Affinity Publisher V1 importing a PDF not showing in the text box

[jmsjms]

I have a pre-formatted OpenOffice Writer text that is saved as 6 x 9 PDF file with 0.79 margins all the way around. I am placing the text inside a 6 x 9 publisher document with 0.79 margins all the way around. My facing master pages with the book numbering are already done, and I'm leaving those alone. I am placing the PDF on the first blank page under the master pages -- inside a text box that matches the 0.79 margin guidelines. I even tried a slightly larger text box, but the placing of the text doesn't place it inside. The text is visible slightly to the side only if I click the red eye icon. AI couldn't help me, so I am trying here. It's actually my first time using Affinity Publisher.

EDIT: Ok, I get it, I was trying to import a 6 x 9 pdf inside the margins of the Publisher document. So, now I've resized my text box to be 6 x 9 (which is the entire page of the Publisher document), and I placed the PDF inside. However, the flowing triangle icon doesn't work, it creates an extra blank page #2 page, but no text inside.

[thomaso]

'PDF' is a container file format, it may contain a range of various object / file types, e.g. text, vector, image, video, audio, fonts, interactive elements…

If you insert a PDF via menu "File" > "Place" inside an APub text frame it gets placed as a pinned object, nested in the text frame layer. Depending on its size and pinning options for scaling + position it may not show directly within the text frame once it got inserted but may require modified settings. As a pinned object it will flow with the text, e.g. between columns or linked text frames. – Nevertheless, its text will not be editable with this workflow.

If you want to insert text as editable object in Affinity you can either …

• Open a PDF (not 'place').
• Place a PDF as embedded, then press "Edit Document" in the "Context Toolbar".
• Place a text file (.txt, .rtf, docx, …).
• Copy/paste text via the computer's clipboard.

[jmsjms]

I see. I tried with the Edit Document from the PDF, however it is editing the letters as separate vectors, so that will not work. I thought that PDFs were editable; I am kind of surprised on that.

I tried importing an OpenOffice Writer (.odt) document, but that isn't supported in publisher.

I tried importing (.rtf), but that imports my hidden styles too. (In OpenOffice Writer I have an option to hide my styles, which is very beneficial because the hidden styles are my notes to myself that are not supposed to be printed). So, in Publisher I was trying to hide the styles that are supposed to be hidden. I double click on it, but on the menu there is no button or check-mark to hide a style.

I tried highlighting my Writer (.odt) document -- Copy & Paste, but when it pastes it does the same thing; it shows my styles that are hidden.

AI couldn't give a good direction.

What options do I have left to import my document and to start editing it?

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

What options do I have left to import my document and to start editing it?

Have you tried just Opening the PDF?

But generally it will be better to export as .docx from your Office program (LibreOffice can do that; not sure if Open Office can, as I abandoned that a long time ago). Or as .rtf. You won't have the ability to hide text styles, but you'll be able to Find text with those styles and delete it if you need to. Or if they're in separate text frames, you can hide the text frames one by one.

[jmsjms]

.docx is not available through OpenOffice Writer. Maybe I should save as .doc, and find an online converter to .docx?

The PDF did open, but it is not editable. When I click on Edit -- it converts the letters to vectors, and I can edit them as individual letters; so, that wouldn't work.

The hidden comments I write to myself in OpenOffice Writer are not in frames. They are dispersed all over the text. I highlight them there and I apply a style that I know that I will hide before the publishing. So, that's a no go to go paragraph by paragraph and to start deleting my comments manually 

Right-click deleting the style doesn't delete it; it only strips the styled features.

This is puzzling; it's not a good start to try editing a book when I can't even get the document in to edit it.

[kenmcd]

11 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

The hidden comments I write to myself in OpenOffice Writer are not in frames. They are dispersed all over the text. So, that's a no go.

LibreOffice has a Comments feature which enables you to insert comments at a particular point in the text - and then choose whether or not these are visible (in the margin).
When exporting to PDF these are not there - unless you enable LO to convert them to PDF annotations, which you can then see/or not see in the PDF reader.

And you can export to .docx - which you can import to APub directly.

And there is a delete-all-comments command, so you could do a save-as, and then delete all the comments.

[jmsjms]

It's good to know. But I am solidly based with OpenOffice Writer because I have hundreds of files already.

[kenmcd]

17 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

It's good to know. But I am solidly based with OpenOffice Writer because I have hundreds of files already.

You can open them all in LibreOffice.

[jmsjms]

So, I would have to install LibreOffice on my PC, and my workflow would have to change:

Write and Edit my work in OpenOffice Writer.

Then open my work in LibreOffice.

Then resave my work as .docx

Then place my file in Affinity Publisher.

Then if I need to edit my writings, I have to go back to step 1.

 

I am even afraid to convert my .doc to .docx online, because I don't want some website to have access to my file.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

Then if I need to edit my writings, I have to go back to step 1.

Or, just switch to using LibreOffice Writer. Your Open Office files are compatible with it.

[jmsjms]

Is there an option to convert a TextStyle to Layer? And then I can delete the layer?

[jmsjms]

Where did I get the idea that a PDF file is an editable file? From the export box that says, preserve editing capabilities?.... When I have printed documents in the past (not books), the printers can open my files and edit them, can't they?

[jmsjms]

If I installed a .doc to .docx converter on my PC, and I open the .docx files in Publisher, would they show up the same as the .rtf files with the hidden layers visible, or will they hide my hidden layers just like the PDF hides them?

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, jmsjms said:

I tried with the Edit Document from the PDF, however it is editing the letters as separate vectors, so that will not work.

2 hours ago, jmsjms said:

The PDF did open, but it is not editable. When I click on Edit -- it converts the letters to vectors, and I can edit them as individual letters; so, that wouldn't work.

