Affinity Publisher - Bookmarks -> Long list of items challenge

[mnh]

Hi All,

I really need the Bookmark feature as some long documents and it is a good experience option for readers.

I inserted my anchors throughout the document and enable them to included in Bookmark export.

I cannot see how to arrange bookmarks in my order rather than Affinity picking bookmarks based on alphabetical order?

Also, if I have maybe 20-30 Bookmarks - how can I move items up the list? For example, selecting the very last item and trying to drag to the very top (first) order does not work.

The pane of the Anchor list does not scroll up. I think apart from drag and drop having some arrows to move items up and down long lists would be very beneficial.

Or did I miss something?

Thanks in advance

[mnh]

Hi,

The workaround I have found so far is to not create all your anchors at once. Then use numbers as building blocks e.g. 1.0 as Chapter 1 Bookmark section. Then sub-bookmarks for chapter 1 are 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and so forth. Once one chapter is complete drag them to the parent object e.g. 1.0 Chapter 1 level to have parent-child objects. Then collapse Chapter 1.0 and move on to doing Chapter 2.0 and so forth. This way the sorting is via numbers of sequence you define not alphabetical sorting of bookmark texts. Also makes it easier to see which sub-sections go into what parent section. Doing one chapter at a time makes it easier to arrange also, as the current method does not make it possible to drag items from bottom to top (if more items than fit on the pane of bookmkark anchors...).

In PagePlus this was a little easier for large items and creating items as sub-items. I know we have now drag and drop and the likes, but having ability to sort bookmarks in my order and also move elements up,down, sideways (for parent/child) is necessary for when there are more than 10-20 anchors for example.

[Kevin B]

Hello MNH, 

Happy new year and are you still here in the forum? I'm suffering the same problem as you did above a year ago, and wondering if you have any new tricks that you can share? I haven't seen any mention of anchors and bookmark export in the AF Publisher updates, and doing some testing shows me the same functionality. Yes numbering is the only manner I see (still) to control the order, but it's awkward to number every page and the alternative is some manual PDF bookmark editing of the final deliverable. 

Anchors and bookmarks are, as you wrote, a challenge and limits AF Publisher's usefulness for longer structured publications. 

Thanks and Regards, Kevin