Sample Documents for Publisher - Where?

[kenmcd]

I saw someone here in the forum mention a Publisher example doc.

Cannot find that post again.

And I have not found any sample docs anywhere.

Are there any sample docs available for download?

[GaryLearnTech]

It was probably this that you saw:  from the Help menu, select Welcome.  The main panel fills the left two-thirds of the Welcome panel while the box at the top right is titled View Samples - click this and it redraws the Welcome panel.  The Samples view has a link which invites you to download a 254MB sample Affinity Brochure.

[kenmcd]

Thanks. That looks like a great example file to play with.

I gave that download a try and it cannot connect to the cloud (looks like Amazon).

Looks like the cloud is not available as a red X appears on the little cloud icon when I click.

I made sure Publisher does have access through my firewall.

I will give it try again on Monday.

Thanks for your help.

[GarryP]

@LibreTraining When I tried this I got the same little red cross inside the cloud but I noticed that the image had a progress ring around it.
After waiting for the ring to complete its circuit I could then click on the image again and the document was loaded into Publisher.
I would suggest that the cloud+cross icon is changed to something that more resembled "in progress" rather than looking like "failed"; it's a bit confusing as it is.

[kenmcd]

Yes, the red X means "failed" to me too.

That is why I abandoned that dialog.

When I try again tomorrow I will observe my network activity to see if it has in fact started downloading.

Thanks for your insight.

[walt.farrell]

29 minutes ago, LibreTraining said:

That is why I abandoned that dialog.

Don't abandon it. As @GarryP said, look for (or wait for) the progress ring around the image. When it has fully downloaded the progress ring will be white, and then clicking again will load the document.

[kenmcd]

Yeah, thanks, I understood that.

Just wanted to make clear that to me the red X = no cloud connection ... so I left before realizing there is a progress circle.

Thanks for all the help.

[dominik]

49 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

look for (or wait for) the progress ring around the image

Hi @walt.farrell,

I do have a rather normal internet connection (which means it's not as slow as in the old days but also not super fast). The download seems to take a very long time compared to other files of that size. I estimate the download will take about an hour for 250 MB. Do you (and others) experience the same?

d.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, dominik said:

Hi @walt.farrell,

I do have a rather normal internet connection (which means it's not as slow as in the old days but also not super fast). The download seems to take a very long time compared to other files of that size. I estimate the download will take about an hour for 250 MB. Do you (and others) experience the same?

 

I have a pretty fast connection, and once I noticed that it was downloading and let it continue it took under a minute.

[dominik]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

it took under a minute.

Thank you, that's what I would expect here, as well. Maybe not that quick but less than five minutes.

Just for a test I downloaded a 600 MB file and it took about two minutes.

At least the progress circle does progress 

d.

[dominik]

So I let it sit for a couple of hours with no success. After closing the welcome a.k.a. download window I discovered the following error message. It obviously pop up behind this window!

 

d.

[kenmcd]

This is nuts.

When I try again about 12+ hours from now I will watch the network traffic and see if I can grab the direct link.

Or download it and then just post it somewhere to make it easy for people to download.

I don't imagine this document is some big beta secret.

 

[Alfred]

16 hours ago, LibreTraining said:

to me the red X = no cloud connection

To me a red X usually means ‘No’ or ‘Cancel’. You should find that it aborts the download when you click on it.

[GarryP]

A red X can mean one of a number of things:
* You cannot press this;
* This has failed;
* Something is not available;
* You can press this to cancel/stop;
... and probably some more, and that's what makes it a bit confusing.

Since the progress ring isn't very prominent - I didn't notice it at first - you don't know what the X means.
In other words, you press on the cloud and it changes to a cloud with an X in it: Does that mean it has failed or that pressing it will cancel what it is doing when you don't know if something is happening because you haven't seen the progress ring?
It's all well and good having subtle graphical effects - like the progress ring - but if you don't know to look for them you don't always know they're there.

I think that screen needs to give a bit more information and better feedback to the user:
* Make the cloud look more like a button so you know it's something that you should press (it's not very obvious and remember it's for beginners who might be using the software for the first time);
* Make the user more aware that something is happening when something is happening (either make the progress ring less subtle or also give the user some kind of numerical feedback);
* Make the user aware that they can cancel what is happening (again, it should look like something can be pressed rather than just a shape);
* Tell the user how big the download is before they press the button in the first place (as as been mentioned, not everyone can download 250MB easily).

P.S. A small red X against a black background isn't very legible if your eyesight isn't very good.

[kenmcd]

Quote

This is getting ridiculous.

Now I get "Unable to connect to the remote server."

My firewall is not blocking it.

Appears the server is now down.

Can someone please provide a link to this file somewhere where it can be easily downloaded?

It can even be attached to a post here in the forum.

Thank you.

 

 

[GarryP]

I don't think the Affinity team want people to have a copy of the document, which could be why it's only available from the View Samples panel and is not savable. More a case of "you can see what's possible" rather than "you can use this for your own purposes". Possibly more of a copyright issue than anything else. (The same restrictions apply to the samples in Designer, which would be understandable as the artists that supplied the samples won't want anybody using them for their own purposes. Look, play and learn, but don't take.)

[kenmcd]

Well two days and I still get "Unable to connect to the remote server."

Not the firewall. I even temporarily disabled it and tried.

Just saw is another thread that these "samples" are locked.

And that they are samples of someones work.

That is beyond dumb.

I have a zillion PDFs of peoples work to look at.

How would one from this app be any different.

Wow, look, some pictures, some text. How amazing!

 

Sample documents should be for learning.

To closely examine to see how it was done.

And to copy.

 

What a waste time this has been.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, LibreTraining said:

And that they are samples of someones work.

That is beyond dumb.

I have a zillion PDFs of peoples work to look at.

How would one from this app be any different.

It's not a PDF. It's a .afpub file so you can see some of the capabilities of the program.

[dominik]

11 hours ago, LibreTraining said:

Well two days and I still get "Unable to connect to the remote server."

In the meantime I have been able to download the sample file at a regular speed.

d.

[GarryP]

The sample documents should be - and are - completely editable and not "locked". You can see how things have been created and change anything you want to experiment with how the originator has put them together. You just can't save them as your own file.
It's often a good - and interesting - exercise to try and replicate one or more of the samples yourself. Look at how the page has been set-up, look at the colours and styles that have been used, look at how the designer has created certain effects, and then try and make your own version.
You might not have access to all of the images/fonts used in the sample but that doesn't matter; you will probably learn a lot just by trying.

[janndk]

Got it downloaded.  ...but how to get rid of it again? Now I have a 250 MB document just filling somewhere in my system

[dominik]

11 minutes ago, janndk said:

...but how to get rid of it again?

You can see the path to the document by hovering your mouse over the Tab at the top. It displays the filename (sorry, no screenshot).

In my system it is 'C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Beta)\Samples'

d.

[janndk]

10 minutes ago, dominik said:

You can see the path to the document by hovering your mouse over the Tab at the top. It displays the filename (sorry, no screenshot).

In my system it is 'C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Beta)\Samples'

d.

Found it. Thanks :-) And it's not just 250 MB, but 482 MB !!!

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, dominik said:

In my system it is 'C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Beta)\Samples'

On any system (regardless of whether or not Windows is installed to drive C:) you should be able to find it at

%AppData%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Beta)\Samples

 

[dominik]

51 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

 

%AppData%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Beta)\Samples

 

Thanks @αℓƒяє∂,

for this more universal path. I was not aware of this.

d.