Distribution of Export Settings

[OzDefy]

Hi

I'm a printer and we're getting an explosion of requests to supply PDFs from Affinity Publisher,  including from the iPad version.

Is there a way to distribute export settings - other than sending my customers lots of instructions and screen shots ?

Our file requirements are very specific, and I need to make it as simple as possible for customers to get the settings right.

I hoped this feature would be added in v2, but I can't see it

Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions

Geoff

[MikeTO]

Hi Geoff and welcome to the forum. There's no way to save export settings so you can't send your customers a file to load. You'll have to supply them with instructions and screenshots.

There is a good list of all the export settings available from here:

v2: https://affinity.help/publisher2/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Publishing/exportSettings.html?title=Export Settings
v1: https://affinity.help/publisher/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Publishing/exportSettings.html?title=Export Settings

The Export window was redesigned for v2 but most of the options have the same names.

Cheers

[OzDefy]

Thanks Mike

As a business that is encouraging our customers to use Affinity, export/import of export settings is my top request to add to the features list for the future

Cheers

Geoff

[MikeTO]

Serif hasn't shared their roadmap but they have stated that scripting support is in development. If they make Export scriptable, it would be possible to write a script to export using your prescribed settings. So cross your fingers.

Cheers

[MikeTO]

Oh I'm being stupid today, yes there's a way to save export settings. My apologies, I have just never used it and it's hidden in a hamburger menu to the right of the Advanced label as shown in the left screenshot. After creating a preset, it will appear in the Preset list under File Settings as shown in the right screenshot.

But as to how to share that preset with somebody else is tricky. Studio presets are saved on macOS in the Users/username/Library/Application Support/Affinity Publisher 2/presets folder but it turns out these Export presets are saved in a single file as Users/username/Library/Application Support/Affinity Publisher 2/user/file_export_options.dat.

I tested sharing this file and it worked fine for me so you might want to test creating an export preset and sharing it with one of your technically knowledgeable customers. It might be difficult for less knowledgeable customers to place this file into the correct folder. And because it would overwrite their own export presets, if they have any, this may not be advisable.

Perhaps somebody with more knowledge of export presets will chime in and say whether or not this is a wise idea.

Cheers

  

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

I tested sharing this file and it worked fine for me so you might want to test creating an export preset and sharing it with one of your technically knowledgeable customers. It might be difficult for less knowledgeable customers to place this file into the correct folder. And because it would overwrite their own export presets, if they have any, this may not be advisable.

My opinion: It is definitely not advisable, because as you note it overwrites all their presets. And because many users will find it difficult to use.

 

[Old Bruce]

I guess I could write a pair of scripts (Python) which would swap out the Customer's "preferences" for the one supplied by @OzDefy and then after generating the PDF for OzDefy running the second script would swap them again. So the customers would need to have Python installed etc.

And I have to say that my coding chops are atrophied to the point where I would not trust my own script, so I wouldn't want other people using it. 

[OzDefy]

6 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Serif hasn't shared their roadmap but they have stated that scripting support is in development. If they make Export scriptable, it would be possible to write a script to export using your prescribed settings. So cross your fingers.

Even better. We have used Javascript to control the setup and export of documents in InDesign, and customers love it.

 

[OzDefy]

Thanks for the other suggestions.

I'll have a play with these ideas, but I suspect that they will be too complex for our average customer.