[Implemented] Is it possible to package a project in Publisher?

[Kalyori]

I would also like to chime in and say that packaging is an extremely important function.

At this stage, it's really the only thing holding me back. I really like all of the Affinity products, and considering the increasing price of Adobe's products, I REALLY want to switch. But, when working with deadlines, I just need things to work reliably, quickly and simply. I can't embed (way too large file size) and I can't be chasing after linked images, fonts and other resources.

Does Affinity Publisher have by any chance a public road map which can be viewed?

[AdrianB]

On 7/8/2019 at 7:11 PM, idyguy said:

WOW! Here we are almost a year after this post and there is still no method for packaging a project. I simply cannot understand why this feature has not been implemented. 

You simple cannot understand software development. Publisher is still brand new! They cannot put in every feature every user "demands" in the first release. It's not like the first release of Pagemaker had every feature of the current InDesign version.

We all have different priorities, but there are way more features out there that are essential than this, for most users (I'd guess more people probably need IDML import first). Packaging is convenient and they are working on it for future releases. Until then the current version of Publisher is quite capable for creating content for many users and it's without doubt the best thing that has come to life for desktop publishing, for us who want an InDesign replacement.

[Joachim_L]

Even Indesign was not able to package files from the first release on. It took a while for a native option (packaging and / or preflight), in the meantime (back in good old days) I had to use Flightcheck Pro (Mac).

So give Serif the time they need.

[vjbasil]

The point is:

If you intend to bring out a software that SERIOUSLY competes with InDesign, it should do at least  EVERYTHING InDesign does but BETTER.

If Serif does not do that, they apparantly do not intend to (or at least try to ) beat Adobe seriously, and Serif will stay on the amateur market.

This may sound harsh, but this is in fact the ONLY way to make any chance in breaking into the professional InDesign market.

Anyone coming from InDesign should NEVER have the feeling that something is missing.

So end of discussion: packaging is a MUST, as is everything else that InDesign does.

So people at Serif: No delay, do it today!

( Bill Gates would just say: work harder!)

Edited October 3, 2019 by vjbasil
updated the content

[Patrick Connor]

@vjbasil

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums  

Well that's a bold first post. Please be aware in joining these forums you have just agreed to guidelines that do not allow "SHOUTING"

[fde101]

3 hours ago, vjbasil said:

So people at Serif: No delay, do it today!

Rushing into things results in mistakes (bugs) and lower quality.

I would much rather they took their time on features like this and got them right.

 

That said, this one at least "feels" like low-hanging fruit: something that should require much less effort than many of the other requests but make a nontrivial difference for a number of people, so it seems like something that should be close to the top of the list of things to get out of the way.

It also shouldn't require a file format change or anything of that nature, so it should even be do-able in a point release, say 1.7.4 or 1.7.5, and not need to wait for 1.8 to roll around.

Personally, I couldn't care less about this feature at the moment, and I'm sure a lot of Serif's user base would not care about it one way or the other either (which may be why it hasn't emerged yet?), but I do see where it is needed for some, and as it is a relatively small effort (I would guess), I would think this would be a good target to shoot for sooner rather than later.

 

3 hours ago, vjbasil said:

as is everything else that InDesign does.

This one, however, is completely wrong.  Publisher is NOT InDesign and should not attempt to be.  InDesign is InDesign and Publisher is Publisher.  Don't forget that there are still some other big players in this field, such as QuarkXPress, and they don't do everything InDesign does either.  Some things they do better, others not as well (or at all in some cases).

[garrettm30]

5 hours ago, vjbasil said:

If you intend to bring out a software that SERIOUSLY competes with InDesign, it should do at least  EVERYTHING InDesign does but BETTER.

Sure, there are things that InDesign (which has had years to mature) does that Publisher does not, as our feature requests often reflect. But to expect it to do "everything" that InDesign does—and "better" at that—is expecting way too much. Especially if you realize that you would be getting all of that for paying only once the equivalent of 20% of a single year of using InDesign. You can't have it all.

