Elements on canvas between pages

[BenVang]

How do you place element on the cavas for use on other pages?

In my other publisher program I can drag a copy out onto the canvas, then change to another pages and reinsert it.
Or I can drop in a bunch of photos onto the canvas and then insert them on different pages.

In other words, the element stays on the canvas between page changes.
A feature I use a lot when planning book pages.
Can't find it in APub??

[carl123]

Switch off View > View Mode > Clip to Canvas and you can see items placed off the left or right-hand side of a page but they do not move when you scroll through the pages so you need to go grab them from the side of the page you placed them on and put them on the page you want them on.

[BenVang]

I understand the Clip to Canvas command, however, that is not what is needed.

The canvas should remain stationery, just like a tabletop, so items placed on it can be dragged onto whatever page is open.
It is no use if it scolls out of sight when going to another page. Then you may as well cut and paste.

Perhaps an option could be added to allow for a stationery canvas/backgound???

[BenVang]

Just wanted to add that Page Plus works the way I am recommending for Apub.

That is, any element placed on the canvas stays in view as other pages of the publication are opened.

It is a feature hard to do without when you are planning/editing content on many pages.
Cut and past would be a real pain. So please, let us have the same functionality in Apub.

[Alfred]

13 minutes ago, BenVang said:

Just wanted to add that Page Plus works the way I am recommending for Apub.

That is, any element placed on the canvas stays in view as other pages of the publication are opened.

PagePlus has a single pasteboard shared across all pages in the document, but DrawPlus has a separate pasteboard for each page. There are pros and cons to both approaches.

[Seneca]

2 hours ago, BenVang said:

The canvas should remain stationery, just like a tabletop, so items placed on it can be dragged onto whatever page is open.

They should not. This is a publishing program and not a drawing program like illustrator.

[Seneca]

2 hours ago, BenVang said:

It is no use if it scolls out of sight when going to another page.

Well, just drag them from the finder as and when you need them.

[BenVang]

Thanks Alfred, That's the description I was looking for - 'shared canvas'

4 hours ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

PagePlus has a single pasteboard shared across all pages in the document, but DrawPlus has a separate pasteboard for each page. There are pros and cons to both approaches.

.

In the business we published instruction booklets and before desktop we spead all images and text on the pastboard (called canvas in Apub) where we could then arrange all easily.

PagePlus and Win Publisher works very much the same way and it is handy to have the 'canvas' shared. Makes it easier to arrange page content on several pages.

[Alfred]

4 hours ago, BenVang said:

the pastboard (called canvas in Apub)

The canvas (in all of the Affinity apps) is the page area that you paint, draw or write on — otherwise the ‘Clip To Canvas’ command wouldn’t do what it does. APub and AD both have pasteboards, but APh doesn’t have one.

[carl123]

@BenVang

Assign a new master page to all your pages (or use an existing one)

Switch to your master page and place all your images on the pasteboard there

They will then appear next to each page as you scroll through the document

When you want a particular image on a particular page drag it out of the "master layer", in the Layers panel for that page, and then drag it onto the page

Does that provide what you need?

[fde101]

Just a thought: if the pasteboard area were shared across pages of different sizes and something were dragged out of a smaller page onto the pasteboard in an area that would be occupied by a larger page, then when switching to that page, would the item be obscured by the page, added to the page, or appear to be part of the page even though in reality it isn't?

[Dave Harris]

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

Just a thought: if the pasteboard area were shared across pages of different sizes and something were dragged out of a smaller page onto the pasteboard in an area that would be occupied by a larger page, then when switching to that page, would the item be obscured by the page, added to the page, or appear to be part of the page even though in reality it isn't?

When we implemented this for PagePlus, the pasteboard items had to be moved around when you switched to spreads of different size. You could also lose text behind the page if it started on the pasteboard. We weren't really happy with it so have decided not to take that approach for Publisher. In Publisher each spread gets an independent pasteboard area instead of a shared one.

[dominik]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

@BenVang

Assign a new master page to all your pages (or use an existing one)

Switch to your master page and place all your images on the pasteboard there

They will then appear next to each page as you scroll through the document

When you want a particular image on a particular page drag it out of the "master layer", in the Layers panel for that page, and then drag it onto the page

Does that provide what you need?

This seems to be a pretty clever way of doing it.

Another way would be to place the images in the document and then keep them in the assets studio at hand. Either way, even the OP's method, needs a little preparation time.

d.

[BenVang]

Good replies from several - and work-around solutions.
Still, an 'option' to share would not go amiss.
 

[Seneca]

2 hours ago, BenVang said:

Still, an 'option' to share would not go amiss.

We need to thing longer term here. An asset manager app is coming and when it does come it will make this problem moot. 

[fde101]

14 hours ago, Seneca said:

We need to thing longer term here. An asset manager app is coming and when it does come it will make this problem moot.

Not sure that I'm making the connection on this one?

[jrkay]

Having put all the images on my master page, when I am on one of the other pages shouldn't I be able to drag them from where I can see them on the canvas over to that page where I want them. The image is fixed to the canvas and won't move from there. Going over to the layer menu to do that seems a rather longwinded way of doing that.

 

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, jrkay said:

Having put all the images on my master page, when I am on one of the other pages shouldn't I be able to drag them from where I can see them on the canvas over to that page where I want them. The image is fixed to the canvas and won't move from there. Going over to the layer menu to do that seems a rather longwinded way of doing that.

 

You can't drag them because the Master Page layer (and its children) are  locked in the document pages. You'd need to (a) unlock the Master Page layer and then (b) select the appropriate child layer in order to move it.

But there's more, because as soon as you move one of the objects from the pasteboard onto the canvas, that will affect all pages that the master has been applied to, and the master itself. So the object you move will then appear on all the pages as part of the document. That's back to the same issue with putting anything on a Master Page that you don't want to apply to all the relevant document pages. You can work around it by playing games with Symbols and synchronization, but I wouldn't recommend trying it.

[jrkay]

Walt has just proved what I had thought. Alfred, BenVang and Seneca have got it exactly right. The use of the pasteboard is invaluable to composing a 200 page book. So is the two opposite page view as offered in PP, I'd hate to see all 200 pages on the canvas. That is why editing a chapter at a time (two pages at a time) using Writeplus was so valuable.
I am sorry that the canvas has taken this style onboard if it stays like that I shall of course use it for producing the monthly newsletter that I do, but I may find that long book  production to be very difficult.

[fde101]

Thinking the Assets panel could potentially be extended with a few extra options to make it suitable to serve this purpose?

[jrkay]

Happily all is not completely lost in the way of using the canvas to transfer, if the object is dragged from the assets, the view zoomed out and the object moved to a position close to the intended page, then it may be dragged on to that page.

So it looks as if fde101's suggestion may be a way forward and perhaps there may be a slicker way of getting things into the assets rather than the existing rounabout ways.

I should add that although the layers panel is essential to Photo, I tend not to use it at all for long book work, just for interest's sake I compiled a list of the features of PPX9 that I seldom use.

 

The List.rtf