Can't figure out out some basics in my switch from ID to Publisher

[PeeGeeBee]

Having loved the look of it for the first five mins, I realise I have made almost no progress in moving from ID to Affinity Publisher over the past year, mainly because I simply can't find a handful of basic essentials that I use every few mins in ID. There are tons of video and other Publisher tutorials on here and on YouTube, but it feels like info overload with very few real-world examples. For example:

1. How can I make subsequent text move to a new/next page. In ID I place my cursor in mid-text, type FN-Return (on a Mac) and the following text shifts to the next page. That way I can easily break up a large body of text into 'chapters' as I go through it for the first time.

2. How can I turn off spelling underlining, including under URLs? OK this is a small thing, but I'd have thought there'd be an option in the Preferences.

3. How can I turn off the text threading arrows (except when I want to see them?)

4. When I edit a paragraph style (and of course I love how Publisher live updates the text as I do) how do I get my choice to 'stick'? There's no 'Save' button, so when I stop checking out the options, the Style goes right back to what it was. Am I missing something? Am I only editing the over-rides? If so, where do I edit the Styles themselves. Or is Publisher ignoring the Styles imported with the IDML file?

5. I've already resigned myself to starting over from scratch with  Tables of Contents (none of the IDML files I've brought over from ID any longer have functioning TOCs -- if I change something and choose 'Update' All Tables of Contents' from the Text Menu, again nothing happens.)

I'm sure the tutorial files are great, but most of what's there is irrelevant for someone simply trying to move lightly formatted all-text books (no illustrations) from ID to Publisher. So far, as with my parallel planned move from Photoshop to Affinity Photo, it's proved much less hopeful than it looked at the start.

If anyone is  offering a couple of hours of one-to-one online user-focused tutorials, I'd be interested to hear of it.

 

In any case, good wishes to all

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @PeeGeeBee

1. I don’t use InDesign so I can’t comment on an alternative workflow.
2. Try menu “Text → Spelling → Check Spelling While Typing”. Or, switch to “Preview Mode”.
3. Try unchecking menu “View → Show Text Flow”.
4. Not exactly sure what you are doing but look for the “Update Paragraph Style” and “Update Character Style” buttons at the bottom of the “Text Styles” Panel.
5. You will probably be much better-off using the TOC functionality from scratch rather than expecting an import to do exactly what you want every time.

Note: This isn’t the right place for the solicitation of one-on-one tutorial services.

Note: It is usually better for everyone if you split multiple questions into their own threads. This makes it easier to follow the discussions.

[Dan C]

Hi @PeeGeeBee,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums 

12 hours ago, PeeGeeBee said:

1. How can I make subsequent text move to a new/next page. In ID I place my cursor in mid-text, type FN-Return (on a Mac) and the following text shifts to the next page. That way I can easily break up a large body of text into 'chapters' as I go through it for the first time.

Please see the below link where this has been previously covered by on of our developers -

I hope this helps!

[Engineering_text]

Gary wrote:

"4. Not exactly sure what you are doing but look for the “Update Paragraph Style” and “Update Character Style” buttons at the bottom of the “Text Styles” Panel."

I am also trying to find out how to edit a style and save the changes to that style the same as the original poster requested.  Please post a photo showing where the "update paragraph style" and "update test Styles" buttons are. I am looking at the sidebar with paragraph and text settings for my given style. I scroll to the bottom and do not see such buttons. 

I see Transform, history and navigator and a tiny trash can at the bottom.

[Old Bruce]

9 minutes ago, Engineering_text said:

I am also trying to find out how to edit a style and save the changes to that style the same as the original poster requested.  Please post a photo showing where the "update paragraph style" and "update test Styles" buttons are. I am looking at the sidebar with paragraph and text settings for my given style. I scroll to the bottom and do not see such buttons. 

Regarding the Update items they are accessed in two places in the Context toolbar and in the Context menu when you Control Click or Right Click on the name of a Paragraph Style or a Character Style in the Text Styles panel.

