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Keep slices after 'Data Merge manager' -> 'Generate'


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In short: Slices ought to be retained in Data-merge generated files and propagated in generated pages.

Scenario: User sets up a work file using Publisher and Designer tools. Using Publisher, 'Data Merge' is essential to position and populate the file with variables. Using Designer, slices are set up in the same file so that, once data merge file is executed, files can be exported quickly.

Data is imported, looks fine, user executes 'Data Merge manager' -> 'Generate'. Generated file looks fine at first but in Designer slices setup is gone! Replaced with UID-looking whole-page slice.

Slices cannot be copy/pasted (not clear why, when it could save time in setups and dimensioning), User has to come up with workarounds. Workarounds will increase possibility of error and timewaste.

Why is this a problem? This behaviour is detrimental for user since it:

  • results in unnecessary loss of user data and time,
  • requires generation of slices for each future data-merge generated file,
  • requires potentially problematic workarounds.

Expected behaviour: Slices are retained in data-merge generated file. This behaviour would be then coherent with retention of text-styles, master pages, swatches, preferences, and other user-set file characteristics and assets in data-merge generated files.

Alex

Mac Mini M1, mac OS Ventura

Affiñititos, how about a roadmap? (but with v2.1 efforts ... massive, tremendous improvement!)

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Off the top of my head I would suggest using the Layers Panel to make slices from the post Generate document's items.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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Yes, @Old Bruce  thank you. That indeed would be the quickest way to re-construct lost work and, following your idea, I did use it. However, it is my expectation (belief?) that unnecessary, and perhaps workflow ruining, loss of user work should not happen to begin with.

Alex

Mac Mini M1, mac OS Ventura

Affiñititos, how about a roadmap? (but with v2.1 efforts ... massive, tremendous improvement!)

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On 2/16/2022 at 4:37 AM, Aleksandar Kovač said:

Data is imported, looks fine, user executes 'Data Merge manager' -> 'Generate'. Generated file looks fine at first but in Designer slices setup is gone! Replaced with UID-looking whole-page slice.

Data Merge creates a completely new file. And one page on the original file can generate many pages in the new file. Even if the Slices were maintained, they would only be on the original page, not in the new pages.

I think you'll find that using Slices in Page-based files won't work well, if at all. They are designed for use in documents that have a single canvas or one or more Artboards. Not for documents with Pages.

But I haven't tried that yet, and I suppose I might be surprised when I do :)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

...

But I haven't tried that yet, and I suppose I might be surprised when I do :)

Yes, please try :) ... I have been using slices in a multi-page context for a quite some time to my advantage. One example being exporting in one click: custom-sized/custom-named bitmap slices for 3D texturing, PDF for prepress and trimmed JPGs for client preview. From my experience, slices behave fine and reliably in a multi-page context. One small inconvenience perhaps 'Continuous export' option being applied per-page rather than file-wide and user should go through pages and check 'Continuous export' for each page. This is an inconvenience in a relative sense, really. Rather a control feature. Since a file-wide 'Continuous export' in a file with a lot of pages could hypothetically produce an immense amount of unwanted files.

Somehow I expected slices to be propagated on newly generated pages since I consider slice definitions to be a part of the original page definition just like margins, guidelines, baselines or bleed. And there is a reasonable purpose for propagation: slices on newly generated files would help me achieve multiple exports described above much faster. ... I might be wrong in thinking this. It is only my expectation.

Alex

Mac Mini M1, mac OS Ventura

Affiñititos, how about a roadmap? (but with v2.1 efforts ... massive, tremendous improvement!)

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22 minutes ago, Aleksandar Kovač said:

I have been using slices in a multi-page context for a quite some time

Just to confirm before I get started with that experimenting, do you really mean a .afpub file with multiple Pages, or are you using multiple Artboards?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Just to confirm before I get started with that experimenting, do you really mean a .afpub file with multiple Pages, or are you using multiple Artboards?

Yes. A multi-page Publisher file and not Designer multi artboard file. For example, work in Publisher on a multi-page file, hit 'Edit in Designer' (not Designer persona) ... use those arrows in the bottom left corner to switch between pages in Designer. You should be able to add discrete slices to each page. When done, hit 'Edit in Publisher'. Edit some more. When you go back to Designer, the slices should be where you left them, per page.

Hm, come to think of it... I have never tried to put slices on Master pages in Designer 🤔 ... maybe that would lead to some beautiful solution/destruction?

Alex

Mac Mini M1, mac OS Ventura

Affiñititos, how about a roadmap? (but with v2.1 efforts ... massive, tremendous improvement!)

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29 minutes ago, Aleksandar Kovač said:

Hm, come to think of it... I have never tried to put slices on Master pages in Designer 🤔 ... maybe that would lead to some beautiful solution/destruction?

Thanks for the details. And yes, that's an interesting idea.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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