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Hey everyone. I need to know if there is a way to establish a page order when we export multiple artboards to a PDF. Currently, even though I set up my artboards in order, once they were exported, they actually came out in the reverse. So instead of 1 to 14, it came out 14 to 1 in page order.

 

 

How can I reverse this? Is there some way to also set the order on export and is there a certain way we must lay out our multiple documents in order to get the pages right all the time? Thanks.

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Hi afronique,

 

the first “page” of your PDF is the artboard at the bottom of the Layers list, not the artboard at the top of the list. Simply rearrange the artboards in the layers list from bottom to top according to my screen shot.

 

Cheers, Alex  :)

 

Oh, Dave was faster … by the way, would it be possible to have a rearrange option (checkbox) here for export?

post-1198-0-01190200-1452245559_thumb.png

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I wouldn't have thought it would be necessary to have a rearrange option during export. Artboards are exported in is the same order they are created, so normally there should be no need to reorder them at all. New document, create 3 artboards Artboard1, Artboard2, Artboard3, and they'll export as Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 respectively.

 

We plan to add proper multi-page support, with a Pages panel, and that should render this issue moot.

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From a technical point of view, you are very right, Dave. But from a user’s perspective things look a bit different, in my opinion. The Layers panel presents itself as a list, and according to all customs and conventions, it seems natural not to look at the bottom of a list to find the first item on the list. I am quite sure that nobody reads a list from bottom to top, regardless of the technical aspects that might underlie the creation of it … so the confusion is all too understandable …  ;)

 

Never mind, the implementation of a Pages panel should solve this problem …  :)

Cheers, Alex

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Thanks everyone!!! Totally didn't know that's how AD worked in exporting, good to know now.

 

 

I wouldn't have thought it would be necessary to have a rearrange option during export. Artboards are exported in is the same order they are created, so normally there should be no need to reorder them at all. New document, create 3 artboards Artboard1, Artboard2, Artboard3, and they'll export as Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 respectively.

 

We plan to add proper multi-page support, with a Pages panel, and that should render this issue moot.

 

Ok thanks, and yes that option would be helpful! This was my first time using AD to do a PDF, I normally would use Illustrator Artboards or Pages or InDesign to whip up something super quick. I was just used to in Illustrator that once we give the boards names it takes the preference of that and also if we lay it out 1 to 14 it would honor that. I think when I created the document, I started with cover page and onwards, but I like ordering my layers from top to bottom so it makes sense looking at it visually. Lol, so that I see is what caused the error. It'd be nice that if we name the boards it could honor the Alphabet or numerical naming system, or somehow gives the option on export like you said, that would be great. I'll definitely try that trick to reversing the orders of the artboards and see how it works out. Prior to seeing the replies here, I did just go ahead and use Adobe Acrobat to put the pages in order and add links.

 

Will the new Publisher app have ability to add links, and media and such to PDFs and can we also use it to create eBooks?

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Oh and another question, is there a way to add multiple artboards when you just create a brand new document? So when that dialog box pops up and you have a check mark for "create artboard" is there some way that it can create multiples and not just 1? Or can we only do that after the doc is opened?

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Or can we only do that after the doc is opened?

 

Unfortunately, yes … you can only insert a single artboard on document creation, but I am sure this option will change in future versions. Think of artboards for standard icon sets or the like …  :)

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  • 4 years later...

Affinity/Serif, please hire an professional ergonomist who is familiar with Interface usability and user logic. This is not a job for programmers. 
The thing with the page export in reverse order, because the artboards are always inserted at the top of the page, although they are then automatically inserted from left to right, is completely confusing. Sorry too many WTF moments lately with Affinity Designer. On so many levels such a great tool but then so many teething troubles which are really annoying.

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  • 4 months later...

I agree with 3joern.

Right now I'm working on a presentation in AD and after exporting all is reversed.
YES: REVERSED.
It opens it in the wrong order.
AD is my 'better' tool for making presentations. How have I done presentations earlier? In PowerPoint. Since forever slides were presented FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. How I read books? I read line to the end of it AND THEN, THE "NEXT LINE" is BELLOW. How I organise artboards on canvas? FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. But my layers stack have to be totaly out of the order, because you are to lazy? to add one checkbox in export options: "export slides from top to bottom"? Where's the problem to add that one check box? Btw. I would have it allways checked, because I always read from TOP TO BOTTOM.

Please don't think that we are the only ones who has a problem with this. Other designers just don't want to waste their time writing here if such as simple feature hasn't been added since 2016's post. Yeah, I spoke to other users about it :)

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  • 4 months later...
On 9/11/2020 at 10:28 AM, evilferber said:

I agree with 3joern.

Right now I'm working on a presentation in AD and after exporting all is reversed.
YES: REVERSED.
It opens it in the wrong order.
AD is my 'better' tool for making presentations. How have I done presentations earlier? In PowerPoint. Since forever slides were presented FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. How I read books? I read line to the end of it AND THEN, THE "NEXT LINE" is BELLOW. How I organise artboards on canvas? FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. But my layers stack have to be totaly out of the order, because you are to lazy? to add one checkbox in export options: "export slides from top to bottom"? Where's the problem to add that one check box? Btw. I would have it allways checked, because I always read from TOP TO BOTTOM.

