Coming from PagePlus - Missing Features

[Graham H]

I am really enjoying using Affinity Publisher Beta, it is just as easy and intuitive to use as the old PagePlus series from Serif. However there are a couple of features that are currently missing that I used frequently before.

 

Alignment Buttons

For many years I have been used to quickly clicking an "Alignment" button in the Character/Paragraph format toolbar which quickly centred, aligned objects (including text) to left edge, right edge, or vertical centre, top, or bottom of guides or margins.  Currently it is possible to align things using the justification tools but there are not as many options.

 

Reduced Workspace

I find the work space / desktop area in Affinity Publisher Beta very restrictive with all tools permanently open.  PagePlus allowed the panels of tools to be shown or hidden with a single click with panels sliding in and out from left or right. I haven't found this available in Affinity Publisher via the "View" options either.

[MEB]

Hi Graham H,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Besides the Justification buttons for text, check the Alignment button in the main toolbar (see screenshot below).

Regarding the workspace, you can double-click over the panel label to collapse it. If you detach them from the studio -dragging it from its label - and double-click the label it will collapse to the label size. Hope this helps?

[Graham H]

That's great thanks!

I see the Alignment function has been enhanced in the latest update.

I appreciate that double-clicking on panel labels and un-docking tools is a way to increase the visible workspace, but I loved the feature of a simple click to temporarily draw the tools on both sides in and out easily and quickly maintaining their layout was simpler and nicer.

[MEB]

Thanks for your feedback. The closest thing you can do currently is setting up shortcuts for Show Left Studio and Show Right Studio in Affinity Publisher Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts section (set the first dropdown to Layout and the second to View) in the corresponding list's entries. It's not the same but maybe helps speed up your workflow.

[Raoulrulz]

Enlarging/reducing/repositioning images in picture frames could be addressed!

[Raoulrulz]

WritePlus is going to be missed. Cutout studio also!

[Jowday]

Have you tried hiding it all with the tab key,  @Graham H ? If you remember keyboard shortcuts to the various tools its a great feature.

If you don't like the massive loss of space you can group panels, make them floating panels and minimize them they way MEB recommended. Then you can unfold the groups when you need them - and of course hide everything with tab as well.

[Jowday]

7 hours ago, Raoulrulz said:

WritePlus is going to be missed.

No story editor - no purchase. 

[Raoulrulz]

13 hours ago, Wafer said:

No story editor - no purchase. 

My sentiment exactly. Pageplus X9 is a pretty comprehensive piece of software and APub, even though a good program, seems to be tinkering and gearing towards the Macintosh market which is fine However, the PagePlus stalwarts are being left behind. Granted that there is a learning curve with new software, I find that the real concerns of PP users is not really being addressed.

I mentioned one or two items which were of a concern to me and no mod seemed interested to even reply.

Shame...

[Patrick Connor]

7 hours ago, Raoulrulz said:

...and no mod seemed interested to even reply....

This is not a matter of being disinterested and this reply is to all readers of this thread, it is just prompted by your comment

As the writers of PagePlus you would hope we recognise what is good about it, so in many respects this thread is encouraging to see. With Affinity Publisher, Serif have written a new DTP app from scratch and core functionality needs writing (and any bugs fixing) before other features can be added. 

There are 5000 posts in this suggestions forum (in 3 weeks!) and we are a small team whose role is to spot/investigate bugs and offer tech support, but we cannot reply to each post/suggestion in this forum. We are still trying to respond to the backlog of bug reports in the bugs forums, which is our current priority. Tony B is head of development and has addressed a number of the main threads here, and many of the Serif developers are reading these posts.

Serif have to be realistic about what can be achieved in version 1 of this application, so it is conceivable that you will need to wait until Affinity Publisher has the features you are wanting before you buy, but please be aware that unlike the Plus range Affinity range will add new features in free patches until version 1 development is complete and we start work on version 2. When the free Affinity Publisher beta process is complete (and it is put on sale) I would expect to see a Version 1 roadmap like there is for Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo . So once Affinity Publisher is released you should be able to choose if Affinity Publisher will fit your needs, or if the feature(s) you need have been promised in free 1.x.x updates or if Affinity Publisher V1 is not for you. I do not think it is wise to say too much here about the future of our apps beyond a simple roadmap of features that are coming in free updates, as it would give other companies terrific competitive advantage to see where we are going.

 

[Raoulrulz]

Thank you for this input. Having been a PP user from the very beginning, we have grown up with the program! A lot of items are of paramount importance as we have grown up with them. One item is of interest to me and that is picture frames. The ability to create a frame and then import, resize and reposition within the frame is one of my needs. There is also the facility to increase/decrease contrast and brightness as well as the red eye function! Indeed, there are many other PPX9 features for instance, as mentioned the text editor. I appreciate that AP is in beta stage and it has to be noted, pretty well advanced stage but it would be reassuring if our needs were addressed.

I use MoviePlus extensively and find it's an excellent program for the price which was a credit to Serif but that's gone, more's the pity. WebPlus also!

[Jowday]

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[Graham H]

On ‎9‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 6:50 PM, Wafer said:

Have you tried hiding it all with the tab key,  @Graham H ? If you remember keyboard shortcuts to the various tools its a great feature.

If you don't like the massive loss of space you can group panels, make them floating panels and minimize them they way MEB recommended. Then you can unfold the groups when you need them - and of course hide everything with tab as well.

Thanks that's a great option for quickly viewing the whole document, but I liked the simplicity of being able to quickly hide or reveal the side panels I didn't require while working.  Floating panels can be a faff sometimes.

[Diana V]

I have loved Page Plus for many years as it was easy to use but gave so much control! I mostly make note cards. Are there going to be folded and small (labels, etc) options for new documents in Affinity Publisher? Even better, in addition, would be an option for 2 note card size cards (4.25x5.5) to be printed from one letter sized sheet. With the tent card or portrait card in Page Plus I was able to work around for that but it would be great as an option.  I am having a lot of trouble figuring out how to do it in Publisher. I don't see a way to make rows and columns in the document set-up or spread setup menus either which would also make it easier.  I also use the align a lot and have recently learned to use cutout studio so those would be helpful to me as well as Raoul. I see that it is mostly intended for professional designers but if it is too hard for amateurs there will be a big gap for us when we need support. Thank you for the tutorials, they make Publisher seem doable.