Affinity publisher compatibility with other software

[Pops76MGB]

Since my MS Publisher is one the same track as the DoDo Bird, I've researching other alternatives. My brother had downloaded a version of Affinity Publisher during the Pandemic and actually liked it pretty much. My question, since I have numerous documents already done in MS Pub is: Can my MS files be opened in Affinity Publisher or converted somehow to be opened without having to start from scratch?  

[Catshill]

No you can’t import Microsoft Publisher documents into APu. If you export them as PDF (don’t use the Microsoft driver to do this) you can import those.

[MikeTO]

You can also save from Microsoft Publisher to Microsoft Word and then place the Word file into Affinity Publisher.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/save-a-publication-as-a-word-document-b5eaaae5-6f1b-48c1-bebc-44460376b693

[Jo H.]

What software is compatible with Affinity Publisher 2? I have various Image programmes like Art Explosion where I can transfer an image to the Publisher. Publisher does not use the Page Plus Cut-Out Studio in it. Will the Publisher accept creative adjusted imagary from the Gimp programme? I am thinking of buying the Publisher. I am not a professional so it seems a waste to buy as well the Affinity Photo to be able to get to altering Vector/Raster/Jpegs images!

I am on a 7 day trial atm. (retired 82 Art teacher)

[thomaso]

Hi @Jo H., Welcome to the Affinity Forums!

1 hour ago, Jo H. said:

What software is compatible with Affinity Publisher 2?

See this table of compatibility: https://affinity.help/publisher2/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Appendix/fileformat.html&title=Supported file formats

1 hour ago, Jo H. said:

it seems a waste to buy as well the Affinity Photo to be able to get to altering Vector/Raster/Jpegs images!
I am on a 7 day trial atm.

If your goal is to edit images (their pixels) then APub would not be sufficient because it does not offer any pixel editing tool but vector only while its vector tools are limited compared to those of AD.

• If your APub trial offers the ADesigner / APhoto Personas in APub you can experience the difference in tools and menus of the three apps within APub.
• If your installed APub trial does not offer those personas you might try to install additionally the trials for AD / APh to enable their Personas in APub.

However, to have them available in APub you will need to purchase them, too. (choosing the "universal license" might be the best option in this case). If you install APub + APhoto only then the APh persona will be available in APub (but not the AD persona).

Also note, even if you are able to use the AD / APh personas in APub you don't have 100% of the features available in both apps. Therefore APub also enables you to switch with an opened APub document to the other apps via the menu "File" > "Edit in Designer…" / "Edit in Photo…" which will save + close the .afpup file + open it in the according app. After editing you can go back to APub the same way.

[Jo H.]

Thank you all for your information, much appreciated!

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

Therefore APub also enables you to switch with an opened APub document to the other apps via the menu "File" > "Edit in Designer…" / "Edit in Photo…" which will save + close the .afpup file + open it in the according app.

It will not save the document before opening the document in the other app. Usually, this is not a problem but occasionally the other app might crash so it is always a good idea to manually save the document before using that File menu option.

[thomaso]

12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It will not save the document before opening the document in the other app. Usually, this is not a problem but occasionally the other app might crash so it is always a good idea to manually save the document before using that File menu option.

Good point. Actually it does save but not in a file saved by or visible to the user:

If I create a new document in APub and create/edit an object without saving this new document, then choose "Edit in Photo" then this 'unsaved' file gets closed in APub and reopened in APhoto, 'normally' with the last used document state created in the previous application. From this perspective the data have been 'saved' (in the background for the transfer). Interestingly the document opens in the other app with all History entries that were created before in the previous app.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

From this perspective the data have been 'saved' (in the background for the transfer).

Do you mean saved in an *.autosave recovery file? If not, where is this background data located, just in memory or in a temp file or what?

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

Interestingly the document opens in the other app with all History entries that were created before in the previous app.

That doesn't happen if the other app crashes on opening the document, which is why it is always safest to manually save the document before switching to the other app. Personally, I think if there are any unsaved changes when that file commend is used there should be a warning dialog saying that the file should be saved before switching.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

Do you mean saved in an *.autosave recovery file? If not, where is this background data located, just in memory or in a temp file or what?

From other posts reporting occasional issues with this process, if I remember correctly, it's a .aftransfer file in the application's temp directory (e.g., %userprofile%\.affinity\Designer\2.0\temp)

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

From other posts reporting occasional issues with this process, if I remember correctly, it's a .aftransfer file in the application's temp directory (e.g., %userprofile%\.affinity\Designer\2.0\temp)

I do not seem to have any *.aftransfer files created anywhere on my Mac, but I do get in ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Designer 2/temp/ an item with no extension & an alphanumeric name like 6630f48f when I use File > Open in Photo in AD. Oddly, this file does not get deleted when I close the file in either app, with or without saving it, only when I quit the app normally.

But it does not seem to be a usable file as I can only open it with TextEdit, so I don't think it would be safe to rely on it in the event of a crash.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

But it does not seem to be a usable file as I can only open it with TextEdit, so I don't think it would be safe to rely on it in the event of a crash.

I said nothing about using it for crash recovery.

[thomaso]

20 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

31 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Do you mean saved in an *.autosave recovery file? If not, where is this background data located, just in memory or in a temp file or what?

From other posts reporting occasional issues with this process, if I remember correctly, it's a .aftransfer file in the application's temp directory (e.g., %userprofile%\.affinity\Designer\2.0\temp)

I see an *.autosave file being moved from one app folder to the other while its file name (date+time) gets adjusted.

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I see an *.autosave file being moved from one app folder to the other while its file name (date+time) gets adjusted.

Or, do you perhaps see the original one being deleted in the first application, and a new one being created in the second application?