Both notes seem to indicate that your PDF contains text as curves. I am not aware that Affinity is able to convert text by itself when editing an embedded or when opening a PDF. – Can you upload any sample page of a PDF created from your text editing application?

2 hours ago, jmsjms said:

I tried importing (.rtf), but that imports my hidden styles too.

If styles get imported but aren't assigned to text (your story) you can choose "Delete Unused Styles" in the Text Styles panel to get rid of these styles. – If your comments get copied/pasted, too, you can possibly save your text document before copy/paste as a version that does not contain your comments.

1 hour ago, jmsjms said:

Then if I need to edit my writings, I have to go back to step 1.

Why go back? Can't you edit the text in APub once it got transferred? For what purpose do you want the text in APub?

[jmsjms]

Delete Unused Styles didn't work. I think it is because when I placed the .rtf file, it shows my hidden styles; Affinity Publisher considers them as used styles and shows them to be visible even though they are saved as invisible. When I import them in Affinity Publisher as .rtf -- they are no longer hidden.

I don't want to use Affinity Publisher as a writing/editing software. I am used to using OpenOffice Writer for that purpose. That's why I want to be careful and not end up with duplicate documents. I want to use Affinity Publisher only for my printing purposes. I am not happy with the letter tracking control in OpenOffice Writer; and the page numbering there is also a bit complicated, but I figured it out to some extent.

Regardless, if I can't open my file in Affinity Publisher then I have to go do the pre-publishing through OpenOffice Writer.

[jmsjms]

If I open my PDF by itself, not in Affinity Publisher, it opens as text. I can highlight the text. It is when I open it in Publisher that I have to click the Edit button, and the Edit button converts the individual letters to vectors.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, jmsjms said:

It is when I open it in Publisher that I have to click the Edit button, and the Edit button converts the individual letters to vectors.

What Edit button? If you mean Edit Document that suggests that you Placed the PDF rather than Opening it.

[jmsjms]

I place the PDF (it is not editable, and I can't highlight the text to edit it).

I click the Move tool, and the Edit Document button appears on the menu above the file.

I click it, and it converts the individual letters to vectors.... I obviously don't need this to happen. I just want to import my .pdf (because it can't import .odt), and I want to start laying out the pages.

[walt.farrell]

22 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

I place the PDF

The suggestion earlier was that you Open it (File > Open). What happens when you do that? 

 

[jmsjms]

If I open the PDF as a separate file, I am given the dialogue box that gives me the option to vectorize the letters which I don't want, or to "group lines of text as text frames." When I choose the second option the PDF opens all the pages at once. But they are not flowing text from one to another. If I start pressing the Enter key to push the text down, it doesn't flow from one to another. If I do Shift+Triangle icon, it pushes the first page onto the a new page after the last page. 

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, jmsjms said:

Delete Unused Styles didn't work. I think it is because when I placed the .rtf file, it shows my hidden styles; Affinity Publisher considers them as used styles and shows them to be visible even though they are saved as invisible. When I import them in Affinity Publisher as .rtf -- they are no longer hidden.

I don't want to use Affinity Publisher as a writing/editing software.

Styles are considered by Affinity as used  if they are assigned to text or are used as base for other styles.

For what purpose do you want to "hide" or delete styles? If you want to re-style the text in APub you can double-click an imported style and change its properties.

2 hours ago, jmsjms said:

I don't want to use Affinity Publisher as a writing/editing software. I am used to using OpenOffice Writer for that purpose. That's why I want to be careful and not end up with duplicate documents. I want to use Affinity Publisher only for my printing purposes. I am not happy with the letter tracking control in OpenOffice Writer; and the page numbering there is also a bit complicated, but I figured it out to some extent.

To print the text document or the existing PDF you don't need to use APub, right?

If you want to add page numbers in APub you can create a Master Page + add a text frame with a page number field (menu Text > Insert > Fields > Page number) + apply this master page to all document pages.

If you want to turn a single paged document into 2-page spreads with left and right pages and page numbers near the left/right corners you need to set the document properties to "facing pages" and use a 2-page Master Page spread to place the left + right page number.

1 hour ago, jmsjms said:

the PDF opens all the pages at once. But they are not flowing text from one to another. If I start pressing the Enter key to push the text down, it doesn't flow from one to another.

Is text flow relevant for your goal? What is your goal with APub? If you want to edit the tracking or another style attribute you better don't open/import a PDF but rather place or paste a text file.

58 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

If I open the PDF as a separate file, I am given the dialogue box that gives me the option to vectorize the letters

Can you show a screenshot of this option to "vectorize"? 
Can you upload a sample PDF?

[jmsjms]

[jmsjms]

The screen shot is of the Test PDF.

The attached file is the Test PDF.

Yes, the text-flow between pages is very relevant, because I will have hundreds of pages and I will be using hyphenation. Sure, I can all finish this in OpenOffice Writer, but since I have APub, why not try it here for a first time. I don't like the word-tracking tool in OO, and here I am given more control of tracking and kerning. I also wanted to test the hyphenation here, because I was having some issues with hyphenation in OO. Also, the page-numbering here is easier than in OO.

Yes (when I imported the .rtf) I already looked into the options of the style menu, but couldn't find a hide button. I have a particular way of writing in OO where I also write comments to myself. In OO I assign my own comment to a style, and when I am ready to print I hide the style, and I export to PDF.

I am almost given up on this, and will do my layout and printing from OO if I can't figure it out soon.

Test.pdf

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, jmsjms said:

Your screenshot merely shows the document with one of eight text boxes selected. There is no reference to vectorization, if that’s what you were trying to demonstrate.

[jmsjms]

Sorry, I was not properly describing it then. I don't know what the name of it is when APub creates a separate layer for each line of text. But it is still not properly imported text that can be edited like a normal text document.