Publisher File Name "Save As" Problem

[TimothyW]

I reuse Publisher file documents as templates. I rename the file (save as) when I reuse, then convert to pdf. When pdfs are published online, the site page "file name " on the upper right corner of the site page still shows the file name of the original template. "Save as" doesn't fix this. As a workaround, I have to change the file name under "preferences" in the pdf document. However, this is extremely time consuming. I need to make this file name update in Publisher.  Please advise.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @TimothyW.

There is a Fields panel in the studio (View > Studio > Fields from the Menu) which will let you change that. Look for the Title field in the Document section. At a minimum, if you set it to blank in your template document that should carry over and give you a blank field, rather than a field with completely incorrect info.

There have been Feature Requests to automatically change that field, but Serif hasn't implemented them yet.

[Pšenda]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

There have been Feature Requests to automatically change that field, but Serif hasn't implemented them yet.

And I personally hope that this erroneous request will never implement either, because "File name" and "Title of document" are completely different things. The mistake is that if "Title" is not set, the name of the file is inserted there (so that there is at least some title), which is then unnecessarily confusing for users. If for some reason the user wants the file name as the title of the document, then let him put it there, but it must not be done automatically.

[Old Bruce]

Perhaps the default text should be Title Field.

[Pšenda]

10 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Perhaps the default text should be Title Field.

In my opinion, there is no need to fill in "user" items, I even consider it a big mistake Affinity. These user items (as well as Author, Comments, Tags, Subjects, Revision) must remain completely under the control of the user - the application must not interfere with these items in any way. Like in Word, for example.

[TimothyW]

Your suggests above were super helpful. Thank you. A separate issue: is there a way to change a "file name" in Publisher without doing a "save as"  or closing the document? 

[Old Bruce]

On Mac OS I just use the finder and change the name there, it is automatically updated.

[TimothyW]

Thanks, Bruce. For us PC users, is there a way?

[Old Bruce]

Do this on a test file, could cause a crash or file corruption if I am wrong. You could try and just use the Windows OS file explorer whatever it is called.

[walt.farrell]

49 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

On Mac OS I just use the finder and change the name there, it is automatically updated.

Are you saying that you have the file Open in the Affinity application, and while it is Open you rename it in Finder, and the application recognizes that change and updates the UI to show the new file name?

If so, on Windows I can get the rename to work (to my surprise), but Publisher is not aware of the name change and continues to show the original name.

 

[Old Bruce]

21 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Are you saying that you have the file Open in the Affinity application, and while it is Open you rename it in Finder, and the application recognizes that change and updates the UI to show the new file name?

Yes.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Are you saying that you have the file Open in the Affinity application, and while it is Open you rename it in Finder, and the application recognizes that change and updates the UI to show the new file name?

I can confirm that I see the same thing on my Mac -- the change occurs in real time & can be seen in the toolbar if the Status item is visible. Interestingly, if only the name is changed in Finder, there is no * added to the filename in the toolbar Status because there is no unsaved change to the file & it can be closed without a warning to save it.

It even works using undo in Finder to revert the name to the unchanged version.

EDIT: I should have done more testing. It appears that on Macs, the filename updates immediately in the toolbar Status in AD & AP but not in APub. However, if while the file is open in APub after changing its name in Finder & I use File > Open Recent, the name is updated there, but if I try to select it there, the app hangs & I have to force quit it to continue. If the file has been closed first in APub then open recent works fine. 

The filename is also updated in the Dock immediately.

I suspect this has something to do with APUb's Fields panel where in Document Statistics the file name can be inserted into a text field in the document.

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Yes.

Another reason why putting a filename in a document title is nonsense.

[TimothyW]

Actually, you can change the file name .afpub while the file is open, interesting. And it creates a new .afpub document. You can't do this in Microsoft Word. 

[R C-R]

14 hours ago, TimothyW said:

Actually, you can change the file name .afpub while the file is open, interesting. And it creates a new .afpub document.

Are you saying that in the Windows version if you change the file name in APub, even without manually saving the file before closing it, it automatically creates a new afpub document? Or do you maybe mean if you change the file name (but not the .afpub extension) in File Explorer, this automatically creates a new afpub document?

[Pšenda]

34 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Are you saying that in the Windows version if you change the file name in APub, even without manually saving the file before closing it, it automatically creates a new afpub document? Or do you maybe mean if you change the file name (but not the .afpub extension) in File Explorer, this automatically creates a new afpub document?

You must rename file, and save open file (with original filename). It will only be saved if a change in document has been made!
Afinity does not control the open file, it can be deleted or renamed. Only if a change has been made in the document, it will be saved when Save - a file with the original name will be created.

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

You must rename file, and save open file (with original filename). It will only be saved if a change in document has been made!
Afinity does not control the open file, it can be deleted or renamed. Only if a change has been made in the document, it will be saved when Save - a file with the original name will be created.

But because the rename works in File Explorer, that should mean that Publisher did not keep the file open, and keep a connection to it. In turn, that may mean that Publisher was able (or chose to) read all of the file into memory. That may not work for large files, where only part of the file may be loaded.

And if Publisher does not read the complete file into memory, then either 

1. It will keep the file open and the rename will fail, or 

2. It will try to reopen the file sometime after the rename, and the Open will fail, and Publisher will issue an error message and close the file without saving any changes you've made 

[Old Bruce]

On 4/30/2022 at 10:01 AM, TimothyW said:

I reuse Publisher file documents as templates.

Getting back to the original post, is there a reason you don't just make some .aftemplate files as these are actually template files. When you have a Publisher document setup the way you want it to be go to File > Export as Template...

They will have Untitled as a default name and are unsaved so you get to / have to name them and save them.