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Putting together a book


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I’m planning to put together some 25 texts of differing lengths and MS-Word layouts into one book. I intend to include a table of contents, an index, foot- or endnotes and cross references, and to apply a coherent set of text styles to the whole book.

I’m not sure how I should go about such a project (e.g., using the Books feature or not) and would love to hear your suggestions. Once I know how to get going and what to aim for, I’ll be consulting MikeTO’s "Expert Guide to Affinity Publisher" and some other tuts for more detailed directions.

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5 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

I’m planning to put together some 25 texts of differing lengths and MS-Word layouts into one book.

The biggest problem is that there is the chance that each (or some) of the 25 texts will have MS Word text styles that have different fonts, sizes, spacing, etc. but the same name, for example Body. You will wind up with several Body styles, Body, Body 1,  Body 2, Body 3, etc.

Make your Publisher Document and build the Text Styles you want for the finished product. Place each MS Word and use the Find and Replace to find the various MS Word styles and replace them with the Publisher Styles. Now delete the unused Text Styles and Place the next MS Word file and repeat the process. It is tedious but this will pay off in the long run.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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29 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

What about removing all text styles before adding the documents to the Publisher document?

Then you will need to manually apply Text Styles paragraph by paragraph, making for an extremely boring and long job. And as with most boring jobs it is prone to errors happening.

Text Styles are wonderful. Spend some time experimenting with them. Make a new Publisher document and paste some text in. When you make Text Styles start with a Group Style for the basic text and a Group Style for headings. When you make the Group Styles Reset the Formatting so you are starting with a blank slate. Set the Font family, the weight, the size, set the Spacing, leading ( I use Exact for a variety of reasons), left, right, first line and, last line indents. Set the space before and after. Everything else can be left alone for now.

Base your Paragraph Styles on the appropriate Group Style. Then you can further base some of the Paragraph Styles on Paragraph Styles or the Group Style. An example would be having Body Text based on the Group Style BASE and then have a paragraph style called Drop Cap and one called Initial Words both based on Body Text. Then you could have a paragraph style named Caption 1 (and Caption 2, 3, etc) based on the group Style BASE because you are changing many things compared to Body Text and you don't want to mess up Captions if you change Body Text's leading.

The way I work is to set up BASE so that Body Text can have absolutely nothing changed. Here is what I set up for BASE. Remember to Reset Formatting. It is perhaps a very good idea to also set the Baseline Grid to off while you experiment.

ScreenShot2024-02-18at9_00_09AM.png.52f77402e32c0bbe561b31adca7848df.png

Now I change things that are highlighted.

ScreenShot2024-02-18at9_03_09AM.png.f5822a458032434428deb499b118d8e6.png

I get fewer surprises if I set the Leading to Exact. But that is how I work, you may get fewer surprises with % or Multiple.

ScreenShot2024-02-18at9_02_14AM.png.5bfa0a0faf9f6afa38f4be076664bb1d.png

 

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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8 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

Do you also have some suggestions for how to set up the document. Should I use the Books feature or work only in one document?

Take a long look at the Word documents and make Text Styles for everything you'll need. Basic Body Text and Headers. I go so far as to make a Paragraph Style for the page numbers. Do not use overrides for text. Use a Master Page(s) and name each and every item on each and every Master Page. Use names like Left Page Number, Right Page Number, Main Text Right, Main Text Left, Odd little graphic element 1, Odd little graphic element 2, etc. Link those text frames on the Master Pages which need to be linked (Main Text Right linked to Main Text Left).

Work with Double page Spreads, not single pages.

If you need to have each actual chapter start on a right hand page make a Master Page for that, make it a double page spread so the text will flow from the right to the left. Have your Paragraph Style for the Chapter heading start on a new right hand page in the Flow section of the Paragraph Style.

========================

Books.

I find the Books feature to be either obscure or arcane, not entirely sure which. I would use it only if the document is too large to work with. There are so many caveats that it is difficult to find where a problem lies. There will be problems.

If you have a single document then you have only one set of Text Styles. You can work with Chapters*  if all your Documents are setup from a Template so as to co-ordinate your Text Styles, and Master Pages, and the physical size of the pages. All your Master Pages will need to have no changes from one Document to the next. Sections will need to be starting from page one for each Document. You will need to make sure that each Document ends on an even numbered Right hand page and every Document starts with an odd numbered Left hand page. Toss in your Foot and End notes, your Cross references, and your Table of Contents and I am one hundred percent certain that chaos with a capital K will ensue.

