The Great Open Need

[Jim Slade]

With the self-publishing market exploding, people are finding that Word does not cut the mustard. There is a critical need for something that:

Does styles well (that ain't Word). People need to be able to share stylesheets with the maybe 10 styles they need and not wade through the 50,000 word pre-defined styles that cannot be deleted. One should be able to set up styles separately from a document. I.e., Not have to format a document, and define styles from that which is already formatted (as Word does, and Word Pro did, but not like Pages)

Formats paragraphs well (again, that ain't Word). That means having some kind of paragraph composer that can be switched on and off (for editing).

Does hyphenation correctly (again, that ain't Word). Plus has the ability to specify non-breaking text.

Does footnotes/end notes/Index/Table of Contents

Handles placement of figures.

I'll stop at that list but I have a number of similar requirements that would exclude other products on the market,

Basically, the is a need that is growing for something more than Word but less than InDesign/Quark.

For the legal market there is a need for:

A product that can number paragraphs independently of numbered paragraphs. By that, I mean be able to have all paragraphs of specific styles numbered (typically in the margin) so that numbered paragraphs get a second number. This is critical for citation. Go to Document X and look at Paragraph N.

Can do a table of authorities (ie, one that actually works, unlike that of Word).

 

[GarryP]

It might be better if you give actual details of what you want rather than using vague words such as “well”, “correctly”, “does”, “handles”, etc.
If you don’t say exactly what you want then how can the developers know what you want them to do?

Also, please note the forum guidelines on multiple-issue threads – see attached image.

[walt.farrell]

I agree with @GarryP, Jim. Especially since several of your items already seem to exist (e.g., hyphenation, text styles, placement of figures) it would be beneficial to provide details on what else is needed in those areas, besides what already exists.

[Jim Slade]

Let me amplify then:

 

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Formats paragraphs well (again, that ain't Word). That means having some kind of paragraph composer that can be switched on and off (for editing).

Justified Word documents are instantly identifiable by their horrible word spacing. By well, I mean a professional looking job of justification. In this day and age, that should be done by paragraph (yet only Adobe seems to do at as an interactive produce).

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Does hyphenation correctly (again, that ain't Word). Plus has the ability to specify non-breaking text.

 

By correctly, I mean by the generally accepted standards. For example, in hyphenation, the rule is keep two and break three letter. Word ignores that.

Here's one of my favorites. Wold will break  "Matter of H—S—S—'s"  as

Matter of  H—S—S—

's

Word's hyphenation and line breaking is totally and completely FUBAR.

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Does footnotes/end notes/Index/Table of Contents

Should be self explanatory.

 

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Handles placement of figures.

Should be self explanatory.

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A product that can number paragraphs independently of numbered paragraphs. By that, I mean be able to have all paragraphs of specific styles numbered (typically in the margin) so that numbered paragraphs get a second number. This is critical for citation. Go to Document X and look at Paragraph N.

 

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Can do a table of authorities (ie, one that actually works, unlike that of Word).

 

 

Word has a table of authorities "feature" whose sole purpose is to say it exists. It has been totally broken since introduced in the 1990's and has never been upgraded.

Word dominates the market and serves as its baseline. However, with the exception of Opentype features introduced 15 years ago, I cannot thing of any of anything that has been done to Word to improve the look of documents since around 1990. In fact, Word still has not caught up to Samna Pro from the mid-1990's.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

And why do we care how well Word works or doesn't?

Wouldn't it be more relevant to comment on issues you see with Publisher?

[Jim Slade]

I give up. If no one gives a wet fart around here about how Publisher could fill the needs of the market, it never it going to (e.g. footnotes). The publishing community needs to look to someone else then

[GarryP]

8 hours ago, Jim Slade said:

I give up. If no one gives a wet fart around here about how Publisher could fill the needs of the market

On the contrary, Serif and a lot of people in the forums give quite a bit more than a “wet fart” about the future of the Affinity suite, Publisher included. If you give up looking for answers so quickly then you will probably not get the answers you want.

Your first post in this thread contained complaints about Word and other software, with some other vague complaints that need much more detail, and some complaints about missing functionality which actually exists.

Your second post consisted of complaints about Word and some comments about some things being, apparently, “self explanatory”.

Your last post was the first one in this thread that actually mentioned Publisher but you gave no examples of how Publisher doesn’t do what you want.

It will be much better if you break your problems down into single self-contained threads about Publisher which can then be addressed individually without there being a confusing mish-mash of responses about many varying issues.

I would recommend, that you:

• Pick one issue, for example, indexes;
• Search the forums for keywords related to that issue;
• Read the existing threads about that issue and see if any cover your particular problem;
• If you want to add your comments/questions to an existing thread then do so;
• If none of the existing threads covers your problem then create a new thread and give as full an explanation as you can as to what the problem is from a Publisher perspective.

Then, by all means, repeat the above for your other issues.

You will probably find that you get better responses and answers that way.

Edited January 16, 2022 by GarryP