Importance of catering for both amateur and professional users.

[RoboPics]

2 very useful options which I have used regularly in Page Plus X9 and which I have not been able to find in any of the Affinity Betas to date are:

a) the option to access the range of preformatted pages available from File;

b) the ability to download and alter the years and choose the desired font for the preformatted calendar from Tables.

Will the final version of Affinity Publisher include these very useful and easily accessible files as in Page Plus X9?  I feel that the concentration on achieving greater sophistication in the Affinity Publisher package is perhaps missing the importance of the simpler elements more likely to be used by non-professional users.  Am I just a dinosaur, or are there others who would miss having the access to these "user friendly" elements of Serif's previous  desk top publishing packages?  I already use Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo and appreciate the varied scope these new packages provide for both amateur and professional users.

 

 

[fde101]

On 11/11/2018 at 8:36 AM, RoboPics said:

preformatted pages available from File

Presumably this refers to templates?

It is unclear if the Affinity team ever intends to offer these in Publisher.  Most professional page layout software does not.

 

On 11/11/2018 at 8:36 AM, RoboPics said:

download and alter the years and choose the desired font for the preformatted calendar from Tables

I'm interpreting this to mean you want an automatic calendar-creating function.  I would like that too.  There is talk of having scripting support within the Affinity range at some point in the future, and while built-in calendar support would be great, I suspect that if it is not provided we will eventually see third-party scripts to generate them.

[Raoulrulz]

13 hours ago, fde101 said:

It is unclear if the Affinity team ever intends to offer these in Publisher.  Most professional page layout software does not.

Serif X9 does it admirably! There would be a reluctance to change entirely from X9...

[fde101]

4 hours ago, Raoulrulz said:

Serif X9 does it admirably!

So do lots of other programs, but Affinity Publisher is not a continuation of PagePlus - it is something completely new, as has been reiterated on the forums many times over.

 

4 hours ago, Raoulrulz said:

There would be a reluctance to change entirely from X9...

Then don't.  Publisher is probably going to be playing catch-up for a while yet.

[PaulEC]

 

Quote

a) the option to access the range of preformatted pages available from File;

I'm not particularly bothered about pre-installed "preformatted pages", but it would certainly be handy to be able to save templates (page layouts etc) to reuse in other projects.

[Raoulrulz]

2 hours ago, fde101 said:

Then don't.  Publisher is probably going to be playing catch-up for a while yet.

What is the timespan for "a while yet"?

[fde101]

4 minutes ago, Raoulrulz said:

What is the timespan for "a while yet"?

Probably until it is the only product left on the market, come to think of it...

But it should be less pronounced at some currently-undetermined and partially user-defined point in the future.

[Raoulrulz]

21 hours ago, fde101 said:

Probably until it is the only product left on the market, come to think of it...

Indeed! Will Adobe sit quietly and do nothing ro advance their products?