A friend who studied business once explained to me that if you are paying to have something done, you can't get it done cheaply, quickly, and well. You can pick any two of those three, but generally not all three. If you want both quality and speed, you better be willing to throw a lot of money at it. (I hope that I, who has not studied business, did not misconstrue what my friend told me.)

[Old Bruce]

13 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

(I hope that I, who has not studied business, did not misconstrue what my friend told me.)

It isn't a business school saying per se, more of a tradesman's explanation to a customer. "You can only choose two: Good, Fast, or Cheap"

[Rica.E]

On 7/24/2019 at 4:24 PM, AdrianB said:

It's not like the first release of Pagemaker had every feature of the current InDesign version.

OH my goodness, this is true. I feel my age too - yes, I remember working on the first release of Pagemaker. I still hope Affinity does the package project part. It means a lot especially if it has a lot of fonts and files involved. I just finished a 200-paged, image-heavy booklet. Had to do it manually, that is, create a folder for the PDF, FONTS and IMAGES. 

One reason why it helps is that, clients I've encountered usually pick and drop pics. While I'd put all pics in one folder, sometimes they'd change the pics for something better. Not just once or twice, but several times. It would help if it could move pics that were used and leave the ones that weren't. 

[walt.farrell]

Publisher beta 1.8.0.502 has a "collect" function in the Resource Manager that will gather the embedded or linked files that you select and

1. copy them to a specified folder, while also
2. converting any embedded files into linked files, and
3. relinking any linked files to point to the new folder.

It doesn't handle fonts, but this is at least a start toward satisfying the packaging request, I think.

[Preflight]

Our "Collect for Output" workflow. To send to printshop/collaborator in a different company/client etc...

1. Open original Publisher file and open Resources Manager at the bottom of the 'Document' Menu.

2. Select all . and click Embed. 

    * Why the button might be greyed out when you select all:- 
       - there is a linked item(s) that cannot be found in the items you selected. You will need to go find it..
       - you have selected already embedded item(s)

3. Save As new file. We stick the word EMBEDDED on the end . 

This will give you a larger file.  Send to the other Affinity Publisher User you want to share your doc with. Dropbox, YouSendit, Firefox google drive blah blah....

we see 100page magazines come in about 3-5Gb. 

4. At the other end . open the file and open Resources Manager at the bottom of the 'Document' Menu.

    - Click 'Make Linked.' a box pops up to say where do you want to save all these links. 

5. Save As new doc . Potentially without the word 'embedded' on the end.

- some gotchas we have noticed. 

- There are some files that get embedded even if you have set them as linked. i.e placing a PSD, PDF, AI EPS, .afdesign    all make the the file size of the original bigger. So using those formats to link will give you really big files but keep the link 'live'. So it the original afdesign file is updated your Publisher file knows and lets you know.
- These particular (psd,ai, eps etc..) embedded files that say they are 'missing' can actually be saved out.  but you need to edit them in place. And save them out as 'new' versions of themselves.  Double clicking a .PSD  file for instance will open a new tab with the embedded version of the file. You cannot 'save' it you need to EXPORT it.! then you get your file back.

- This process doesnt include fonts. 

Use the 'font manager' to get yourself a list. This is also in the 'Document' Menu. Then collate them to give to your printshop. 
The same font, from different font foundries are different. Caslon used on one computer can be different to another Caslon on your Printers Prepress Department's computer. 

Hope this give some people some ideas.

Great work Serif. Keep going... dont give up.

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

@Preflight

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums  . What a great first post!

[Fixx]

14 hours ago, Preflight said:

- some gotchas we have noticed. 

PDF was invented to get around most of these problems... but of course if work flow demands content adjustments further down the flow, PDF does not cut it.

[fde101]

2 hours ago, Fixx said:

PDF was invented to get around most of these problems...

No it wasn't.

PDF does not support linked files and was never intended as an editing format.  It is meant as "paper in a file" but with smaller sizes and the ability to scale and search.

The fact that it has been commonly misused as an editable interchange format does not make that part of its intended function, it just means that the format is being commonly used for functions it was never actually designed for.

