mvadventures Posted August 9, 2023 Share Posted August 9, 2023 I'm pretty new to Affinity, but I like it. I've been creating a quarterly 20 page newsletter for some years, using Word which finally got too clunky for me. I've watched tons of tutorials and videos for Affinity Publisher, but my question is more basic for doing the layout - is it better to lay out each article including photo placement, or is it better to import the text for all the articles, and then place photos? None of the tutorial info I've found addresses this kind of "strategy" question. And then there's the challenge where I need to hit 20 pages, and then have to go back and mess around with photo sizes to try and get it all to fit perfectly. Should I pin photos, and which kind of pin? Or?? I'm struggling, and a bit overwhelmed. Many thanks for any help or suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Komatös Posted August 9, 2023 Share Posted August 9, 2023 Hi @mvadventures and welcome to the forums. What was your earlier approach? In Word you certainly created the pages without text import, you should keep it that way. If many images are to be inserted, it is recommended to link them. This reduces the Publisher file size. The only thing to keep in mind is that the image files remain in their original location when you open the Publisher document again. Quote AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3085) AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB) | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) Affinity Suite V 2.3.1 & Beta 2.(latest) Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator Need a system wide color picker? Try Microsoft's (New) Power Toys Need a robust PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF There's nothing you get used to faster than working slowly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted August 9, 2023 Share Posted August 9, 2023 Asking how to layout a “newsletter” is a bit like asking how to layout a garden, everyone will have their own idea of what it should look like. If you can give us an example of what you have been creating in Word, and tell us what you want to keep, and tell us what sort of changes you would like to make, then we should be able to give you better help. Once we have a better idea of what you are trying to make, we can give advice on how to make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted August 9, 2023 Share Posted August 9, 2023 8 hours ago, mvadventures said: - is it better to lay out each article including photo placement, or is it better to import the text for all the articles, and then place photos? (…) I need to hit 20 pages, and then have to go back and mess around with photo sizes to try and get it all to fit perfectly. Should I pin photos, and which kind of pin? Your mentioned aspects of workflow don't have a "better" or "ideal" way but are rather up to your habits, individual preferences and skills (with the various tools, objects and panels). They mainly concern the order of various layout steps while different order causes different layout steps. Both technics, text importing (as long story) and image pinning require more discipline but may be more efficient (faster, flexible) once they got setup properly. Importing all text (for 20 pages) into one text frame enables you to use the text of the various articles as one long story across the entire document – independent of the layout, its object sizes and positions. In this workflow all text frames are linked to a long story text flow – unless you cut/paste parts of the imported text to use it in separate text frames. – This way will require extra special characters added too the text, as column, frame or page break characters for instance, to avoid confusion caused by the influence of text changes in one article on the text flow in other articles (assuming an "article" is in a separate layout element, visually only or technically, too). Pinning images is related to text flow, too, but is independent of the aspect above (of a long linked story versus separate text snippets) but concerns the workflow details of images with their related, specific part of text. A pinned object is anchored ("float") to a certain text position or it is pasted like a character ("inside"). In both ways the pinned object becomes a nested child layer of a certain text frame in the Layers panel. Thus it will move / flow with the text (but not vice versa). The different pinning options (e.g. float/inside) depend on the layout: while "inside" is useful for images visually inside text frame borders, "float" allows positions outside their parent text frame on a completely different position on the page. – This means on the other hand, pinned object get useful especially in layout where the text flow changes during the layout process (e.g. by added or deleted text passages as in a book for instance) but possibly not for a newsletter. – An alternative option is Text Wrap applied to selected images that get placed visually on a text. For a periodical medium (newsletter) both technics are rather irrelevant. But in case the number of articles and their lengths and the number of images per article would be the same in every single newsletter issue then it may appear easier to replace content of one issue to create a new one. Generally the method of replacing old content by the newer can become quite confusing and leading to content and layout errors, especially on 20 pages, because "old" and "new" are not clearly to distinguish as layout items. – Instead it is useful to create an "empty" template that contains margins/grids, styles, certain objects (e.g. those with fixed size or position) and repeated content (e.g. title, logo etc.). The optional use of Master Pages depends much on the amount of repeated content & layout objects within one newsletter issue (e.g. page numbers) and also between several issues (e.g. title page, editorial, contents overview, etc.). They are definitely helpful for guides (margins, 1-/2-…column grids). Empty text / image frames as master page objects can be quite helpful if the layouts of the different newsletter pages and newsletter issues do not need to get changed a lot for certain content. They have the disadvantage that their objects need to get "detached" for certain edits on the document pages, for instance to modify their position or object size in the layout individually. – A variant of master page objects would be to create them as (empty) templates but fully detach them durable once they get filled with content (this way they are rather like objects placed via copy/paste). Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 only Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvadventures Posted August 9, 2023 Author Share Posted August 9, 2023 Thanks to each of you for taking the time to offer help and suggestions. I've attached a sample of the newsletterDFC magazine sample.pdf if you want to see what I'm producing. It's very vanilla and basic. The masthead is the only thing that doesn't move or change from quarter to quarter, and the rest is just a series of articles in a single column format (most readers view it online, with only a small number of printed copies produced). Occasionally I make a splash page for a special event. I hope to eventually get good enough with Affinity to make the newsletter more sophisticated, but for right now, I'm just struggling to get the workflow right as a new Affinity user. DFC magazine sample.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted August 9, 2023 Share Posted August 9, 2023 9 minutes ago, mvadventures said: I hope to eventually get good enough with Affinity to make the newsletter more sophisticated, but for right now, I'm just struggling to get the workflow right as a new Affinity user. I would be tempted to just add the text and apply the appropriate Paragraph styles then go and place the images (in Picture Frames) with Text Wrap applied to the Picture Frames. This would continuously push the text past the end but a Shift Click on the overflow icon would add more pages. I took the liberty to make a very very basic file you can use to learn. There is a heading style with a Right Tab for setting the line the way you seem to have it set in your PDF. There are no Picture Frames, you can add those as you go. I copied and pasted your Masthead from the PDF, you may want to rebuild that with the tools for Shapes and Art Text. Template for DeFever.afpub Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.2 Affinity Designer 2.3.1 | Affinity Photo 2.3.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvadventures Posted August 9, 2023 Author Share Posted August 9, 2023 How very kind!! Thanks very much. What a terrific community! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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