Things I still miss from Publisher v2.2

[PaoloT]

So, beta 2.2 is here, and we can see that some very important features have been added, and with remarkable creativity. Development is proceeding slowly but steadily.

Since new features are announced as possible during the next months, it is hard to say what we will have in Publisher before the end of the year. Just to recap, however, I'll write down what I still miss for my own needs.

- Multipage tables. I work with tabular-heavy data, so I can't really use the current feature.

- Object styles. I have to adapt my content to different styles. The current situation is that I should re-apply the object presets to each object in a publication. With their number easily going over 1,000, this is hardly feasible. I need object styles.

- Text variables. Much of my work is referred to products available in different variants. The name of the product and of some of its features and controls can change. Without text variables, I have to use search and replace, with the imaginable risk of changing what shouldn't be changed.

- Conditional text. Product variants also means an abundance of alternative text and images.

- IDML export. This is a show-stopper for two reasons: (1) interfacing with assisted translation software, and (2) compatibility with my colleagues working in InDesign. While some of them may be wanting to switch to Affinity, this is not always possible for a series of reasons (company decisions, unwillingness to change, prestige associated with the Adobe name, lack of support of RTL languages, incomplete support of CJKV languages). And then, back to (1): they wouldn't be able to use their CAT tools.

- DOCX export. I see this file format as the perfect interface for ePub and Web. The tools I use for this type of work require DOCX/RTF files. Copy & Paste from Publisher may work for text, but the lack of images would make rebuilding the project quite hard.

- ICML import. Not a real show-stopper, but a cause of slowdown. It is the file format generated by Pandoc. I described somewhere else in this forum how to go from ICML to IDML, but it is not exactly a quick operation. Since ICML is just a subset of IDML, it would be very easy for Serif to support it. It's just a matter of adding the file into a <Story> element of a IDML template.

- RTL support. Admittedly, I don't have much control on the work of the distributors using RTL languages. And I know that most of them prefer to work in Word or LibreOffice. But I must consider this as a limitation. And it happens, to me, to have to produce short multilingual documents including RTL languages.

- Better CJKV support? I have still to understand if horizontal text is managed correctly or not. There is an inexplicable reluctance in talking extensively about this issue from our Chinese or Japanese fellows here in the forum, that I can't still get if it can be used or not. And I can't yet, for various reasons, get information from my colleagues (who don't use the Affinity suite, or only informally admit to have it installed in their secret computer).

So, another year of InDesign CC subscription and file lock-in is to be expected

Paolo

 

[Ash]

Hi Paolo,

Text variables have just been added to the 2.2 beta if you wanted to give it a try:

 

At least that's one off the list!

[PaoloT]

2 hours ago, Ash said:

At least that's one off the list!

One step more toward perfection!

Paolo

 

[Compositor K]

I'd like to second the request that multi-page tables be given a priority. I've got a couple of documents that can't be moved from InDesign to Publisher until this feature is available, and more that can only be moved to Publisher by manually splitting tables at page or column breaks.