Find & Replace Tool for Affinity Designer

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, putude said:

Sadly Affinity Publisher is still in Beta Version. I've tried to use it (at least once), however, I cannot edit/open my test project in Affinity Designer/Affinity Photo (incompatible ??). So my project stuck in Affinity Publisher Beta. Hopefully, this app will be released soon at an affordable price similarly with their brother and sister. I believe AP will become a great app for the people.

You could install Designer or Photo Beta, which will work with Publisher beta. You can save a file in Photo or Designer, then File > Open it in Publisher, modify it, and then File > Edit in Photo or File > Edit in Designer to go back. (This should become simpler when the beta versions of Photo and Designer become final/released versions, as then the Personas in Publisher will become active and allow easier interchange.)

[putude]

On 2/4/2019 at 1:09 AM, walt.farrell said:

You could install Designer or Photo Beta, which will work with Publisher beta. You can save a file in Photo or Designer, then File > Open it in Publisher, modify it, and then File > Edit in Photo or File > Edit in Designer to go back. (This should become simpler when the beta versions of Photo and Designer become final/released versions, as then the Personas in Publisher will become active and allow easier interchange.)

Thank you so much for your suggestion. I will try, sir. 

[Giggly]

On 1/26/2019 at 1:47 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 1/20/2019 at 1:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality? 

 

On 1/11/2019 at 9:59 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 12/19/2018 at 7:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 12/12/2018 at 4:25 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 10/14/2018 at 1:30 PM, stokerg said:

However!, Now we have the Feature in Publisher, it's possible we may see it in Designer.  It not my decision if that happens but i'll see what i can find out and update back here   

 

[Giggly]

On 2/23/2019 at 5:22 PM, Giggly said:

On 1/26/2019 at 1:47 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 1/20/2019 at 1:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality? 

 

On 1/11/2019 at 9:59 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 12/19/2018 at 7:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 12/12/2018 at 4:25 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 10/14/2018 at 1:30 PM, stokerg said:

However!, Now we have the Feature in Publisher, it's possible we may see it in Designer.  It not my decision if that happens but i'll see what i can find out and update back here   

 

[Giggly]

On 3/28/2019 at 3:41 PM, Giggly said:

On 2/23/2019 at 5:22 PM, Giggly said:

On 1/26/2019 at 1:47 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 1/20/2019 at 1:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality? 

 

On 1/11/2019 at 9:59 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 12/19/2018 at 7:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 12/12/2018 at 4:25 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 10/14/2018 at 1:30 PM, stokerg said:

However!, Now we have the Feature in Publisher, it's possible we may see it in Designer.  It not my decision if that happens but i'll see what i can find out and update back here   

 

[Giggly]

On 4/14/2019 at 3:10 PM, Giggly said:

On 3/28/2019 at 3:41 PM, Giggly said:

On 2/23/2019 at 5:22 PM, Giggly said:

On 1/26/2019 at 1:47 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 1/20/2019 at 1:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality? 

 

On 1/11/2019 at 9:59 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

 

On 12/19/2018 at 7:01 AM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg, 

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 12/12/2018 at 4:25 PM, Giggly said:

Hi stokerg,

can you provide an update on this basic but critically needed functionality?

On 10/14/2018 at 1:30 PM, stokerg said:

However!, Now we have the Feature in Publisher, it's possible we may see it in Designer.  It not my decision if that happens but i'll see what i can find out and update back here   

 

[Giggly]

I first asked this question on 10/12/18, over 8 months ago, and the only reply I ever received from Affinity was from stokerg on the same day.  Not a single reply from Affinity since then even with my persistent bumping of this thread.  In stokerg's reply he linked to a previous user post that asked the same question back in November 2014!

I just installed Publisher and placed one of my large Designer files into a Publisher file, as a linked file.  Publisher's excellent find and replace function searched my Designer file, very fast, and displayed every instance of the word in a side window along with some of the surrounding text.  This is excellent.  Now that it's incredibly obvious for everyone to see that Affinity has this functionality written and operating in Publisher - can you PLEASE port it to Designer?

Could you also provide the total number of instances of the found word?

Thanks!

[Giggly]

When I created my document I chose Prefer Linked.  I placed my Designer file, which contains several art boards, into the Publisher file.  I learned that I can select a specific artboard from the selection context menu above the file title.  To select and place another of the artboards I copied and pasted the first placed image and selected a different artboard. 

"Find text" in Publisher only worked when I selected and double clicked the placed file which tossed me into an <Embedded> version of the Designer file, in a second tab, and then Find works.  Is this the way it should work?  It makes sense because I can edit the Designer document in this <Embedded> version but the terminology is confusing because I selected "Prefer Linked" and yet the file is <Embedded>.

