Same graphics & layout, different languages

[Andrewfo]

I want to produce small magazines in different languages, using the English as my base. I want to keep the same formatting, styles, etc and just import a Word file for each language into a new text layer. In ID, I can simply duplicate the English text layer and replace the English with the new language, maintaining the styles. How do I do that in AP2, without losing all the styles and graphics?

[mrqasq]

i dont know if I understood you fully, but your friend could be "paste without format" option in edit menu. It should paste text, and leave styles.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Andrewfo said:

In ID, I can simply duplicate the English text layer

You can copy text layers in Affinity, too. But, unlike ID, Affinity doesn't have Global Layers, so you would need to copy all single objects, not just one layer to get all other copied. (I assume the text frames aren't on a master page)

Possibly the various "Select" options can support you when copying the objects. Note, in V2 you can select objects on multiple pages of a document, and move them all with 1 click, … maybe you can also copy all selected objects.

Nevertheless, if you want to create separate issues of your magazine (one for each language) then the problem of hiding all frames of 1 language in the layout document still remains. I don't know if this can be solved with multi-selection as just mentioned for move (or copy). Hopefully a V2 user will occur with an efficient workflow idea. If not, you could copy the entire document and use the existing text frames (without copies) to replace the existing text and result with multiple .afpubs, one for each language. Well, this workflow will become tricky if you finally need to change layout items (e.g. images) … on the other hand separate documents might make adjustments to the layout easier which may be wanted according to the different amount of space required for by various languages.

[Andrewfo]

Thanks for your response, mrqasq. I tried it but would have to remove all text flow, as it converted the whole text to the initial font.
What I need is to copy the paragraph style and paste it but I can't find how to do that. I have the entire text flowing correctly from column to column and page to page, so I would have to go back to overwriting the English, paragraph by paragraph with this 'paste without format' command. There must be a simpler way!

Edited January 15, 2024 by Andrewfo
Omitted poster's name and added extra points.

[Andrewfo]

16 minutes ago, thomaso said:

You can copy text layers in Affinity, too. But, unlike ID, Affinity doesn't have Global Layers, so you would need to copy all single objects, not just one layer to get all other copied. (I assume the text frames aren't on a master page)

Possibly the various "Select" options can support you when copying the objects. Note, in V2 you can select objects on multiple pages of a document, and move them all with 1 click, … maybe you can also copy all selected objects.

Nevertheless, if you want to create separate issues of your magazine (one for each language) then the problem of hiding all frames of 1 language in the layout document still remains. I don't know if this can be solved with multi-selection as just mentioned for move (or copy). Hopefully a V2 user will occur with an efficient workflow idea. If not, you could copy the entire document and use the existing text frames (without copies) to replace the existing text and result with multiple .afpubs, one for each language. Well, this workflow will become tricky if you finally need to change layout items (e.g. images) … on the other hand separate documents might make adjustments to the layout easier which may be wanted according to the different amount of space required for by various languages.

I think the idea of separate language issues is looking more the likely path I will need to follow, as you say. However, I'm still stuck with having to restyle the whole text, unless I use mrqasq's suggestion of 'paste without format' and use it for each text or paragraph style. Painfully slow but better than what I have been trying.
 

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, Andrewfo said:

However, I'm still stuck with having to restyle the whole text, unless I use mrqasq's suggestion of 'paste without format' and use it for each text or paragraph style. Painfully slow but better than what I have been trying.

What workflow did you try or had have in mind? In APub your English text is not linked to an external resource file that you could just replace, so you need to copy/paste anyway to replace English with another text. But yes, if you want to maintain different styles applied to the text in a frame (or a story of linked frames), you need to either replace selectively (per style) or replace all + restyle all. Where the type/structure of text allows this, the style property "Next Style" can make the restyling easier.