Please don't think that we are the only ones who has a problem with this. Other designers just don't want to waste their time writing here if such as simple feature hasn't been added since 2016's post. Yeah, I spoke to other users about it :)

Purchased the program yesterday, easy to use, great features, you can do everything you want in a quick and simple way but... As you can see I am writing a post in this trend... That exists from 2016...and yet no rearrange art boards option!! Really? Such a nice program and you ruin it for such a simple option? Come on guys... Imagine that I create minimum pdf files of 120 artboards...as long that problem exists, I definitely recommend to stay on illustrator.!!! It's a pity for all your nice work... 

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  • 5 months later...

August 2021.

A quick fix to this would be a dropdown in the layers panel to reverse the order of all artboards.  I had to do this today manually because my pdf export came out reversed to what I was expecting.

Or a preference to choose how when you create a new artboard if it is placed below or above the previous artboard.

Also as a side note, when duplicating an artboard it would be handy if Affinity would append a different name and move the duplicated artboard. Currently it keeps the exact same name and adds the duplicated artboard directly on top of the original. This is just asking for problems imo.

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3 hours ago, retrograde said:

A quick fix to this would be a dropdown in the layers panel to reverse the order of all artboards.

For that to work there would have to be some way to deal with unusual constructions like in this artboard complications.afdesign example, which as nested & non-rectangular artboards. So maybe only an option to reverse top level artboards or something?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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8 minutes ago, R C-R said:

For that to work there would have to be some way to deal with unusual constructions like in this artboard complications.afdesign example, which as nested & non-rectangular artboards. So maybe only an option to reverse top level artboards or something?

Yes this is a complication. Although personally I would never engage in such tomfoolery. ;-)

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1 minute ago, retrograde said:

Although personally I would never engage in such tomfoolery.

It can occasionally be useful when exporting individual artboards.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It can occasionally be useful when exporting individual artboards.

Hmm, interesting. I wonder if this was what the devs were thinking artboards might possibly get used for by allowing them to be stacked in that way...?

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1 minute ago, retrograde said:

Hmm, interesting. I wonder if this was what the devs were thinking artboards might possibly get used for by allowing them to be stacked in that way...?

I suspect they allowed artboards to be nested and/or overlapped mostly because it was easier than building in something to prevent it.

OTOH, there must have been a reason to allow artboards to be converted to curves so maybe this was what they were thinking about.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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  • 2 months later...

I login just to show support to the previous posts.

I could die in peave if one of the following happen:

  • New item/artboard was inserted at the BOTTOM of layer list instead of TOP (Moving new item to the bottom once I create them has become my muscle memory now)
  • Have option to export PDF in particular order

Top to bottom and Left to right is the only way this world works my dear Serif...

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  • 3 months later...

It happened to me as well. I guess, now with this knowledge of how it works in Affinity, I'm less likely to make that mistake again.

But, I agree with a lot of us here. Its a UX issue. Not sure what the solution could be, without overcomplicating things. But, something to keep an eye out, just because a lot of community members are facing this issue.

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  • 11 months later...

I also just writing here to support several replies above. Having the artboard exported is very unintuitive. There should be at least an option to export in reverse order. 

Saying this due to the programming is just lame. Word start with page1 by default even if I am pretty sure the underline code count starting at 0. This is a UX problem, not a programing problem.

I am very disappointed this has been an issue for 7 years! without any improvement from the developer team, even at version 2!

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On 8/3/2021 at 7:31 PM, retrograde said:

to reverse the order of all artboards

There is a simple trick (a bug? a "happy accident"?) to reverse the stack order of objects, including artboards:

  1. Add a blank layer to your document.
  2. By default, it will land inside one of your artboards. In the Layers panel, pull it out on top level and place it at the bottom of the stack
  3. Select all artboards.
  4. Layer > Arrange > Move Inside
  5. Layer > Arrange > Move Outside
  6. voilà

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Sorry had to comment also when I saw this thread..

I've had the same problem with Designer all these years when ordering my Artboards for final export. It's really confusing and I agree that the visual order is "reversed". 

People expect top to bottom export in pages/artboards. Here's a very simple example screenshot from Publisher...  I think that says its all...

 

My workflow in Designer is

1. Creating Artboards as needed

2. Rearranging them in the work area like I want them and make sense visually. (Usually Left to Right order and rows of Artboards arranged Top to Bottom)

3. Then the final (dreaded) step when I'm ready to share the document with a client. Going to the Layers panel, take a while to think how Designer thinks the export order should be , and reorder the artboards there in "reverse" order. Which I usually get it wrong like half of the time and have to do it again...

 

I'm pretty sure this could be improved some way. Many good suggestions in this thread that the Developers could try to implement.

I don't remember having this problem (for something so simple) when using Adobe Illustrator....

fjv

page-ordering.png

------------------------

Fernando Velarde

www.velarde.com

Instagram.com/soyfervelarde

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/26/2023 at 9:35 AM, loukash said:

There is a simple trick (a bug? a "happy accident"?) to reverse the stack order of objects, including artboards:

  1. Add a blank layer to your document.
  2. By default, it will land inside one of your artboards. In the Layers panel, pull it out on top level and place it at the bottom of the stack
  3. Select all artboards.
  4. Layer > Arrange > Move Inside
  5. Layer > Arrange > Move Outside
  6. voilà

This fix is bonkers, but luckily it works. Now the fact that this is still an issue is just nuts.

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