Is There a "Copy Links To" Function?

[TC16]

InDesign has a function, "Copy Links To" that will copy all of your linked files to a specified folder and update the links in your document.

Does Publisher have something similar? If so I've been unable to find it.

[MikeTO]

22 minutes ago, TC16 said:

InDesign has a function, "Copy Links To" that will copy all of your linked files to a specified folder and update the links in your document.

Does Publisher have something similar? If so I've been unable to find it.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Publisher doesn't have this feature but it can package the document with all of the linked files.

https://affinity.help/publisher2/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Publishing/aboutPackaging.html&title=About packaging

[walt.farrell]

48 minutes ago, TC16 said:

Does Publisher have something similar? If so I've been unable to find it.

As Mike said, there's Packaging.

But specifically for your question, there's also Collect from the Resource Manager: https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/pages/Media/resourceManager.html

It's similar to Packaging, but doesn't include Fonts, and doesn't produce a .afpackage file for easy transport/sharing of the file and the needed resources.

 

[thomaso]

42 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Collect from the Resource Manager: https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/pages/Media/resourceManager.html

It's similar to Packaging, but doesn't include Fonts, and doesn't produce a .afpackage file for easy transport/sharing of the file and the needed resources.

The Affinity help doesn't seem to tell: Like ID's "Copy Links To" Affinity's "Collect" copies the linked files AND updates the links within the document. You also may use "Undo" and thus revert the links in this document back to the former links but maintain the copies in the new/selected location.

But, different to ID, if the target folder contains a file already who's file name is also linked in the document – regardless of its file path – then the copied file caused by "Collect" gets renamed (e.g. by adding "_1" to the file name) and updated with this new name in the document and the folder with copies contains this image twice (with two names). If you then choose "Undo" the document will use different file names then the copies. In that case you can't just change the folder path, for instance to update links after the copies were edited by someone else. ID's appears to be more elegant / less dangerous in this handling because it ignores/excludes an already existing file in the copy procedure and does not change file names.

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, thomaso said:

ID's appears to be more elegant / less dangerous in this handling because it ignores/excludes an already existing file in the copy procedure and does not change file names.

And does it verify that the existing file in the Collect directory is in fact identical in content to the file being collected? 

If not, that seems like a good way to lose data, rather than something "more elegant".

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

And does it verify that the existing file in the Collect directory is in fact identical in content to the file being collected? 

Yes (according to the OP's article), that's why ID ignores/excludes such a file and does not create an additional copy (and has no link to update).

On mac Affinity appears to go an unusual way by creating a renamed copy without any message (with or without an option to ignore or to rename those, as usual in macOS file copy procedures).

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Yes (according to the OP's article), that's why ID ignores/excludes such a file and does not create an additional copy (and has no link to update).

Sorry, but that makes the answer "no". From that article it seems to be only looking at file names, and depending on the user not to have multiple files with the same name but different content.

I prefer Affinity's approach, which ensures no data is lost, at the slight expense of perhaps having duplicate files. Duplicates can always be confirmed and one or more of them removed. But if the linked file isn't collected in the first place just because the name is the same as some other file, it can be lost entirely if it really had different content.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but that makes the answer "no". From that article it seems to be only looking at file names, and depending on the user not to have multiple files with the same name but different content.

I just tried it in ID: If a file with the same name already exists in the destination folder, ID compares that file with a possible new copy: If the dates, times or sizes of the two images are not identical then ID creates a renamed copy (like Affinity with "_1"), otherwise no copy of the file with the same name gets created. This prevents a file from being lost by "Copy Links To".

Affinity creates a renamed copy even for 100% identical files in the destination folder. If the user creates this folder and copies via "Collect" but then chooses "Undo" to continue with the initial document and file paths and selects "Collect" at a later time again then not only new/additional images in the layout get copied but all those that were selected in the Manager for "Collect". This may end up in multiple renamed copies of identical files … and just confuse this way.

[TC16]

20 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

As Mike said, there's Packaging.

But specifically for your question, there's also Collect from the Resource Manager: https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/pages/Media/resourceManager.html

It's similar to Packaging, but doesn't include Fonts, and doesn't produce a .afpackage file for easy transport/sharing of the file and the needed resources.

 

This seems to be very similar to InDesign's function. I will play around with this soon.

UPDATE: This is definitely nearly the exact same as found in ID and precisely what I was looking for. Thank you!

Edited July 16 by TC16

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.