Importing Clipart into Assets in Affinity Publisher

[Archangel]

I finally worked out how to do this and thought I would share my method with you,

 

Method for adding Assets to Affinity Publisher based on clip art Collections you own.

 

First of all, created folders on your computer to store the clip art files you wish to include in your assets. Each folder should be a different category. Then copy across the clip art files into each of the folders according to their categories.

 

When you have amassed the files you wish to include, you are ready to fire up Affinity Publisher.

 

When affinity Publisher has loaded, simply start a new blank document. Then, using the Assets panel, use the menu to create a new Category and rename the category to one of your collection category’s names. You may also wish to use subcategories for related collections. For example, if you have an anatomy category you may wish to have subcategories of organs, eyes, ears, limbs … etc.

 

When you have created and renamed your categories and subcategories according to your own taste and requirements, you are ready to start the import process.

 

Make a category active by selecting it from the assets panel. Then use the place image tool to import the images you wish to use for assets from the folders you have set up. You may multiply select the files from within to folder using the shift key in windows to select a range of files. When you have selected them, click on the open gadget/button and Affinity Publisher will attempt to import the files. When it has done, so you will see the place tool panel with your images ready to import. Now the slow bit, repeatedly simply click on the blank document to place the images one by one on top of each other. They will appear stacked upon the page.

Now select them all in your document using CTRL-A. Then go to the category panel and use the menu item Add from Selection. Affinity Publisher will import them all into the category automatically. You may then delete all the items which are stacked on the document page.

 

Repeat until you have imported all your images.

 

You may wish to export your assets files for backup purposes or importing them into other Affinity apps.

 

If someone wishes to convert this into an official tutorial for users, then be my guest.

[Frances Proctor]

I do almost this same method but I drag and drop the multiple selected files into my document all at once and depending on the size of the clip art import quite fast.   And  you can export the category from the same menu where you created the categories and you will have a back up assets file that you can use to import your categories into Designer and Photo if you have them too.  

[Archangel]

11 hours ago, Frances Proctor said:

I do almost this same method but I drag and drop the multiple selected files into my document all at once and depending on the size of the clip art import quite fast.   And  you can export the category from the same menu where you created the categories and you will have a back up assets file that you can use to import your categories into Designer and Photo if you have them too.  

Yes, I have tried drag and dropping multiple items into the document but the amount that come across successfully can problematic. It works for a few items but not hundreds. The place tool, while a little slower, is more robust when dealing with many files (hundreds). I find this to be the case in Windows 10 anyway. WMF files can be tricky.

Importing into Affinity Designer seems to be a little snappier than in Affinity Publisher, so that could be an alternative,

[Frances Proctor]

anything really large like 100's of files you could break up the files and say select 50 at a time and drop them in.  I also have a folder for Affinity assets where I store all of my clipart, anything I've created etc,  this way I keep my assets panel lean and when I want certain assets I can just drag in the file I want and drop it on the top of the assets panel.

[Archangel]

21 hours ago, Frances Proctor said:

anything really large like 100's of files you could break up the files and say select 50 at a time and drop them in.  I also have a folder for Affinity assets where I store all of my clipart, anything I've created etc,  this way I keep my assets panel lean and when I want certain assets I can just drag in the file I want and drop it on the top of the assets panel.

That is a very good idea. Then when the Affinity applications support a media library you will be able to integrate the folders more easily.

I wish Affinity Designer had a batch function to allow converting of vector files into different vector formats. Photo only allows conversion into raster formats.