Placing multiple images

[Glyphs]

I don't know if this would qualify as a bug, but I have a technical problem with the placing of multiple images. Here is how I do it when I try to create the pages of the latest issue of my comic book series: I create a single page master with an image frame on each page. The image frame is taking the whole of the page, minus the margins. Then, I click the place Tool and select all the images at once. The first time I hover the place tool over a frame, there's a preview of the image with a size adapted to the frame, which is great. So I click the frame, and the first image is placed inside it. Then I realize that I actually selected the Master instead of the first page… and the troubles begin. The same image has been placed on all the even pages, so I Undo, and everything is back to normal. But the first image has now disappeared from the Place Images list. It seems there's no way to have it back in the list, nor to cancel anymore. No matter, let's begin with page 2 then. Logically (in my mind, at least), if Page 2's image is the next selected image in the Place Images list, the process would be the same. Not anymore. Now, there's no more image preview when I'm hovering the cursor over the image frame. And when I click the frame, the place tool create a new image frame with the image at full size in it. Same thing with all the other images. Is there something I didn't understand about the process?

Plus: Is there a way to select for example 20 pages at once in the Pages Tab, then select 20 images with the Place tool, click an image frame on the first page, and have all 20 images placed at the same format (adapted to the frame's size, in my case), in all 20 pages ?

Also: To select a Master or a Page, you have to double-click it. It would be a lot simpler to select it with a simple click, and to not have the Master and the Page selected at once in the pane.

[walt.farrell]

7 hours ago, Glyphs said:

I create a single page master with an image frame on each page.

You are likely to have a problem working that way, in any case. With the current design of the Publisher beta, they do not intend for Master Pages to contain content (text or picture frames) that will hold different data on each document page.

When you set it up that way, and add an image or text into one of the document page frames, it will update the Master Page, too. There are workarounds that involve using the Layers panel and adjusting each document page (before filling the frame) so it is unlinked from the Master Page, but that's cumbersome.

There's another workaround that involves creating 1 document page (page 1) from the Master, then on page 1 creating a new text or picture frame to overlay the one on the Master Page. That will "hide" the one on the Master Page, and you can fill the new frame without affecting the Master. Having created page 1 (with the still empty frame) you duplicate it as many times as you need, and start filling your pages.

(The Serif suggestion (in the Tutorials) is to place Guides on the Master Page, and then create new text or picture frames on the document pages using those Guides.)

[Glyphs]

Yes, having the Master selected was only a mistake (one easy to make, since you have to double-click a page thumbnail to select the correpsonding page). What I need is to have a Master page with an Image Frame in it, and to change the content in the associated pages. Creating Comics would be a lot faster this way. 

Hiding items in a page doesn't seem too practical. I'm pretty sure I would make a lot of mistakes this way, without understanding immediately where it's coming from. It there's no way around this, better not to create master pages in this case. Placing guides on a Master Page seems more practical, if it's the only way to do this, but as we're still in Beta, maybe Serif can find a way to allow us to create image frames on a master page and change the content only on the corresponding pages.

Not sure where to add the following comment, since it has to do with all the tutorials instead of only the Affinity Publisher ones, but here goes: Adding RSS to Affinity Spotlight was a great idea that saved me a lot of time. What would save me even more time would be to add RSS to the tutorials too. This way, I would know immediately when a new tutorial is available. The only other way to stay up to date is to connect to the tutorials page every day, and I am loosing enough time as it is on my computer these days. I believe having every news in my RSS reader is part of the solution, so it would be great to have RSS in all the relevant pages of the Affinity site, especially tutorials pages. 

[walt.farrell]

Using  the approach of putting your image frame on page 1, and duplicating that page as many times as you need it, should provide a good workaround until Serif decides to change how Master Pages work today. The Master Page would still supply any static content (headers, footers), but all the image frames would come from the duplicated copies of page 1.

[Glyphs]

It seems likes a good idea, but I still have problems placing the images as I did the first time. Whatever the page I am choosing, Master or Page, it seems the Place tool is only created images in a new frame at its original resolution. Is there a way to force the Place tool to display a preview when I hover over a frame, then place the image inside the frame using the frames horizontal or vertical dimensions to adapt to the frame?

