Merging Documents in Publisher (Inability to handle large documents)

[TimsO]

I use Publisher for book formatting and it works fine but it has a major setback; it can't handle large documents. Once you go pass 200 pages, Publisher starts to lag heavily. If you have images in the document, it is worse. 

My suggestion: Publisher should have a feature where documents can be formatted separately and merged later like InDesign. (called Book in InDesign). The user can format different chapters in different documents and merge them later in a way they will all sync together. I don't know which is easier for the developer. Improving the ability to handle large documents or developing the merge feature.

[Old Bruce]

Just now, TimsO said:

My suggestion:

You could try using the Add Pages from File...

[TimsO]

The problem with this method is that, you will be introducing the lag back into the document. Making changes will become difficult again.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, TimsO said:

The problem with this method is that, you will be introducing the lag back into the document. Making changes will become difficult again.

Make the changes in the Sections/Chapters/Parts. Reassemble it again, just a different way of working.

[TimsO]

6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Make the changes in the Sections/Chapters/Parts. Reassemble it again, just a different way of working.

That should work for the now. But having such feature will make working easier. Thanks

[MikeTO]

On 4/18/2022 at 12:28 PM, TimsO said:

I use Publisher for book formatting and it works fine but it has a major setback; it can't handle large documents. Once you go pass 200 pages, Publisher starts to lag heavily. If you have images in the document, it is worse. 

My suggestion: Publisher should have a feature where documents can be formatted separately and merged later like InDesign. (called Book in InDesign). The user can format different chapters in different documents and merge them later in a way they will all sync together. I don't know which is easier for the developer. Improving the ability to handle large documents or developing the merge feature.

I don't have any issues with lagging with 110K words and hundreds of inline pictures over 250 pages. Publisher handles large documents remarkably well.

I used to use Publisher on a 2015 MacBook Pro and it wasn't always speedy but it was acceptable. On my new 2021 MacBook Pro it's extremely speedy.

To test it, I just took my 250 pages and duplicated all of them to create a 500 page document. Publisher was completely smooth with no lagging at all.

If you're finding Publisher to be lagging, it has to be something with your machine or your document. If your document is a single story (a series of linked frames), I highly recommend breaking it up into multiple stories. This is a best practice in every page layout application because it reduces the amount of work the application has to do as content is added and removed.