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Open PagePlus (*.ppp) files


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I am also very surprised as a long time Serif Page Plus user would expect .ppp files to be recognised.  Like a number of posts, I have many files, which I would not expect to convert but simply update to the new format.    This could be a real show stopper in my decision to buy for my new lap top the legacy  Page Plus 9 or spend over twice as much for Affinity Publisher.

Please consider this issue.

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I agree with others. I heavily use PagePlus files for work and have hundreds of own made assets not to mention many specific template files. All these were developed over many years.

Unless I really have to, I would rather not use an old software for the usual reasons of security, compatibility and stability.

Having a way to import PagePlus files and assets would be very beneficial to most, if not all users, as recreating documents would be a very time consuming and frustrating process.

Serif, could you please consider allowing PagePlus files and assets to be imported.

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30 minutes ago, AffHyp said:

Having a way to import PagePlus files and assets would be very beneficial to most, if not all users, as recreating documents would be a very time consuming and frustrating process.

After all PagePlus users are a small minority in publishing industry, so most users would get no benefit. Recreating is usually quite easy and makes the file builds right without legacy glitches. I think InDy and QX do not open PP files either..

Of course I do not object PP import feature requests, I merely understand why it is not very practical to create it.

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16 minutes ago, Fixx said:

After all PagePlus users are a small minority in publishing industry, so most users would get no benefit. Recreating is usually quite easy and makes the file builds right without legacy glitches. I think InDy and QX do not open PP files either..

Of course I do not object PP import feature requests, I merely understand why it is not very practical to create it.

InDy and QX  are dinosaurs of  the publishing industry and are so up themselves I do not expect them to be able to deal with PP files but I do not expect a company that I and many others  have given income to over the years  to say  scrap all you have done as  we have a new bone you Pavlovian dogs will slaver over.   We might be a small minority who have had the business acumen  to not give a bloatware seller  more money than the average PC but I would have thought it would be enough to keep a separate windows version of Affinity Publisher (rebranded from PagePlus of course) up to date.  In the end it is Serif's call meanwhile i shall be keeping my money in my pocket as long as possible and  i think i will not be  the only one.

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On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 5:36 PM, Patrick Connor said:

@Medwaymike

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

We do not plan to support the legacy file formats (.PPP, .DPP or .SPP) in the Affinity range, sorry. The latest versions of those programs continue to work and we would suggest you continue using them for projects you have already invested a lot of time in, and use the Affinity range for your new projects going forward, or import PDF where you want new functionality provided by the Affinity software.

Like many others on this forum I also have many files created in PPX9. After playing with Affinity Pub for while I came to the conclusion outlined by Patrick i.e. use PPX9 for my legacy files and create new work with Affinity. However, on further thought I wasn't sure what benefits Affinity actually offered as PPX9 still works, does all that I need it to do and there is no learning curve.

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Hi all.

Having listened to a lot of users comments, I would like to make my own. Yes I would prefere for AFP to import direct " great " but because of the new codeing it is not going to happen. OK what does that leave us. 

Re-working all our PP documents, very unproductive.

Converting all our PP documents to PDF , very unprodutive, unless we had a bulk convert programe.

There is possibly 1 out there at a very bloated price. It would be great if Serif produce their own or at least recommend  at a reduced cost.

The route I am going to take is, holding onto my PagePlusX9 for as long as the Microsoft OS will accept it, create all new documents in AFP, or untill there is an import for .ppp into AFP. Yes there are some issues with PPx9, but regular users know them.

If there is the odd document that I would like in AFP I will convert and import as PDF. At first glance AFP do's a fair job of PDF import..

The point about security is well mentioned and the hope is that AFP is going to be more secure, which in time it will be, but at this point in development we do not know about the security aspect, we don't know about a hell of "excuse me" lot about the final product yet.

I like Serif, if you look at Serifs ethos to their customers, who would you rather deal with , Adobe, Microsoft etal, or Serif.

The developers still are some way " not too long we hope" from a commercial product. But I do recall, that Serif did say early on in development that to use the new AFP in the way we use PP now, was possibly a couple of years away. For those who have used PP from a young scrap to its wonderous ending, you will know that a new product has lots of teething problems. This is a newly coded product from its boots for the new millennia.