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, Glyphs said:

It seems likes a good idea, but I still have problems placing the images as I did the first time. Whatever the page I am choosing, Master or Page, it seems the Place tool is only created images in a new frame at its original resolution. Is there a way to force the Place tool to display a preview when I hover over a frame, then place the image inside the frame using the frames horizontal or vertical dimensions to adapt to the frame?

The Place Tool operates two different ways. You can click it, or you can drag it. If you've only been clicking, perhaps try dragging?

Also, while you have a Picture Frame selected, you'll see a Frame Properties icon in the context menu that you can click to open a panel that will let you adjust the scaling properties of the frame. Perhaps that would help you.

[Glyphs]

Ah, I finally understood what you meant, sorry about it. Everything is working as long as we adapt to Publisher's logic, actually. I will have to erase the image frame in the Master, and add frames directly in the pages. Having a way to have a frame content change in every page would have been great, but I can wait for a new version:) 

Just another question: Is there a way to add a fill layer, or better yet, a background color to a master page or a page? For now, I am adding a rectangle in the background, but its dimension doesn't change when I change the page format.

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, Glyphs said:

Having a way to have a frame content change in every page would have been great, but I can wait for a new version:) 

You can do that already,  as I explained above. Put your frame on a document  page (which has possibly inherited other things from the Master, such as page number), and duplicate that document page as many times as you need. Then move from page to page, putting your variable content into the empty frame on the page.

 

17 minutes ago, Glyphs said:

Just another question: Is there a way to add a fill layer, or better yet, a background color to a master page or a page? For now, I am adding a rectangle in the background, but its dimension doesn't change when I change the page format.

At this point I think you can only add a rectangle, as you've been doing. When Photo and Designer are available in their 1.7 versions, and integrated with Publisher when you own them, you will probably be able to add fill layers that will accomplish what you want.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Glyphs said:

Just another question: Is there a way to add a fill layer, or better yet, a background color to a master page or a page? For now, I am adding a rectangle in the background, but its dimension doesn't change when I change the page format.

There is a way you can do it now, if you have Affinity Photo. Create a Fill Layer in Photo, then in the Layers panel Copy the layer to the clipboard. Then in Publisher, go to the Layer panel for a page (Master or Document) that has something on it, and paste the fill layer from the clipboard. You may want to then move it to the bottom of the Layer stack. Once you have it in your document it will be editable using the color wheel or Layers panel to change the color, opacity, blend mode, etc.

You could also save a .afphoto file from Photo and Open that with Publisher, and copy the layer to other Publisher files that you have open.

[Glyphs]

Wow! That's great! I can see where this is going, and it was unexpected even though I'm now used to open Designer documents in Photo and vice-versa. Now, instead of trying to import images I worked on in Photo, I am trying to find a way to create a book with the whole layered images. Now, it's only a test, since the resulting 20+-page Publisher file size will be too big, but I am going to try it anyway, just to see what kind of workflow I could create. Now is there a simple way to take several layered Affinity Photo images and put it into Publisher as pages? So far, the only way I found is to copy and paste all the layers of a Photo into each page, but it's like creating a duplicate of each Photo file. It does work, but it's not very practical. Also, is there a way to just link the Photo and Designer files to the corresponding Publisher pages, which would mean having for example a Photo file with all its editable layers in a Publisher page, editing it, then opening it in Photo and editing it again, etc. all the while avoiding to duplicate the Photo files, and keeping the Publisher file size as low as possible?

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, Glyphs said:

Now is there a simple way to take several layered Affinity Photo images and put it into Publisher as pages?

Create the pages, with picture frames or not as you choose. On each page, use the Place Image tool, select the .afphoto file you want, and click where you want it inserted. (Or, perhaps, click and drag to scale it so it's all visible.)

Edit: Also, after placing the images, you can (if you want) use Document > Resource Manager... to make them "linked" rather than "embedded".