Unit of measurement

[JBL08]

Just wondering why it's so difficult and no solution in changing the unit of measurement e.g to INCHES. Why do we have to set it up when we first start a document?

I don't know how other users prefer their pages and other stuff but we as designer/printers in Nort America uses and buy paper in inches not in Picas nor mm or cm, etc.

We can do it in other software program that we use and we can even change the measurements of different page in the same document file.

We bought Affinity Publisher knowing it's a great program but with this simple task, it is so inconvenience.

   

[walt.farrell]

30 minutes ago, JBL08 said:

I don't know how other users prefer their pages and other stuff but we as designer/printers in Nort America uses and buy paper in inches not in Picas nor mm or cm, etc

There are Presets in File > New that are intended for European use (the various "A something" sizes) and others intended for US use (like Letter and Legal). The European sizes are in mm, as specified by the standards, and the US ones are in inches.

If you're working in the US can't you just use the Presets intended for our use?

[Komatös]

I don't understand the question? When you create a document, you can specify the unit of measurement to be used throughout the document. This can also be changed later.
And different page formats in one document are also possible. For example, if you create the document in A4, all pages are in A4 format. With the spread setup you can give all or selected pages a new/own page format. 

   

[Bikerbudmatt]

21 hours ago, JBL08 said:

Just wondering why it's so difficult and no solution in changing the unit of measurement e.g to INCHES. Why do we have to set it up when we first start a document?

I don't know how other users prefer their pages and other stuff but we as designer/printers in Nort America uses and buy paper in inches not in Picas nor mm or cm, etc.

Um, there is a solution, and very similar to that used in the <cough> other major publishing application.

1. Point at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers in the upper-left corner of the document window. (If they are not visible, select View->Show Rulers, or type COMMAND/CTRL + R)
2. Right-click or CTRL-click on the intersection.
3. From the contextual menu that appears, select your preferred unit of measurement.

Everything from rulers to information boxes will now display in that unit. 

Unsolicited bonus: If you want to change the "page origin" (the point from which the H and V rulers measure "0"), click and drag from that spot. Again, exactly like the other, captive-subscriber-hobbled application.

Finally, know that many of us here in North America very much design and think in picas and points, and campaigned hard to encourage Serif to include it in the program.

[MikeTO]

Off topic, but picas and points is the traditional measurement system for professional page layout in North America. It's ideal since type is already measured in points.

[Bikerbudmatt]

23 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Off topic, but picas and points is the traditional measurement system for professional page layout in North America. It's ideal since type is already measured in points.

It took me a day to learn how to think in points and picas when I was learning typesetting on a Compugraphic machine in 1981. It properly remains the way I spec and set everything I do to this day. That includes Microsoft Word documents, where setting margins and hanging indents in points is so much easier and faster than doing the same in decimal inches. 

I would probably find metric measurements workable, but they are discouraged in the USA and so they are not a go-to. 

It doesn’t matter, though—Serif provides enough measurement systems (including yards!) to keep everyone happy, and they are all available on the fly with a single right-click.