I want AFP to be the best the coders can give us, they need suggestions to enhance, we all have fancifull dreams for AFP, but let us try and be realistic for the guys and ladies who are doing the codeing and those that have to make the desicions that, this is the next bit for the update. If updates are rushed they encounter errors at the base code, that gives us a buggy product, not what I want or need.

We have all been eagerly waiting for AFP for a while now, we have the Beta, not the end product. I think the biggest grumble I can see is that there is no .PPP import.In the short term there will not be. In the long term it is doutfull.

Regards to all who suffered this missive.

There is so much comeing off the forum that is negative, what were you expecting, the quality of PagePlusX9 from the start. Please...........

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Serif keep saying they're not going to offer an import from their own legacy product's format because the new product doesn't share any codebase with it, yet they are planning to offer import from products like InDesign, whose code base they don't even have access to, let alone share? Their excuse for not offering an import from PagePlus, when their developers know and fully understand (and created!) the PPP file format and the Affinity Publisher software, simply doesn't make sense. I hope they change their minds.

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12 minutes ago, John Cunliffe said:

There is so much comeing off the forum that is negative, what were you expecting, the quality of PagePlusX9 from the start. Please...........

I am sure there will be many, especially Mac users,  who will be delighted in the product once it has gone through Beta but  criticism  is not negative if the  developers take note of the comments.  To take the attitude  'stuff you PP users' rather than take on board criticism  is not good CR.

AP works on Mac but PP doen't so sacrifice PP and all it's user base to the great god Mac!  One of the main reasons I am a PP user is that i have Windows PC's  and i do not need to pay for Adobe bloatware.

Yes PPX9 was the culmination of  many years  of  development but  bear in mind that people are more demanding now then they were 15  - 20 years ago and expect a professional product from day 1.   

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My biggest problem is that I have a number of templates in PagePlus format. Publisher doesn't seem to support templates at all, but I suppose I can just create documents and then keep reusing them, making changes as necessary. Maybe another way to go would be to create a page layout in AD, then import it into Publisher, I'll have to see once that functionality is available.

I do regret the fact that Serif are not supporting their own old file types, and like many others, can't really understand why it would be so much more difficult than supporting Adobe file types!

However, at the end of the day, it does look like the Affinity trio are set to be a real, viable, alternative to Adobe products (and Serif legacy products), so I would rather go to a bit of trouble to make a new start using them, rather than looking back to the old products.

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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@PaulEC

I agree that Affinity Publisher needs the concept of templates adding, both customer created and some Serif supplied ones. I'm looking forward to seeing what we get later on in the development cycle. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Agree it would be good to have AF open PPP files and as Serif have always been customer focussed  I'm sure it would be provided if it were possible within budget. They've looked it at and its not doable. The good news is that Affinity Publisher is great and worth the switch for sure.

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Importing Pageplus documents into Affinity Publisher? 

I am still importing my Ventura files into Pageplus because VP cannot run on my 64bit Windows 10. 

So I don't even want to imagine having to do it all over again. But let's put everything into perspective. As long as  Pageplus runs on the newest Windows there is no issue.
But we don't know what the future holds. So everyone would want an upgrade rather sooner than later. 

Someone at Serif decided that the the pdf import is the way to go. Wrong answer!

1. Font substitutions must be done manually. 
2. Text boxes don't link automatically.
3. Text styles are lost.
4. Master pages are lost.

We don't have to import from file. Pageplus is still working fine. So a simple copy and paste of text solves half the problems.
1. No font substitutions needed.
2. Text styles are converted automatically.

It is even possible to copy frames from Pageplus to Affinity Publisher, even from master page to master page. Except that it has to be stretched to the appropriate size.

So to cut to the chase. Importing of Pageplus files is not the real problem. The real problem is with the master pages. Whether I create a text frame in AP or paste it from PP, it doesn't work in the publication. In PP there is the option of promoting a frame form the master page or editing it on the master page. In AP the frames from the master pages are dysfunctional, except on the master page itself. Also when creating pages, there should be an autoflow option.

Once this is fixed,  please see if a frame that is pasted from Pageplus (or from any other source for that matter) can also be made to function in the publication.

What really is needed for current PP users, is to find a way to quickly and easily transfer or recreate their master pages in AP.

Even though the pdf export/import keeps the layout reasonably intact, it creates more problems than it solves. 
 

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3 hours ago, pdwlantic said:

I am still importing my Ventura files into Pageplus because VP cannot run on my 64bit Windows 10. ...

 

Is it CVP 10 you cannot run on Windows 10?

