Affinity Publisher, I just want to cut and paste

[OG Nancy]

This question is about Affinity Publisher. I feel so foolish like there is something wrong with me and the way I learn. Full disclosure I do not know Adobe or anything but the most minimal stuff about graphics software. I can do stuff in Canva like make labels and that is about the extent of my software skills. Long ago I worked in Deluxe Paint on my Amiga but returned to the analog world of creation when that tech bit the dust. I really want to master the Affinity programs, I have putzed around with them for the past year trying to get them to work for me and recently decided to make a bigger effort. 

At the mo all I want to do is cut and paste an object from an eps file so I can work with the single image in AffPub.

I have read about opening the document and then rasterizing, I have tried that but no matter what I do today, it picks up the whole page of images, I am unable to select the single image. Sometimes I am able to get the image boxed but then it only picks up one portion of the image with the nodes on it. Earlier I was able to get the image boxed and copied but then when I went to paste it was just a blank box and no image. I was able to make it work yesterday on the same eps file but no idea why today it simply doesn't work. I have watched so many videos on YouTube and been working with this software for three weeks now. I am so frustrated but I don't want to give up. I am willing to pay someone to help me with this issue and help me understand cut and paste in Affinity Publisher.

Thanks in advance if you can help.

[MikeTO]

Hi Nancy and welcome to the forums. If the last time you used creative software was DeluxePaint you're going to find a lot has changed!

To cut and paste an object from an EPS file you don't need to rasterize it. Open Publisher, choose File > Place, and place the EPS graphic onto the page. While the EPS object is selected, click the Edit Document button in the Context Bar at the top of the screen. This will open a separate Publisher tab to edit the layers in the embedded EPS object. Select the ones you want and choose Copy. Close the EPS tab and paste the copied objects into your Publisher document. If you don't want the rest of the EPS you can delete it now, leaving just the parts of it you copied and pasted.

Good luck!

[OG Nancy]

 

Thanks so much for the welcome and quick reply MikeTO!  At the time Deluxe Paint was pretty awesome tho waddinit? That company sure went on to do amazing things.

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

While the EPS object is selected, click the Edit Document button in the Context Bar at the top of the screen.

I attempted to follow your steps and as is my style, I got tripped up. I see Edit and Document in the top bar on the page, but both of those have drop-down menus. I don't see anywhere I can click on Edit Document. Please advise!

Before I saw your answer I managed to find a workaround by moving over to the layers panel, clicking on each layer for the elements of the graphic that I want to copy, once I have them all lit up I am able to get a selection box around the graphic and copy/paste it all to a new page. Which of course can sometimes lead to other challenges especially if I'm selecting from a repeating pattern. 

I appreciate your help very much!

Nancy

 

[v_kyr]

5 hours ago, OG Nancy said:

At the mo all I want to do is cut and paste an object from an eps file so I can work with the single image in AffPub

Well if you have problems with "File > Place..." aka embedding an EPS file document, then you can do it the other way around with "File -> Open..." instead. - Using "File -> Open ..." will open the EPS file you select and parse/interpret the EPS directly into a new empty document. So you will get the whole layer structure of the EPS file in another own document tab, where you can select the whole layers, or just portions of them (depending on your needs) and then copy and paste it over into your initial/other setup APub document. - This way the EPS file is not included as an embedded document at all, instead you just copied it's whole interpreted layer structure (all or what you have then individually selected) over into your main document.

I show you just quickly here the procedure how to do this with an empty Apub v1 document and an EPS file (...an EPS drawing of a Parrot) ...

 

 

 

[MikeTO]

11 hours ago, OG Nancy said:

I attempted to follow your steps and as is my style, I got tripped up. I see Edit and Document in the top bar on the page, but both of those have drop-down menus. I don't see anywhere I can click on Edit Document. Please advise!

Hi Nancy, when you've placed an EPS illustration into a Publisher document there should be an Edit Document button in the Context Bar as shown here. Clicking this button will open the EPS in a new tab for editing.

If you don't see the button, you have linked the EPS instead of embedding it. Linking, which keeps the file external to reduce document size, is a good strategy but not for what you're doing. In that case choose Window > Resource Manager, select the EPS illustration in the list, and click the Embed button. That will embed the EPS file into the document and when you close the Resource Manager the Edit Document button will be in the Context Bar.

Yes, DeluxePaint was a great app for the time but I think Cloanto's Personal Paint was even better. I haven't missed either of those apps in decades though, you're going to enjoy using Affinity once you have it figured out.

Cheers

[OG Nancy]

Thanks again to all, your answers were super helpful and I've really taken off now with both Publisher and Designer!

Nancy