Affinity Publisher and GREP

[Daveuk]

Will Publisher include GREP (regular expression) find/change functionality? I would love InDesign to have some genuine competition and this is an essential feature for me. Thanks.

[Fixx]

And would it be true GREP or some simplified variety? GREP may be hard to write but simple versions do not have as much flexibility. I guess we could have both.

[000]

Also, it would be fabulous if sets of search/replace commands could be saved and reused.

[Leigh]

We should have more information about AP's features closer to the beta :)

[Alfred]

We should have more information about AP's features closer to the beta :)

 

You'll need to use a different abbreviation such as 'APub'. It's bad enough that you've borrowed my initials :P but Affinity Photo is already referred to as 'AP' (as was AlbumPlus, although that was sufficiently long ago that it isn't likely to be a source of confusion).

[mac_heibu]

GREP support in an initial version of Affinity Publisher! Is somebody dreaming or suffering from loss of reality?

Would be much more appropriate to keep one's feet on the ground! Otherwise disappointment will be colossal!

From all we know, Affinity Designer will start as a quite "limited" application (what is not meant as a reproach, but as an unadvoidabe necessity:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/1522-affinity-publisher-photo-roadmap/&p=6224

[jupiterboy]

Yes, well, I get paid to do books and set type well, and have a deep library of GREP scripting and data sets. This is one of the things that distinguishes my work. Like many, I'd absolutely love to leave Adobe in the scrap heap with Quark, but for my money so many of the features in desktop pub apps are rubbish. GREP is not one of them.

[mac_heibu]

Jupiterboy, you are not the center of the publishing world. What you consider to be "rubbish" may be indispensible for other users. Can't understand, why many people have such a egocentric angle of view.

[CartoonMike]

... veering away from personal attacks, a clue could be had from the initial releases of both AD and AP. APUB won't "have it all" at version 1 or even 1.75.  GREP for publisher would be best in the Feature Requests section. We won't really know what Publisher has or has not until it gets released. I kinda know what GREP is, and I have absolutely no need for it. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be seriously considered as a feature. 

 

So, please, let's not be like the rest of the internet. Let's have some courtesy and realize that we all use Affinity software in our own unique ways for our specific work.

[jhmdigital]

One of there things I have always admired about Affinity Forums is the helpful, friendly, positive way in which they work. It would be a sad day if they deteriorated with unnecessary personal comments.

 

I am looking forward to the availability of Affinity Publisher which I will be using in a modest way. I understand that the initial version will not have all the features that everybody would like and those will be introduced over time as the programme develops.

 

I haven't a clue what GREP is but see no harm if somebody feels it important for it to be requested as a feature. At the same time if it does involve complicated scripting which would delay the introduction of the software then surely it is sensible for the basic programme to proceed first as quickly as possible [it was initially promised a good time ago] to satisfy the majority. GREP and other features to be added in line with the majority requests.

 

I endorse CartoonMike's comments.

[jupiterboy]

Jupiterboy, you are not the center of the publishing world. What you consider to be "rubbish" may be indispensible for other users. Can't understand, why many people have such a egocentric angle of view.

 

My concern is for good typography. I think this is a deep skill that is worthy of preservation. You'll note that decompiling fonts is generally illegal, so the only way to legally adjust kerning throughout a large document is through automation. 

 

What I am calling rubbish is the automation and interface design associated with duplicating existing features and making them, in theory, more accessible. This, to me, is bloat. 

 

I've set type in lead, on photosetting machines, and have lived through desktop publishing. There are some dark periods in there were fundamental control of type was lost. Is it egocentric to ask for the basic tools to be able to attempt to do a fundamentally good job on a book?