Change of Template

[Paul Tracey]

I have a book created in Affinity Publisher, which I have been working on for two years. There are about a thousand photographs, which are linked to various folders, the text, is not linked, because it needs editing on the page.

The book is 26cm x 28cm and 270 pages long.

I wish to change the template to 25cm x 34cm, so as to create more white space, but I do not want to lose the original.

If I simply open the original, change its template, and save as a different name within the same folder, will I still have all the relationships with the photographs and crucially keep the original?

(I realise I will have to move a lot of things around in the new lay out).

Therefore ending up with two versions of the same book within the same folder, so that I can present both to publishers?

 

Thanks

Paul Tracey

[stokerg]

Hi @Paul Tracey and Welcome to the Forums,

On 3/16/2021 at 9:43 PM, Paul Tracey said:

If I simply open the original, change its template, and save as a different name within the same folder, will I still have all the relationships with the photographs and crucially keep the original?

 

 

That's correct, if you use File>Save As that will create a 2nd file that will still have the links to the images and you'll be able to work on this file, while keeping your original.

[aerinah]

How do you change an existing document's template? Or even detect which template a document is based on if you've forgotten what you chose when you created it?

I want to edit the template of an existing document (which is book length) to make the dimensions different. e.g. I think I made the template 8.5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide; what if I want to change it to 8.5 inches tall by 5.0 inches wide (for example)? 

And, if I do change the template I used for this document, and I've created other documents with the same template, will they change too?

Thanks in advance for any help!

PS I know one option is probably to create a new template, and then a new document, and copy/paste my content over to the new document, but I want to avoid that if possible, not least because it's enormous. Thx

[walt.farrell]

8 hours ago, aerinah said:

How do you change an existing document's template? Or even detect which template a document is based on if you've forgotten what you chose when you created it?

As far as I know, you can't do either of those. (Also, most documents are probably based on Presets, not on Templates.)

If you want to change the dimensions of your book, you would save a copy of it, and update that copy directly. Even if the book was based on a Template, and you could figure out which one, and you changed that Template, it would have no effect on any books created from the Template.

For changing a book's dimensions, you would have to use Document > Spread Setup to change all the pages' dimensions and margins. If you've used Master Pages to layout the book, you could create a new set of Master Pages, or modify the existing ones, to adjust the page contents to fit the new spread dimensions. That gets a bit trickier, depending on how well you designed the Masters and the page content originally.

[Old Bruce]

On 3/16/2021 at 2:43 PM, Paul Tracey said:

There are about a thousand photographs, which are linked to various folders ...

What I would do is use the Collect button in the Resource Manager and gather all those images from various folders into one folder. Granted this will double the amount of space used by some pictures but they will all be in the same directory/folder. Makes for easy portability and maintenance.

A downside to this is if you use a naming system whereby two (or more) of the images have the same name (Joe.jpg in two different folders). This is not a problem if you use separate folders but could do your head in if you follow my suggestion because the same names will be changed to Joe.jpg to Joe.jpg, Joe copy 1.jpg , Joe copy 2.jpg or some such scheme.

[aerinah]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

As far as I know, you can't do either of those. (Also, most documents are probably based on Presets, not on Templates.)

...

For changing a book's dimensions, you would have to use Document > Spread Setup to change all the pages' dimensions and margins. If you've used Master Pages to layout the book, you could create a new set of Master Pages, or modify the existing ones, to adjust the page contents to fit the new spread dimensions. That gets a bit trickier, depending on how well you designed the Masters and the page content originally.

Walt, thanks so much for the info/advice. You're right, when I said "template" I actually meant "preset". Sorry for my confusion. And I think the dimensions under Spread Setup probably are what I'm looking for. I'll play around with those. Thanks again!