I made a change in the <Embedded> Designer file and saved the Publisher file.  I opened the original Designer file and the change is NOT there.  I reopened the file in Publisher and the change WAS there.  How is this accomplished?  Does Publisher accomplish this by saving meta data for the Designer file? 

This is a problem because I need to be able to change and update the original file while using the Find functionality, and I like the idea of keeping the Publisher file size down via linking. 

I opened Designer and changed the original Designer file, closed Designer, opened Publisher and saw that Publisher's Resource Manager showed the file was modified.  I clicked update and that made Publisher's memory usage go through the roof.  The Designer file starts out at 4GB of memory and it went to 12GB before I had to kill the process!   I reopened Publisher, clicked make embedded and the memory starting shooting through the roof again so I killed the Publisher process.

I created a new Publisher file with Prefer Embedded, placed the Designer file and Publisher's cpu usage spiked over 50% for a while before eventually settling down to 0% and 4.3GB of RAM.  I made a slight modification to the embedded Designer file and saved the Publisher file.  All of that happened without spiking RAM or cpu.  File Manager did not show a change via the time stamp.  I opened the Designer file in Designer and the change was NOT there.  I went back and opened the file in Publisher and the change was there.  Resource Manager's update button was greyed out so it thought it had the most recent version of the Designer file. 

I also noticed that if I close a 4GB file without exiting the program,  both Publisher and Designer never release the memory so if I open the same file Designer will at least double the memory usage. 

Lastly, exporting the same single artboard as a jpeg in Publisher at High Quality was 284MB and in Designer was 56MB.

This journey seems to have demonstrated that Publisher's linking and embedding is not correctly working functionally or in terms of memory usage. 

It has also demonstrated that Affinity has an excellent Find/Replace functionality that simply needs to be ported to Designer now!  You have the code and we've been asking for at least 5 years.

Advise?  Thoughts?

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Giggly said:

It has also demonstrated that Affinity has an excellent Find/Replace functionality that simply needs to be ported to Designer now!  You have the code and we've been asking for at least 5 years.

Advise?  Thoughts?

As long as you have Publisher, why not simply Open your .afdesign file in Publisher if you're going to need to do Find/Replace? (Note: Open, not Place.)

When you want to do Designer-type things to it, switch to the Designer Persona. The only time you (as a Publisher owner) really need to use the Designer application is if you want its Pixel or Export Personas. If you don't need them, you can just use Publisher for all of it. And for the Pixel Persona, if you also own Photo you can simply use the Photo Persona in Publisher.

But to comment on one other point you raised: Yes, document files (.afdesign, .afphoto, .afpub, .pdf, and maybe some others) seem to still be embedded even when you specify Linked. Serif is aware of this.lll

Oh, and yes, it's confusing that the tab says "Embedded" when you're editing a Linked file within Publisher. Presumably that will change someday, probably when they fix the embedding issue.

[Giggly]

I didn't know you could do that.  I just opened the Designer document in Publisher, made a change, saved it and then opened it in Designer without a problem, so that's great. 

One of the key problems I came across was that Designer exported a dramatically smaller jpeg than Publisher from the same artboard so exporting may require using Designer unless they figure that out.

I would still like Affinity to answer my linking and embedding questions, my memory management questions and to include this same Find/Replace functionality in Designer, but, in the meantime, I'll experiment with your solution.

Thanks Walt.

[plxs]

The good news:  I really like Affinity designer.  

Now for the bad news:  Among other things I use Affinity Designer to write patents.  Usually this means that we create anywhere between 5 and 30 figures to go along with descriptive text. Inside each figure are literally tens of callouts to things like "1307" in "Figure 13" that point to a particular item in a particular figure.    Unfortunately, it is impossible, in practice, to know a priori what the flow of the text is going to be and what figures are going to be included and in what order.  To prepare the patent we use place marks in the text like "Figure QQ" that will eventually be turned into something like "Figure 13", etc. when the document is in it's final stages.  In the text document that is a simple "Find and Replace" operation.  But in the figures it is an absolute nightmare to find QQ07 and manually turn it into 1307, for example. It is made even more complicated because 1307 can also appear in a later figures too so this operation has to be done globally through the text and all of the figures.  

The issue is that we usually end up with tens of figures and up to about 30 callouts per figure. So, every time I start another patent (about once a year) I review my software options to see what I should use this time. I have used Affinity Designer for the last few patents. Now I am starting the preparation of a new patent and I am going through the software review process yet again. I was very surprised to see that "Find and Replace" functionality still does not exist in Affinity Designer. 