[Engineering_text]

Thanks. After doing the right click I saw the drop down list which included "Edit Style" which is the most straightforward way of doing what I was trying to do, literally "edit the style" I had created. This is like an Easter Egg hunt. I now see there is also the ability to apply a style without over-writing characters where I have applied subscripts and have some Greek symbols in the text. That is huge for my workflow. 

Thanks again.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, Engineering_text said:

have some Greek symbols in the text

Once you are more comfortable with using Styles you may want to try making a Font specific Character Style for those occasions. Just another layer of security so you don't loose them inadvertently. If you have a good font for the symbols set that and set everything else to inherit. Meaning the font will be the "Really Well Formed Greek Symbols Font" for those characters and the colour and size and leading etc will be inherited from the Paragraph style.

[rootje]

For indesign users this really looks strange. That you cannot edit and save in one act per style.

 

[MikeTO]

4 hours ago, rootje said:

For indesign users this really looks strange. That you cannot edit and save in one act per style.

Hi and welcome to the forum. You can edit and save a style in one place. From the Text Style panel, click the menu icon to the right of a style name and choose Edit <style name>. Make all the changes you want and then click OK to save.

You can also edit a style by just applying formatting attributes to text set in that style and then updating the style from those changes. For example, make some text into Heading 1, change its font, size, colour, etc, and then click the menu icon to the right of the style name and choose choose Update <style name>. All of your changes will be applied to the style automatically and then re-applied to any other text set as Heading 1.

Cheers

[rootje]

21 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Hi and welcome to the forum. You can edit and save a style in one place. From the Text Style panel, click the menu icon to the right of a style name and choose Edit <style name>. Make all the changes you want and then click OK to save.

You can also edit a style by just applying formatting attributes to text set in that style and then updating the style from those changes. For example, make some text into Heading 1, change its font, size, colour, etc, and then click the menu icon to the right of the style name and choose choose Update <style name>. All of your changes will be applied to the style automatically and then re-applied to any other text set as Heading 1.

Cheers

Hi Mike - thank you. I now see what confused me. I tried to do this in the window 'Paragraph' instead of 'Text styles'.  I was used to paragraph and character.

Edited November 29, 2022 by rootje

[Old Bruce]

38 minutes ago, rootje said:

Hi Mike - thank you. I now see what confused me. I tried to do this in the window 'Paragraph' instead of 'Text styles'.  I was used to paragraph and character.

@MikeTO in addition to your method (one which I use occasionally) we can also do this from the context menu. I have inadvertently done so several times.

[MikeTO]

2 hours ago, rootje said:

Hi Mike - thank you. I now see what confused me. I tried to do this in the window 'Paragraph' instead of 'Text styles'.  I was used to paragraph and character.

We all experienced that confusion when coming to Affinity but Publisher's Text Styles panel which unifies paragraph and character styles in one place more powerful. I'm a bit surprised Adobe hasn't copied it yet.

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

@MikeTO in addition to your method (one which I use occasionally) we can also do this from the context menu. I have inadvertently done so several times.

I always forget about that one - I never use the text formatting controls in the Context Bar. I'd hide the Context Bar entirely but it's the only way to get to Picture Frame Properties, there is no menu command or shortcut. Plus I already have the Toolbar hidden and with the rulers off, Affinity looks really odd with nothing above the document area. The page goes right up to the menu bar and the only way to drag the window is with the empty area of Tools or the window button.

[rootje]

Getting more used to the differences now but figuring out now how to make captions that stick to my photo's. Seems that there is no way to do that the way we did that in Indesign. Are you using the option pin to text for illustration? 

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, rootje said:

Getting more used to the differences now but figuring out now how to make captions that stick to my photo's. Seems that there is no way to do that the way we did that in Indesign. Are you using the option pin to text for illustration? 

I would probably create a separate Text Frame for the caption, move it below the image, and Group the two objects.

[rootje]

20 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I would probably create a separate Text Frame for the caption, move it below the image, and Group the two objects.

Thanks Walt, but I hope a better feature for this will be included in Publisher

. I'm now grouping it with the pin text option.