Can you insert shapes, like arrows between textbox & pictures in Affinity Publisher?

[Kendrick]

I am trying out Affinity Publisher-

My application is technical writing (directions), so I have been using Microsoft Publisher where I can write the directions in a text box & drop shapes (e.g. arrow, etc...) to point to the affected area in a picture I inserted. I have attached a .jpg from Microsoft Publisher as an example.

I am looking for alternative software that is equal to or better than MS Publisher.

I find their annual fee disturbing!

Can you easily insert commonly used shapes, like arrows between textbox & pictures in Affinity Publisher?

[Catshill]

I would use Affinity Designer for this very straightforward task.

[firstdefence]

It's easily possible in publisher. To make the job easier you could create several lines with the Pen Tool with arrow heads applied to the curve via the Stroke Panel and save them as assets, like so...

This lets you drag and drop ready made arrows that can then be positioned and edited as needed, you can also make text titles to drag and drop onto the image or text.

[Komatös]

If you use Windows or MacOS, you can download the Publisher as a 10-day trial. You can then test whether Publisher meets your requirements.

https://affinity.store/get/publisher/trial/

 

[carl123]

1. Draw a line with the pen tool and in the stroke panel you can add various arrow heads to one or both ends

2. There is an arrow asset pack here... just download, unzip and import it into your assets panel

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/37188-some-bw-arrow-assets/

3. With any arrow image/shape you download from the internet you can use File > Place to add it to your document

[thomaso]

For frequent use it can be worth to combined set of arrow + text frame in a Constraint Group and save it in the Asset panel. It makes it easier not only to place arrow together with text (possible with a simply Group, too) but in particular to adjust the arrow lengths + keeping its text frame centred, while each single item remains editable. – For instance: