Columns — Feature to Span Columns

[Eink]

Well said.  Thank you Mr. Damm.

Until and unless Affinity is able to add Split/Span functionality, it will never be considered a realistic alternative to the Adobe current monopoly.  Once implemented I predict a rush to your doors.  You'll (Affinity) need to be ready for all the downloads.

I remain hopeful for implementation in 2025.

Good luck.

[Jochen Damm]

Hello Eink,

It's just sad - Affinity is a great software suite. I use it at home and at work for four years now. In fact I begged my employer to buy this software. In earlier projects I worked with various programs. At times with the heavyweights Adobe InDesign and CorelDRAW, but primarily with Affinity Publisher's predecessor Serif PagePlus. For a long time, I only had access to open source software. At one point, I also wanted to do without proprietary software altogether. But the possibilities under Linux were simply far too limited. I have grown fond of projects like OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Inkscape and Scribus. I've been using them since between 2002 and 2008, now back on Microsoft Windows. The combination of Inkscape and Scribus is powerful and strong. I didn't want to equip a company with it as my primary tool, but all my projects could be realized with it. But I'm also a lazy person: ever since I started working with Affinity Publisher, I couldn't understand how I got along with Scribus before. Scribus still has some small advantages over Affinity Publisher, but working with Affinity is much easier. Today, I only use it for special tasks that Affinity can't solve and for projects that need to be edited on Linux computers. At the time, I didn't really care - these were leisure projects with no time pressure and I simply wanted inexpensive software, at best free of charge. But the demands and requirements have grown since then. Affinity/Serif wants to position itself as a manufacturer of professional solutions, it is no longer a program for private users and self-employed people who want to equip their small business. Along the lines of a business card or invoice printer... Yes, Serif has partly established new standards. But there are still so many functions that must or should also be available in the software. And my point of view is that if even free software supports it, proprietary software must do so too. It is understandable that different teams have different concepts and priorities. But this is about the desire of paying customers, they pay for a service to be fulfilled. Exactly the point why many turned away from Adobe to Serif - the subscription model with no real innovation.

Kind regards from Germany

[Eink]

Well said.  Thank you Mr. Damm.

Until and unless Affinity is able to add Split/Span functionality, it will never be considered a realistic alternative to the Adobe current monopoly.  Once implemented I predict a rush to your doors.  You'll (Affinity) need to be ready for all the downloads.

I remain hopeful for implementation in 2025.

Good luck.

[Eink]

It is sad Mr. Damm.  I've used Affinity Publisher and believe that it holds great promise for professional production environments like mine.  But until the programmers can solve the split/span issue, there are too many steps required to perform the basic functions of magazine page layout to serve this industry.  I'd happily pay double or triple the asking price for a software package that holds as much promise as Publisher does.  Sad.

 

[Juhani]

@Serif Is there any chance in the world we will see Span Columns feature implemented in Affinity Publisher this year? So that we could stop drawing out and continuously keep readjusting multiple dozens of extra frames in our editorial layouts and focus on more creative aspects of design work instead.

[fde101]

Serif does not ordinarily comment on feature requests, so you are unlikely to get a reply from them on that question.

However, it is highly unlikely that you will see this in a release version until next year at the very earliest.  The beta for the next release has been underway for a while now and this feature is not included.  The betas for minor versions (the ones that introduce new features) have generally been running once a year and are typically started toward the end of one year for a release early the following year.  As late into the beta cycle as they are, a feature like this is unlikely to be added at this stage, so I would not expect this could show up until the next beta at the earliest.

That assumes Serif intends to implement this at all, and that it has a high enough priority and low enough cost of development for them to consider adding it at this time - it is entirely possible that their priorities or some internal prerequisites for implementing this feature may not align for it to happen just yet, particularly since there are other features the absence of which are just as likely to be a bigger impact on various other subsets of their user base.

[MickRose]

@Eink In the meantime maybe look at Tables. It's not ideal but might be useful sometimes.

[Juhani]

35 minutes ago, fde101 said:

there are other features the absence of which are just as likely to be a bigger impact on various other subsets of their user base.

You mean like multi-page spreads?

11 minutes ago, MickRose said:

In the meantime maybe look at Tables. It's not ideal but might be useful sometimes.

This reminds me how we used tables for doing web layouts in 90s. I guess this is still a thing then in 2025 with Affinity, alas, I don't think tables can flow across multiple pages and spreads in Publisher, which kind of makes them unusable for layout purposes.

[Eink]

Tables are not at all useful as a publication production tool.

If fde101's report is correct, I'm going to give up on Publisher as an alternative.  Without span/split columns Publisher is just not a practical alternative.  Too bad.

[Jochen Damm]

On 1/9/2025 at 2:06 PM, Eink said:

Tables are not at all useful as a publication production tool.

If fde101's report is correct, I'm going to give up on Publisher as an alternative.  Without span/split columns Publisher is just not a practical alternative.  Too bad.

I understand that, but isn't that a bit exaggerated? Saying it's not practicable is not true either. There is definitely room for improvement in various areas. But it's still a great tool. Are there any sensible alternatives? InDesign is no longer an option for many people. Scribus can't do it either. Can VIVA Designer do this? I think so, but I'm not sure. To my knowledge, VIVA Designer seems to be the most promising alternative in a comparable product category/price range. But for now, I will remain loyal to Affinity. As I said, I've tried a lot of programs - both at work and at home - and have worked with Serif software on and off for over 20 years. Yes, I also miss some things from the predecessor PagePlus. But someone once said that you should use the software as a tool and not allow yourself to become a tool of the software. There are several ways to reach your goal, especially in the creative field. As a user, you always want to use your own way. From a developer's point of view, it's a nightmare: 20 solutions for a single problem. We have seen the advantages and disadvantages of this with Adobe programs such as InDesign or Photoshop. Completely overloaded and yet still lacking a few other functions to make it better than it is.

[fde101]

54 minutes ago, Jochen Damm said:

Are there any sensible alternatives?

Yes, QuarkXPress, if you are willing to pay for it and spend some time finding your way around.  It is the "other" major player with the vast majority of the features people keep begging to have added to Publisher.  Not all (there is no paragraph composer), but most (including span columns).

If you don't want to pay that kind of money, or you want a more sensible user interface, then Affinity Publisher is probably one of the best options available at the moment.

[Jochen Damm]

3 hours ago, fde101 said:

Yes, QuarkXPress, if you are willing to pay for it and spend some time finding your way around.  It is the "other" major player with the vast majority of the features people keep begging to have added to Publisher.  Not all (there is no paragraph composer), but most (including span columns).

If you don't want to pay that kind of money, or you want a more sensible user interface, then Affinity Publisher is probably one of the best options available at the moment.

OK, I didn't know that. I had no idea. Well, I knew that QuarkXPress existed, but for me it always seemed to be a special case. In my perception, it was only ever aimed at larger companies, with no offerings for SMEs and freelancers. It was also always described to me as complicated and outdated, needing to reinvent itself to compete with Adobe and then specializing in a niche. It simply led a shadowy existence. Sure, it was always the biggest competitor to InDesign and InCopy, but out of reach for small businesses and/or budgets. That's why QuarkXPress doesn't even come to mind for me personally.

[Juhani]

Now that 2.6 is about to be released, can we please get this column span feature in the next release of 2.7?

Consider the following layout example using different number of columns and column heights. A similar layout used to take me just 2 frames in Adobe InDesign on one spread, but now migrated over to Affinity Publisher needs 23. Say this goes on for another 4 spreads and we're dealing with over 100 frames – which used to be just 10. Now imagine my editor decides to remove one block entirely from the first page. While in InDesign everything would just reflow automatically, in Publisher I have to now manually position every one of those frames after the removed block. This is insanity.

So people, can we please make some noise about this feature?! We need this in 2025!

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, Juhani said:

Now that 2.6 is about to be released, can we please get this column span feature in the next release of 2.7?

Consider the following layout example using different number of columns and column heights. A similar layout used to take me just 2 frames in Adobe InDesign on one spread, but now migrated over to Affinity Publisher needs 23. Say this goes on for another 4 spreads and we're dealing with over 100 frames – which used to be just 10. Now imagine my editor decides to remove one block entirely from the first page. While in InDesign everything would just reflow automatically, in Publisher I have to now manually position every one of those frames after the removed block. This is insanity.

So people, can we please make some noise about this feature?! We need this in 2025!

While I want span columns, too, there's a workaround to accomplish the example you showed by pinning multi-column text frames into a main text frame. It's more work but it will work well enough. I created a quick sample for you. Note that to edit the text in the child multi-column frames you need to select the frame first - trying to click in them will position the text cursor in the main frame and not in the child frame.

span columns example.afpub

Cheers

[Jochen Damm]

17 hours ago, MikeTO said:

While I want span columns, too, there's a workaround to accomplish the example you showed by pinning multi-column text frames into a main text frame. It's more work but it will work well enough. I created a quick sample for you. Note that to edit the text in the child multi-column frames you need to select the frame first - trying to click in them will position the text cursor in the main frame and not in the child frame.

span columns example.afpub

Cheers

Hi,

I use multi-culumn a lot and it is nice as standalone and as workaround. But it is halfbaked as substitute for the full features of column span. I admit that the column span is mainly used for headings. But it offers so many possibilities. Unfortunately, I don't have a good example right now. But it goes far beyond just headings and subheadings. One of the most important features will really be accessibility. There is de facto no better solution for complex structures of text flow. If you want to create accessible PDF documents, you need to have the ability to process text naturally - in the correct order. Which is almost impossible by using dozens of text frames. This is essential for screen readers and other aids. Of course, it is also more convenient for designers to work with just a few text frames, but you can really fall back on workarounds for aesthetics alone. But it makes work a lot easier.

Incidentally, I would also prefer to be able to set how many columns a text frame has when it is resized. At the moment, the default number is retained and has to be adjusted manually. However, I would like to have the additional option of automatically getting more columns when widening and deleting columns when narrowing. The column width and spacing should remain constant. Or also fractions as columns, for example 1/2, 1, 1 (3 columns, the first with half width).

[MikeTO]

@Jochen Damm The workaround I suggested was just for the specific use case shown by Juhani. It wouldn't work for most books and magazines and I can't use it in my own books either.

[Eink]

Another sad oversight from Affinity.  Still no span/split columns in latest release?  So very disappointing.

While I appreciate all the work Mr. Damm has invested in developing a work-around, I guess that's the point.  A lot of extra work to do the same thing I can do with two clicks in InDesign.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not an Adobe fanboy and will jump ship immediately when a practical alternative presents itself.  But really?  Another new release without split/span?  What a missed opportunity.

Perhaps the folks at Affinity are worried that their servers won't be able to handle the load of designers who will immediately download the latest version after years of asking for this feature.  Otherwise it seems like a lost opportunity for market share to release a new version that doesn't include this required feature.

Oh well.  Guess we're relegated to another year (at least) of hell.  Perhaps we deserve it.

[Juhani]

On 2/8/2025 at 8:02 PM, MikeTO said:

While I want span columns, too, there's a workaround to accomplish the example you showed by pinning multi-column text frames into a main text frame. It's more work but it will work well enough. I created a quick sample for you. Note that to edit the text in the child multi-column frames you need to select the frame first - trying to click in them will position the text cursor in the main frame and not in the child frame.

Thanks @MikeTO! This is super helpful and much appreciated you taking the time. I was trying to pin the block headings in which case there's no way to change the number of columns of course, but never thought about doing it the other way around 🤦‍♂️. The "only" problem would be of course importing the content manually one block at a time and still having to draw independent frames for every single one of them, but at least I'd get the text reflow back, which is a huge win. Thanks again for the hack, I'll try to implement this in the next issue.

3 hours ago, Eink said:

Another sad oversight from Affinity.  Still no span/split columns in latest release?  So very disappointing.

I hear you but I'm confident it's only a matter of time till we get this. Other than this span columns feature (and no way to save Find/Replace commands, and no automatic text clean-up script on import, and no dynamic captions, etc), I'd have to say my first publication with Publisher still turned out to be a success without any other major hiccups. Not to mention that there are other things which are so much better implemented than in InDesign, like image editing without having to save out separate tiffs for each and every image, or much easier way to composite images right inside your layouts.

[angang]

Without support for span/split columns, Publisher simply isn’t a viable alternative to InDesign for serious editorial work. I really wanted to switch, but this missing feature makes it impossible. Back to InDesign, unfortunately.
Hope 2.7 will add span/split

[davidagnome]

Bumping. This improves workflow speed dramatically for magazine, newspaper, and textbook layouts.

[k_au]

Adding another ping to keep this request visible. 
It's not often that I would need this feature, since I don't do much magazine-style work at the moment, but right now I would have been glad to have it. 

[Petar Petrenko]

InDesign's "Span Across Columns" is a great feature, but you can't control which column the span should start from. It always starts from the first column.

"Split columns" must be added to Publisher, too.