I am sure I am missing other problems people (myself included) have had with the Book Feature.

 

* Individual Publisher documents, which can consist of multiple actual chapters. Meaning you can have a Publisher Book Chapter with one, three, or seventeen, chapters from your actual book in it.

=========================

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

I would use it only if the document is too large to work with.

Or perhaps when putting together material from multiple authors, as Serif did with the ‘BookPlus’ feature in PagePlus when they created the Affinity workbooks. One set of text styles, one document to work with if you need to do a global ‘Find & Replace’, etc. At one time the typical desktop computer would struggle with a very large document, but nowadays it’s hard to think of a scenario (other than the multi-author one mentioned above) where the Book feature would come into its own.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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I would not change a word to all what @Old Bruce said, but I think that if I had personally to do this job, I would first consider the feasibility to merge all the Word documents in a single one, with a single clean style sheet, before importing this final copy in AffPub, as far as the different authors – even if with different layouts or formatting – used a relatively coherent list of styles (Header 1 for one equals in use Header 1 for another).
— Perhaps because I have a longer practice of Word than Publisher, I would expect an easier matching between different styles, identically named or not… There's also the fact that before importing a file, I find it's always better to clean it up in its native software.

(I repeat: 'I would consider to do…' This does not mean: 'This is what I will do'; I'd just check if this could simplify the import.)

Affinity Suite 2.5 – Monterey 12.7.5 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To

I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue.

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4 minutes ago, Oufti said:

I would not change a word to all what @Old Bruce said

Well… There is just one point I don't understand:

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

If you need to have each actual chapter start on a right hand page make a Master Page for that, make it a double page spread so the text will flow from the right to the left. […]

?? I'd expect text to always flow from left to right. 

Affinity Suite 2.5 – Monterey 12.7.5 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To

I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue.

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7 minutes ago, Oufti said:

I'd expect text to always flow from left to right

And then to the Left again, and then to the Right, ....

-- Walt
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6 minutes ago, Oufti said:

Well… There is just one point I don't understand:

?? I'd expect text to always flow from left to right. 

Now that you mention it, so would I! There’s also this, along similar lines:

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

You will need to make sure that each Document ends on an even numbered Right hand page and every Document starts with an odd numbered Left hand page.

Right-hand pages should always have odd numbers, shouldn’t they? And similarly, left-hand page numbers should always be even, as far as I’m aware.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

And then to the Left again, and then to the Right, ....

When does text ever flow to the left in normal LTR text? :/

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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5 minutes ago, Alfred said:

When does text ever flow to the left in normal LTR text? :/

From one spread to the next, on screen… ;) 

 

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Work with Double page Spreads, not single pages.

If you need to have each actual chapter start on a right hand page make a Master Page for that, make it a double page spread so the text will flow […]. Have your Paragraph Style for the Chapter heading start on a new right hand page in the Flow section of the Paragraph Style.

Example: 

PNG50-Capturedcran2024-02-1822_25_44.png.fc52fbea5f8dd32a09617f3df6b21af8.png

Affinity Suite 2.5 – Monterey 12.7.5 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To

I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue.

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@Oufti, @walt.farrell, @Alfred

Left, right. Right, left. Arrrgh. More proof that one should never proofread their own writing. I think I'll let it stand for now.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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49 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

one should never proofread their own writin

As a proofreader myself, I'd rather say One should never trust a text he wrote and proofread himself — but I think it's yet always profitable to re-read what we write, even if it could be not as effective as it should… 

Affinity Suite 2.5 – Monterey 12.7.5 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To

I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue.

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In case this helps, I wrote a novel, in fact using Serif PagePlus, but the same technique could be used with Affinity Publisher and/or Affinity Designer.

I produced the result as a collection of PDF documents, even including some blank PDF documents: for example, so as to have the blank page after the half title and before the title page.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/novel.htm

So would it be a good idea to use a separate Affinity document for each of your 25 texts, and extra Affinity documents for the title page, an introduction at the start, and a colophon at the end?

That is a decision for you, I am simply informing you of the option.

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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3 hours ago, William Overington said:

I produced the result as a collection of PDF documents, even including some blank PDF documents: for example, so as to have the blank page after the half title and before the title page.

 

I want to be able to edit the text in one document so your approach wouldn't work for me. 

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