Affinity Publisher can import Microsoft® Word® DOCX, but it can not export?

[Greg T]

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/full-feature-list/

I'm looking thru the list of features and it seems to be able to import many options, but can't export the same back?

It would be so much easier to create a HTML webpage, if it could export to Microsoft^® Word^® DOCX as Microsoft Word can export to HTML.

I have Microsoft Word 2010, and it can export to HTML.  (edit: don't get me wrong, I do buy upgrades of products. depends on the product.  I feel if I do buy Affinity, I will buy upgrades).

 

I'm very curious why Publisher can not export back to Microsoft^® Word^® DOCX?

 

I'm struggling in reasons to buy the Universal License.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Greg T said:

I'm very curious why Publisher can not export back to Microsoft^® Word^® DOCX?

Probably because Serif haven't wanted to implement that function, or haven't had time. 

[Greg T]

51 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Probably because Serif haven't wanted to implement that function, or haven't had time. 

I didn't think about Adobe Acrobat Standard DC 2015 that I got free with ScanSnap ix500.  It can create HTML from PDF!  So that helps!

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, Greg T said:

I didn't think about Adobe Acrobat Standard DC 2015 that I got free with ScanSnap ix500.  It can create HTML from PDF!  So that helps!

You can also Open a PDF in Word, can't you, and export as HTML from there?

[Greg T]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

You can also Open a PDF in Word, can't you, and export as HTML from there?

Microsoft Word 2010 can not open PDF.... maybe newer versions, but I do not wish to upgrade to a subscription.

[walt.farrell]

Sorry; I thought it could.

Pretty sure Libre Office can, and it can also export to HTML, so you might try that route.

[Greg T]

1 minute ago, N.P.M. said:

Open office does too, with an addon when I looked it up just now.
Office/word supported pdf since version 2013.
But nonetheless why working with such old tools beats me in this day and age 
And the expectation that more modern tools should work with and support such old tools.
Also there are numerous tools online to convert to and from docx /pdf,........................

The only bad thing about converting online is they'll have access to your stuff.

[PaoloT]

If you just need text, maybe copying from Publisher and pasting into Word may work.

I've done some tests. Copying from Publisher V1 and pasting into Mac Word 16, all the paragraph styles are preserved. Character styles are not applied, even if the character appearance is there (you can ask Word to select similarly-formatted text, and apply the character styles from the list).

Images are not pasted. Accented character are not pasted. Tables are not pasted.

With Apple Pages 10, nor paragraph or character styles are pasted. You have to select similar text and create the styles again. No image or table is pasted. Accented character are pasted.

With Nisus Writer Pro 3.3, all the paragraph styles are preserved. Character styles are not applied or imported, even if the character appearance is there. No image or table is pasted. Accented character are pasted.

Paolo

 

[MikeTO]

5 hours ago, Greg T said:

I'm very curious why Publisher can not export back to Microsoft^® Word^® DOCX?

I think Publisher (and InDesign) should let you export a selected story or range of text to docx for user convenience but exporting a complex document to docx would be a tech support nightmare since Word lacks things like masters and multiple stories. Simple docs might export okay but complex ones would look terrible and users would complain.

[PaoloT]

5 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I think Publisher (and InDesign) should let you export a selected story or range of text to docx for user convenience but exporting a complex document to docx would be a tech support nightmare since Word lacks things like masters and multiple stories.

It would suffice if Publisher did as InDesign: export a story in a linear way, with all the styles applied and the images in the text, converted to a format that RTF can support.

But I would greatly appreciate if Publisher could export linked images, at least as an option, as links that it can then rebuild when importing the same file. If RTF, now a rather obsolete file format, can't do it, DOCX could maybe do it, or be able to be adapted to do it.

This way, one would be able to export the story as a DOCX file, have it edited or translated, and be able to have the linked images reappear in the text when one imports it into Publisher.

Paolo