It is hard for me to understand how a developer ignores users' requests to add such a basic thing as "Find and Replace" functionality.  Virtually any mac program that uses text has it. Is part of the problem that Affinity decision makers just cannot understand that there are many users that use their software in ways that they did not anticipate?   I would like to hear from Affinity what their rational is for ignoring their users in this regard.  

Since this is a deal breaker for me now I just have to ask – Can anyone recommend a good alternative to Designer? 

[fde101]

22 hours ago, plxs said:

Can anyone recommend a good alternative to Designer? 

Instead of that, consider adding Publisher to your roster.

Publisher can do these things, and if you have both Publisher and Designer, you can access most of Designer's functionality from within Publisher while creating a document.

[JGD]

On 7/25/2019 at 7:27 PM, plxs said:

Since this is a deal breaker for me now I just have to ask – Can anyone recommend a good alternative to Designer? 

What @fde101 said. I'm what you could call a “long form” poster (you could even say my reputation precedes me  ), and even I had trouble parsing your post (hint: shorter paragraphs and phrases help a lot, and I've been trying those lately myself  ), but I immediately realised you are veering dangerously into DTP territory.

Anything longer than 4 pages should be done in a DTP app. Anything with more than a few paragraphs should be done in a DTP app. Anything with more than 5 or 6 images, word-wrapped or otherwise interspersed between text (preferably in anchored form, so they flow along with it), should be done in a DTP app.

Patens, like those you described (and I've read a few myself), fill all those three requirements. Doing them in anything other than a DTP app or, heck, even a run-of-the-mill word processor is, with all due respect, a bit crazy. Buy yourself a copy of Publisher and you'll thank us later.  

[JGD]

On 6/22/2019 at 8:33 PM, Giggly said:

[some interesting thoughts on Publisher performance, which I won't address here as they are a bit offtopic]

You should consider posting those on a separate thread on Publisher's sub-forum for bug reporting. My €0,02. But it does worry me a bit that those are even a thing. However, please bear in mind that Publisher is still a pretty young app in its current, release-quality incarnation, so there's that.

 

On 6/22/2019 at 8:33 PM, Giggly said:

It has also demonstrated that Affinity has an excellent Find/Replace functionality that simply needs to be ported to Designer now!  You have the code and we've been asking for at least 5 years.

Advise?  Thoughts?

Well. This has been a bit of a sticking point for me, personally. Namely, about features that are in Publisher and won't be ported to Designer. In fact, one of them was indeed “ported” to Designer, fully by accident, which was in and of itself an episode that generated quite the commotion here in the forums but into which I won't delve much (if you wish, you can search my earlier posts; you'll run into it eventually).

Suffice to say: the Designer, Publisher and Photo codebases are, by design, the exact same. All features are present, in some way, in all apps; the only difference being which are exposed and which aren't. That's why a feature like StudioLink is made possible, as is opening each file in any of the other apps; when you load Publisher, you are in fact loading huge swathes of Photo and Designer code with it (only the UI code, I reckon, is left out, as the core engine is exactly the same). That's also why it's so quick to switch from one Persona to another.

Obviously, when “porting” one feature from one app to the other, Serif devs have to test it for usability, and even before getting to that stage they have to ponder the implications, both commercial and technical, of exposing it.

I can't safely say the reasons are behind their not answering this plea. Maybe they considered it and decided against it, or maybe they didn't have the time to even think about it, or maybe they did but didn't have the time to actually reply.

In any case, I'd say that quoting yourself ad infinitum, while whimsical, doesn't seem to be having an effect. Especially when done in such quick succession.  

But hey, you got my attention, and further proved my point that there are indeed more users than me worried at the omission of basic features. So kudos for that, I guess.

 

Now, for my actual, well-informed and on-topic two cents:

To all the users that keep saying that “you can open your .afdesign files in Publisher/Photo to perform task x/y/z”; well, that's all well and good, except more often than not it isn't and just adds extra otherwise unnecessary steps (on other state-of-the-art Designer competitors, at least), especially when the feature in question is so dumbfoundingly basic and ubiquitous that there is zero excuse for it not to be there after four years.

I certainly hope this isn't that thread all over again, with yet another commercially-justified StudioLink compartmentalisation decision, and that Serif deemed Find/Replace as a DTP-only app (heck, even Photo should have it… Indeed, any app that allows for text input should have it, even if you have to eschew the ubiquitous Command/Control+F shortcut in favour of another tool that is more deserving of it in that particular context).

You already know what I think about those decisions, so, if that's the case, you can pretty much count on “Findgate” right here.