the zoom level until you get a good size image. If you are using a small part of the screen at normal zoom and then enlarge it when pasted it will pixelate. 

[Damodee]

Thanks Alan.

I splurgged on Publisher and I can now finally see why Designer and Publisher overlap and where each is a better choice.

I needed the advatage of multiple PDF sheets in one document which Designer cannot do and that alone made me purchase it!

[AlanPickup]

It is certainly worth learning the basics in Publisher for this type of work. If you have a standard format for your helpsheets try saving them as templates. use the master pages to set up your headers and footers, just liek you would in word.

Do not be afraid to ask other members or think you are being silly asking something basic, this is one of the most helpful and friendly forums I have come across.

Good luck on your journey