Moving large numbers of pages

[Klaatujohnson]

I have a 600 page book, completed, and I wish to move 70 pages of a chapter to a different place. Can it be done? All I see is moving one page at a time.

 

Thank you.

[walt.farrell]

You can select a group of pages in the Pages panel and drag them to a new location.

I would do this on a copy of the document. Also, if it's a Facing Page document you'll want to make sure that they end up on the same side they started on (a left page end up on the left; a right page on the right.

[thomaso]

Unfortunately there is no way yet to move pages via a dialog window but manually via mouse moves only. A workaround could be to save a copy of your .afpub, delete the pages you want to move, save again and finally add the desired page range from the initial document via the document merge feature. This lets you specify a page number where the pages will get added.

https://affinity.help/publisher/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Advanced/mergeDocument.html?

 

@walt.farrell,  if I select a page, page range / spread(s) in the Pages panel and press CMD X (for 'cut'), the blue highlight jumps to another page thumbnail in the panel (leaving the originally selected pages unchanged). Do you have any idea why it jumps to highlight a different and a single page? It seems that Affinity understands the command but handles it strangely.

(The blue thumbnail highlight jumps e.g. from the selected spread 20/21 to page 12. If I select a page or spread before page 12 then nothing happens. It doesn't matter whether the selected page is also the current page)

[boorowaboy]

I keep looking for a sensible answer to the ability to insert and move pages in a long document. Obviously this has not been of great concern yet as walt.farrell still suggests cut and paste. I have had several pieces of excellent advice from walt so I take it nothing is happening.

I am a book designer although nearing the end of my career and I advise my designer friends to look at Affinity Publisher as an option. However I have to tell the publication designers that they could be in real difficulties in a long publication with the usual number of corrections and changes. Why is it so difficult to white the 'code' which would achieve the ability to move pages via a dialogue box? The sort of options which are available in the other programs look pretty complex. Is the printed or electronic page at the end of the programmers list of jobs to do?

I live in hope

[boorowaboy]

Hi Will

I first wrote this question a couple of versions ago. I haven't bought V2 only because my mac OS is 10.13.6 High Sierra. ( I keep this because of other programs which I use become subscription with the next upgrade) Anyway does V2 of AfPub have the ability to move pages with a dialogue box as Indesign does. I sincerely hope so because the suggested option is very very tiresome.

I look forward to an answere whenever you have time.

ps I looked at several of the videos of the V2 and couldn't find any which addressed the moving page options. Or any questions I could ask.......

[MikeTO]

At this time you can only move pages visually with the Pages panel, there is no dialog box.

[boorowaboy]

Thanks for the update Mike. Do you have any idea why they can't introduce this option? As a book designer it is essential to be able to move pages around, even magazines and programs are subject to last minute changes which require not only movement of images and text but pages. Anyway you will know all about that sort of process.

Is there anywhere where a list of requirements could be suggested for future updates? 

Cheers

[MikeTO]

8 hours ago, boorowaboy said:

Thanks for the update Mike. Do you have any idea why they can't introduce this option? As a book designer it is essential to be able to move pages around, even magazines and programs are subject to last minute changes which require not only movement of images and text but pages. Anyway you will know all about that sort of process.

Is there anywhere where a list of requirements could be suggested for future updates? 

I don't know why this feature doesn't exist but I imagine it will be added at some point. It's kind of funny - when the first DTP apps were released, you could only move pages with a dialog. Users hated it because they kept deleting the wrong pages. If you had 10 pages of front matter, moving page 25 meant entering 35, its absolute page number. The page panel was introduced to avoid this issue.

But sometimes the Move Pages dialog is still useful so it would be nice to have it added. It would be even nicer if it had some sort of visual confirmation so you knew you were moving the right pages. The Delete Pages dialog could use this enhancement, too. For example, if I enter 25 as the starting page number, the dialog could show me a thumbnail of page 25 which might help me realize that I should have entered a different number. Or when I enter 25 the dialog could show me its relative page number (15), too.

To request a feature, just post in the Feedback forum. I'll go ahead and post this one now because I want to describe these ideas about a visual confirmation.

Cheers

[MikeTO]

 

[boorowaboy]

Thanks Mike

I hadn't thought about the absolute page numbering detail. I had forgotten about using Pagemaker. I feel certain that when moving Indesign pages in a book with say roman numeral prelims say—i,to xvi— then that was treated as a section so moving a group of arabic numbered pages would move only those pages so you didn't need to add 16pp to your selection.

I will be interested to see how this progresses. Thanks for the history

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, boorowaboy said:

I feel certain that when moving Indesign pages in a book with say roman numeral prelims say—i,to xvi— then that was treated as a section so moving a group of arabic numbered pages would move only those pages so you didn't need to add 16pp to your selection.

I know that InDesign allows you to enter relative numbers instead of absolute but I can't recall what it does if there are duplicate relative numbers. For example, if sections 2 and 3 are both numbered 1, 2, 3 and you enter 3, I don't recall how it knows that 3 is absolute or relative or whether 3 is in which section.

Some apps are more explicit and you specify the section and page number to move from and the section and page number to move to. This avoids any confusion.

[boorowaboy]

Hi Mike   Are you the author of the Publisher Manual?

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, boorowaboy said:

Hi Mike   Are you the author of the Publisher Manual?

Yes, I've written an unofficial manual which is available from the link in my signature if that's the one you're referring to.

[Writer in the North]

It is an absolute pain that there is no 'Move Pages' option in Publisher 2. The 'drag and drop' option is just not convenient when you are trying to move a sizeable number of pages from a place earlier in a big document to one much later, or vice versa. Surely it can't be such a big deal to create a 'Move' option by specifying location.

[David Creating Games]

It's such a pain not having a 'Move Pages' option in Publisher 2. It's just not convenient to 'drag and drop' a sizeable number of pages in a sizeable document across many pages.

[MikeTO]

2 hours ago, David Creating Games said:

It's such a pain not having a 'Move Pages' option in Publisher 2. It's just not convenient to 'drag and drop' a sizeable number of pages in a sizeable document across many pages.

There is a new feature to do this in the upcoming version 2.6.

[David Creating Games]

Good news. Any release date?

[MikeTO]

Not yet. 2.5.6 is coming soon and then 2.6 will be released when it's solidified. 2.6 is a big one.