[Fixx]

20 hours ago, fde101 said:

No it wasn't.

Yes it was if we are talking here about sending files for printing. For that PDF is ideal.

[fde101]

7 hours ago, Fixx said:

if we are talking here about sending files for printing

For that perhaps, but that is not how I am reading the post that you quoted as being responded to.  The expressed concerns were related to linked files and PDF as a delivery format is not relevant to that topic.

[Fixx]

OP said "To send to printshop". For that PDF is the right answer. "collaborator in a different company/client" is another case for which there is no simple or universal answer.

[fde101]

On 12/8/2019 at 5:11 AM, Fixx said:

OP said "To send to printshop". For that PDF is the right answer.

I see what is happening now.

You quoted one bullet point of his process and then responded to the topic/post as a whole.  I was interpreting the response in terms of the quoted bullet point instead.

 

Yes, I agree that in general, it is better to produce a PDF to send to a printer rather than packaging the Publisher file along with the separated resources.

However, if someone is packaging the source documents for whatever reason, then PDF does not solve the specific "gotchas" related to the specific point of that process which you quoted from.

[Seneca]

On 10/3/2019 at 9:41 AM, vjbasil said:

Anyone coming from InDesign should NEVER have the feeling that something is missing.

That's a very weird point of view.

Serif folks don't advertise their software as a replacement for anything.

Yes, certain things are very important to the professional community and these will be implemented as soon as possible.

In an ideal world everything should be perfect from day one, but, fortunately or not, we don't live in an ideal world (yet).

[magicdesign__]

On 9/1/2018 at 7:35 AM, Rylek said:

that will work for a small publication, now i have 300+ images.... lots of clickin

also on my catalog resource i have to many images that i wont use in final version, and packege (like indesign) helps me to create/save final draft with all files that i use. rest is for backup/delete

a workaround for this (as a one off) would be to save as high res pdf and then open that PDF in publisher. All the images would then be embedded. 

[Clayton King]

For managing long documents, particularly with many images and placed objects, packaging is critical. The design process itself tends to create a lot of bloat in a folder structure. Packaging allows for saving a clean copy of the document with all its resources, including fonts.

I have worked in prepress for 15 years and that's one area InDesign excels. Affinity Publisher is supported, but the process is difficult for customers.

[Clayton King]

Has anyone come up with a reasonable workaround for the lack of packaging in Publisher? I tried making everything embedded, saving the file in a new folder and making everything linked, but I was never given the option of specifying the folder to which the newly linked files are written...

[Joachim_L]

6 hours ago, Clayton King said:

I tried making everything embedded, saving the file in a new folder and making everything linked, but I was never given the option of specifying the folder to which the newly linked files are written...

There are some "design flaws" in packaging files even in the 1.8x beta.

1) When files are embedded and you want to make them linked again the original location - if available - will be used again as a link source. This is a good decision I think, but having a choice would be nice.

2) File types like SVG, PSD, PDF etc. will stay embedded, you cannot make them linked inside the Resource Manager. The only chance to make them linked now, is to to replace them and use the link option in the file dialogue.

3) 1.8x beta: You cannot globally package the files. They have to be selected. If you select all the files and there is one of the aformentioned file types in the list, the button to collect is not available.

4) 1.8x beta: Packaging as I know it from Indesign collects everything, not only the images.

So right now, easy packaging of files is impossible. But I am sure this will come in a future version.

[EmliB]

Hello just joining this thread as hoping to switch to Affinity but as others above, being able to package into an ideally InDesign compatible format would be a MUST. Has this been addressed now?

[fde101]

On 3/4/2020 at 5:15 AM, EmliB said:

being able to package into an ideally InDesign compatible format would be a MUST

Currently, Publisher can import IDML files but cannot export them.  As IDML export would be a prerequisite to packaging in an InDesign compatible format, this is unlikely to happen for a while.

As was pointed out above, it does have the ability to "collect" linked-to images now, but this does not currently include fonts that are referenced by the document.