I am using it...

capture-002185.png.25f82cd962052c23ed332ae402efc42b.png

I cannot find my CVP8 CD so cannot try it. But many/most people I know that have tried the directions at the link below have gotten it to run. Do note that some, like myself, needed to copy the contents to a folder on the HD to make the instructions actually work.

If you too can get it to run it might aid in transitioning work to modern software. That's what I am doing with it as well. 

http://photocamel.com/forum/blogs/jdart/46512-installing-ventura-10-windows-7-64-bit.html

Good luck!

Mike

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Definitely would like an import from .ppp. I've been using PagePlus for over ten years so you can imagine I have more than a couple files floating around. One thing we use it for that I don't see on Publisher is mail merge. All of the receipts from our mission are created using PagePlus through a mail merge. One other feature the Publisher doesn't seem to have is the ability to convert shapes into text frames or picture frames. I use convert shapes to shaped text frames on many of my publications.

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About Ventura.

A great piece of software. Way ahead of its time. 

Unfortunately I have VP8. It can maybe work on Windows 10 32 bit, but not on the 64 bit. For that you need VP10 - and it is a bugger to get hold of it,  plus more expensive than PP

 I exported Ventura text to RTF. From there it is copy and paste to PP. I had to rebuild my templates though.
(That is the same problem we currently face with Affinity Publisher.)

One advantage of PP vs VP is that my files are much smaller now. VP is too much ram intensive. This is why Windows 10 32 bit would not have solved my issues with VP.

PP also have more export options than VP8. 

But I have settled with PP x9. I might consider Affinity once they sorted out their bugs.. 

Thanks for your inputs.

 

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13 minutes ago, soundmanbrett said:

 One other feature the Publisher doesn't seem to have is the ability to convert shapes into text frames or picture frames. I use convert shapes to shaped text frames on many of my publications.

Hi soundmanbrett,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
Select the shape object then go to menu Layer ▸ Convert to Text Frame.

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18 minutes ago, pdwlantic said:

...

One advantage of PP vs VP is that my files are much smaller now. VP is too much ram intensive. This is why Windows 10 32 bit would not have solved my issues with VP....

Bummer. Have you tried the work-around for version 10? Just curious.

Ram intensive? I currently am moving a 16 page, image and text intensive VP file into QXP. It is taking up 39 megs of ram. PagePlus X9 opened without a document is using 55 megs. A text only PP file that is 32 pages is using 96 megs. A 4-page brochure with images is using 120 megs of ram. Loading a catalog into both VP & PP (that I transferred into PPX9 a year ago) has PP at 425 megs and VP at 134 megs.

Don't get me wrong, I love PP and will use it until Microsoft effectively kills it. My experience re resource usage between the two applications is different.

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I agree. We use Serif Page Plus for our product catalogue, which is approximately 500 pages of drawings.

Saving it as a PDF to import into Affinity simply does not work for our business. It would be a shame to have to move over to a different software due to a lack of backwards compatibility!

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On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 10:13 AM, GreyEyes said:

What i can never understand is why companies do this, don't offer import from prior product format.

They've spent all those years building a customer base and then abandon them, then expecting them to be loyal, they lose customers... people then look elsewhere.

 

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 1:28 PM, Dermot B said:

I've been a dedicated user of Page Plus since its Beta days ( & that's a very long time ). So, I have hundreds of Page Plus files. Unless I've missed something in the Beta, I can't find any way to open or import them directly into Affinity designer. This does make continuity for your loyal users rather difficult. Please help :-)

Me too!!!!

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3 hours ago, soundmanbrett said:

Definitely would like an import from .ppp. I've been using PagePlus for over ten years so you can imagine I have more than a couple files floating around. One thing we use it for that I don't see on Publisher is mail merge. All of the receipts from our mission are created using PagePlus through a mail merge. One other feature the Publisher doesn't seem to have is the ability to convert shapes into text frames or picture frames. I use convert shapes to shaped text frames on many of my publications.

Thanks for the help. I guess I need to do some more clicking around.

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Just installed Affinity Beta and first thing I tried to do was open Pageplus X8 *.ppp files.... Very surprised of having no way to open/import the *.ppp format..... Most of us have been using PagePlus for years and I use it daily now for my work.... from around 1987!
Surely it cannot be that hard add this ??

Not a fan of the look of the Splashscreen on startup and about form by the way....

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