Publisher: Editing assets

[RvS]

Hello,

I have a need to modify assets in Affinity Publisher so that all applications of that asset in the layout are automatically updated. But this doesn't seem to be possible. What exactly I mean is witnessed by this example:

The asset: I have defined a group of design elements as an asset. For example, this consists of several text boxes and lines. In the text boxes I enter an individual text at each position in the layout where I insert the asset.

The task: Now I want to change the asset afterwards. For example, I want to change the width of the text boxes.

The desired solution: It would be very helpful if I could change the asset centrally, so that the changes are also updated everywhere in the layout where I have inserted the asset. The individual text should not be lost in the process.

The current practice: Unfortunately, it does not seem to be possible to change the assets centrally at the moment. So far I have only found this way:

1. step: I have to delete the "old" asset in the "shelf" and replace it with the updated "new" one.
 
2. step: I search in the layout all places with the "old" asset and exchange there in each case the "old" against the "new". I then have to re-enter the individual text contents that I inserted in the "old" versions. This is a lot of work if you have already used the asset in the layout many times.  

The alternative to this step is: Make the changesm that turn the "old" into the "new" asset in all the places where I have already inserted the "old" asset. This is also very cumbersome.  


Is there a solution that saves one the multiple work? That would be quite wonderful.

Sincerely
Rüdiger  
 

[Joachim_L]

6 minutes ago, RvS said:

Is there a solution that saves one the multiple work? That would be quite wonderful.

Welcome to the Affinity forums @RvS!

What comes close to that what you want are Symbols, but unfortunately with APu you cannot create Symbols. Do you have also ADesigner installed? Lucky one. Switch to the Designer Persona, create your symbol there, make sure Sync is activated and switch back to the Publisher Persona.

To change the Symbol you have to change the elements inside the layer saying Symbol. Unfortunately you cannot move a Symbol to Assets, which would be handy.

[RvS]

Thank you for pointing out symbols. I have two questions about this:
1. if I create a symbol with Designer, but I can't create it as an asset in Publisher, how do I call the symbol in Publisher?

2. can I fill the symbol individually with text in the Publisher afterwards?

Kind regards
Rüdiger

[walt.farrell]

45 minutes ago, RvS said:

1. if I create a symbol with Designer, but I can't create it as an asset in Publisher, how do I call the symbol in Publisher?

You create the symbol in the Designer Persona in Publisher (not in the Designer application). If you need a new instance of the symbol in the Publisher Persona, you can copy an existing instance or you can switch to the Designer Persona again to get access to the Symbols panel.

[RvS]

After trying a lot, I still think it would be an interesting tool if you could change and update assets afterwards (like you can do with master pages).