Publisher Page Thumbnails Grouping

[Yo’Vinny]

Often I will use many pages in an Affinity Publisher file because it is easier to manage these in one tile view rather than separate files.  It would be much easier to navigate these in a view that had groupings.

I've looked at the section manager and it does not seem to have this functionality in the thumbnails view (unless I'm missing something).  Does anyone know if this is a feature that I can't find or one that is being worked on for a new release?

[walt.farrell]

It almost sounds like using Artboards rather than Pages might work better for you. If you also own Designer you can use the Designer Persona in Publisher and then File > New will give you the option to create an Artboard rather than a Page. And from there you can create multiple Artboards. (No Master Pages, though, as a document can either have Pages or Artboards, but not both.)

Or, you can use Pages, and drag the Pages panel free from the left studio. At that point you can make the Pages panel wider and deeper, and see more of the page thumbnails.

[Dan C]

17 minutes ago, Yo’Vinny said:

Does anyone know if this is a feature that I can't find or one that is being worked on for a new release?

Unfortunately this isn't a function of the Pages Studio currently, my apologies. I'll move this thread to the Feedback section of the forums for our devs to see and consider

[Yo’Vinny]

Thanks @walt.farrell.  I also have Designer and have used it before including with Artboards.  The Artboards thumbnails create a similar navigation experience although I can either look at zoomed-out artboards or individual ones.  It is nice in Publisher to have both views...but I could manage this compromise.

However, I still can't group/ungroup Artboards in the thumbnail view which is really what I'm looking for.  The best equivalent that I can refer to is PowerPoint which allows me to group these thumbnails and then permit a click to expand or collapse those thumbnails.

[Yo’Vinny]

Thanks @Dan C.

Good to know I could not see a feature to do this.

[Pšenda]

19 hours ago, Yo’Vinny said:

It would be much easier to navigate these in a view that had groupings.

Just to clarify - do you think that the current linear pageviews

can be divided into colapsible individual groups, for example by chapters?

+1

 

[PaulEC]

That seems like a good idea, much easier than having to remember which page each chapter starts on, (or having to refer to an index).

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, PaulEC said:

That seems like a good idea, much easier than having to remember which page each chapter starts on, (or having to refer to an index).

I just do a Find for the Paragraph style I use on the Chapter titles.

[Yo’Vinny]

@Pšenda,

 

Yes...I want a collapsible hierarchy of views on the page view that essentially can allow me to group pages together in the view.

I didn't see that Chapters can do this...is that what you have configured to get that view?

[Pšenda]

13 hours ago, Yo’Vinny said:

I didn't see that Chapters can do this...is that what you have configured to get that view?

This is just a created image - a visual interpretation of your request.

[Yo’Vinny]

6 hours ago, Pšenda said:

This is just a created image - a visual interpretation of your request.

Bummer...yes that is what I needed.  Maybe soon.

[Yo’Vinny]

Did grouped thumbnails get added in some form to Affinity Publisher 2?

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Yo’Vinny said:

Did grouped thumbnails get added in some form to Affinity Publisher 2?

No. Except that we now can have Books, which contain Chapters, which are separate files. When you're working in a Chapter, it has its own editing tab in the Publisher workspace, and the Pages panel will show only the pages for that Chapter.

[Yo’Vinny]

Thanks @walt.farrell, but I don't see how this is much different than creating separate Publisher files and then opening them up in separate file tabs.  Does this mean in order to have grouped thumbnails I create chapters in the initial file, which then creates the separate chapter files, which then have different tabs independent of the original file.  Can you provide some further guidance or a help/tutorial link?

I have not purchased the V2 upgrade yet but will most likely do so.

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, Yo’Vinny said:

Thanks @walt.farrell, but I don't see how this is much different than creating separate Publisher files and then opening them up in separate file tabs.  Does this mean in order to have grouped thumbnails I create chapters in the initial file, which then creates the separate chapter files, which then have different tabs independent of the original file.  Can you provide some further guidance or a help/tutorial link?

I have not purchased the V2 upgrade yet but will most likely do so.

Unlike managing separate files on your own, a Book with Chapter files is treated as a single, well, book, for things like table of contents, index, footnotes, page numbering, etc. Styles are synced across chapters and everything can be updated automatically.

This is helpful for managing large and complex documents. But it's also helpful for people collaborating on a project because one person can be working on chapter 1 and another person can be on chapter 2.