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I said nothing about using it for crash recovery.

I didn't say you did. I just wanted make sure it was evident to the new forum members that it is a good idea to save the document before switching to the other app.

3 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I see an *.autosave file being moved from one app folder to the other while its file name (date+time) gets adjusted.

I also see these *.autosave files but they are typically much smaller than the ones in the temp folder (like a few dozen KB vs. several MB) but none of them are openable on my Mac.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Or, do you perhaps see the original one being deleted in the first application, and a new one being created in the second application?

Probably deleted & created, but it doesn't make any difference. It is just contains the changes made to the document & (on Macs) it is not useable unless there is an available saved version of the document.

[thomaso]

Just now, walt.farrell said:

Or, do you perhaps see the original one being deleted in the first application, and a new one being created in the second application?

Hard to tell. If it gets deleted it needs to get copied first. Since the file's contents does not change on its way I assumed moving + renaming as sufficient.

(By the way: Moving a file works a little differently under macOS than under Windows)

[thomaso]

16 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I also see these *.autosave files but they are typically much smaller than the ones in the temp folder (like a few dozen KB vs. several MB)

In my experience both types can be small or large. Their size appears to depend on the document's contents and the session duration (lenghts of history).

[R C-R]

22 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I do not seem to have any *.aftransfer files created anywhere on my Mac, but I do get in ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Designer 2/temp/ an item with no extension & an alphanumeric name like 6630f48f when I use File > Open in Photo in AD. Oddly, this file does not get deleted when I close the file in either app, with or without saving it, only when I quit the app normally.

I can't be sure but it seems like there may be only one of these alphanumeric temp files with no extension created in each of the apps when using the File > Edit in options to switch apps. I'm not sure what to make of that but it may be that it contains only data about the last document the app was switched to, or some combination of data from all that were since the last time the app was started.

Among other things, this might suggest why for certain issues just quitting & restarting the app, which removes those temp files, fixes them?

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

In my experience both types can be small or large.

 I said "typically" because what I most often see is the temp file is substantially larger. I do not remember ever seeing the temp file smaller than the autosave one but maybe I just missed it.

[Jo H.]

11 hours ago, Jo H. said:

Thank you all for your information, much appreciated!

My question was not on how to or when you should save a new document (I always save any document I am working on)  my question was whether it be in Publisher, Photo or Designer. I asked what external software would be compatable to use to take over the duties of the Page Plus Cut-Out Studio which no longer exists. The Serif company has confirmed that there are only a few basic elements in Publisher for editing, and some in Photo. I used the Page Plus Cut-Out Studio a lot. I gather from other posts I have read quite a lot of people miss it too. Thank you all for your comments.

[PaulEC]

It would seem that you are actually asking about software that is comparable to PagePlus, rather than software that is compatible with it! PagePlus and Affinity Publisher are both DTP (Desk Top Publishing) software from Serif, bur APub was designed "from the ground up"; it is not an updated version of PP. The Affinity suite (APub, A Designer and A Photo) is integrated software and, as such, some functions which were included with PagePlus (such as the Cutout Studio) are, more appropriately, in one of the other apps. Editing an image, including cutting out part of the image, is really the job of a photo editing app, (such as APhoto), rather than DTP (APub). APhoto has several ways of cutting out an image, including a Smart Selection Brush, which works in a similar, (but IMHO, much improved,) way as did as the Cutout Studio in PagePlus. (As has been pointed out above, you can only use the Photo Persona in APub if you have also purchased APhoto.)

[Jo H.]

Thank you paulEC. Apologies I do not explain well due to my many TIA/TGA's I have had since 1989 (19 to date)! I am having to buy another Art programme as from beginning of April I have a more uptodate new computer and Windows 11. I was told by Serif that Page Plus X9 was not trialed by Serif for Windows 11. I bought Page Plus in 2016 which I now realise they were then fazing out that programme. So reluctantly I am trialing the Affinity Publisher atm. From my meagre experience compared to all the professionals that use it, it is in a way quite similar. As you will appreciate for me with memory problems wandering around a new programme can be a nightmare. I have found most of what I need for my artwork and where to find it in the APublisher. It is plainly obvious that the Affinity system is not family orentated like Page Plus was but is a very highly professional system. (incl. if bought together all three programmes). All I need to keep from the Page Plus X9 is the Cut-Out Studio section. My Nova Art programme has images in it of Raster and Vector so want to be able to fetch across to Publisher, Edit/crop/playabout with etc. I do not use Vector or Raster all the time, I have around 5500 Jpeg images and I still design manually as well. So it is just the ability to easily be able to do that when I need to. For what I need it seems silly/expensive to buy the APhoto as well as the APublisher for what I need it for. I taught Art 64 years ago then went into designwork in my Engineering business. I was taught computer in 1985 and now I have been retired37 years! So I am looking for something that did the duties of the Cut-Out Studio in Page Plus that will be accepted/altered/edited and can be finished off in APub. Once again my apologies for not explaining things well.

 

 

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Jo H. said:

I have found most of what I need for my artwork and where to find it in the APublisher. (…) All I need to keep from the Page Plus X9 is the Cut-Out Studio section.

This sounds a bit contradictory to me: If all you "need to keep from the Page Plus X9 is the Cut-Out Studio section" I wonder how you "found most of what I need… in the APublisher" – unless you used APub's Photo Persona.

As mac user I could never experience Page Plus but watching a video tutorial about Cut-Out-Studio it seems to be rather equivalent to APhoto than to APublisher:

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, Jo H. said:

I was told by Serif that Page Plus X9 was not trialed by Serif for Windows 11.

You can conduct your own trial on your Windows 11 system if you have your product key and installation media for PagePlus X9.