Usability - critical document metadata and tabbing in Publisher

[Bit Disappointed]

Unfortunately, as a user of Canvaffinity Designer, I have to go all the way into Publisher to find the functionality to set metadata about myself as the author of a file that is going out into the world as a PDF, and even more unfortunately, I have to go under "Window" and the submenu "References" to find the menu item Fields, where I can write Document Information. I could really use the theme music from Benny Hill while clicking my way to this illogical location in another program from the large Canva family.

But it becomes really annoying, on the other hand, when as a customer you discover that you can't tab from field to field in the dialog.

I wonder if you are ready to include document info with these lines also elsewhere in the program where you actually work with document information, where it is expected, and then with tab support in both places.

It's completely absurd because the most central and simple thing in a document - this metadata and logical addition of it for customers - has not been considered in the development of Affinity by Serif for 10 years. First things first. Not last.

[MikeTO]

I don't find the location for this option to be difficult to access, but I agree that you should be able to set metadata such as author and title in Designer and that you should be able to tab from field to field. Note that you can set the author name in Photo - it's in the Metadata panel.

Note that you can also set the default value for Publisher's Author field so that you don't have to keep doing this for each PDF. To set the default, enter your name in the Author field in the Fields panel and press Return when you have no documents open.

 

[Bit Disappointed]

Difficult? Let's examine the scenario. I'm not using in Publisher creating a few but large documents (books, whatever), where entering the author, description, etc., is a rare event in a longer workflow. I start and work in Designer, which is the only program I actually (should) use, and I create many documents quickly for various uses. Beyond copyright reasons, I also enter descriptions, tags, etc., since my work is saved in a document management system at work AND some of what I create is subject to archival obligations. Metadata from PDFs is actively used for this purpose by the document management system so it is crucial stuff.

Having to edit in Publisher from Designer, travelling into a menu item under references and fields and back to Designer (and NO, I do not work through Publisher and personas, ever), instead of being able to enter this information under document setup (there could be an Info tab) or similar is sheer folly. Doing it several times is crazy.

Of course, I can waste a lot of - but less - time using a program to tag these PDF files, but in a business context, it's also madness that this information is then not also saved in the .afdesign files. Just imagine how well that would work in a re-export scenario. 

It's as if Serif does not imagine their products being used by anyone other than individuals, printing to paper. Through Adobe Reader, by the way. That's not very progressive or insightful. Perhaps Canva can open the door for Serif to a larger world.

[Bit Disappointed]

Example, CorelDRAW
File -> Document Properties

It illustrates well that in this program for professionals - in collaboration with customers, I assume, and in the style of many other programs - this has been collected in document info that is easy to find and enter. And as mentioned, this is quite important information for everyone, and especially in a serious context.

[Pšenda]

On 4/6/2024 at 4:55 PM, MikeTO said:

but I agree that you should be able to set metadata such as author and title in Designer

I think it would also be useful to be able to fill in some user fields (metadata) when creating a new document - for example, the author's name (this could also be part of the template), title, document description, etc.

[Artistwright]

Yes I've been wanting to do this for so long from Affinity designer