Lack of provision of basic grids for master pages

[Cal Swann]

There is no provision in Affinity Publisher 2 for designers to create a working grid for magazine pages. Such as that provided in InDesign for example.

Setting margins for one text block is not sufficient for me to compile a series of pages with an underlying grid. For example, 4 columns of text plus horizontal eyelines on A4 pages. This is an essential tool for all graphic/typographic designers. How can we accomplish a complex grid?

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

You can create a large Text Frame with multiple columns.

You can add guiders on a Master page, and they will apply to the document pages that inherit from it.

You can also create Column and Row Guides.  Help: https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/DesignAids/guides.html

Between those I think you have everything you're asking for.

[loukash]

You can set up multiple master pages and use them as your "guide-only layers" in the document.
Because unlike in ID, you can apply as many master pages to any given page as you want without replacing the existing one(s), and they will all appear as layers in your Layers panel.

In this example, all three master pages have been applied to Page 1. You can then hide or show each "guides only" master via the Layers panel:

You can also set up multiple masters with different column/row guides, but you can only apply one column/row master setup per layout page, hence the workflow by using regular guides as above might be more flexible.