Is there a date for Publisher going gold/launch?

[Chiefsub68]

Hi, my personal circumstances have changed drastically and I am probably going to have to freelance from home. I already own Photo and Designer so it would be logical to buy Publisher. Is there a date for launch yet, please? And will the app be able to open .indd files?

 

Best wishes

W

[Alfred]

Serif are keeping tight-lipped about the launch date for APub, but it’s no secret that an INDD import feature won’t be included. However, IDML import is apparently planned (albeit not for the first release). 

[William Overington]

Oh I do wish that people would state the meaning of an abbreviation when they first use it! :-)

I don't know what either of the two in capital letters means!

William

 

[William Overington]

10 hours ago, Chiefsub68 said:

Hi, my personal circumstances have changed drastically and I am probably going to have to freelance from home. I already own Photo and Designer so it would be logical to buy Publisher. Is there a date for launch yet, please? And will the app be able to open .indd files?

 

Best wishes

W

If you need some software to get going promptly, Serif do Serif PagePlus. I am using version X7. There is a later X9 version. I find it good for most of what I want to do. It is described as a legacy product and is as it is. But nevertheless it is very good.

I am still using Serif ImpactPlus 5 which is well over a decade old.

I hope things work out for you.

William

 

[Joachim_L]

22 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Oh I do wish that people would state the meaning of an abbreviation when they first use it! :-)

I don't know what either of the two in capital letters means!

William

 

INDD = InDesign Document and IDML = InDesign Markup Language.

[William Overington]

9 hours ago, Alfred said:

Serif are keeping tight-lipped about the launch date for APub, but it’s no secret that an INDD import feature won’t be included. However, IDML import is apparently planned (albeit not for the first release). 

I have now found that INDD is Adobe InDesign Document and IDML may well be InDesign Markup Language.

William

 

 

[William Overington]

Just now, Joachim_L said:

INDD = InDesign Document and IDML = InDesign Markup Language.

Thank you. It seems that our two posts were done almost simultaneously.

William

 

[Alfred]

40 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Oh I do wish that people would state the meaning of an abbreviation when they first use it! :-)

I usually do, but it’s easy to look these things up! Since the OP (original poster) used the abbreviation INDD it was obvious that I wouldn’t need to explain it to the user asking the question, and since that user is an InDesign user it seemed likely that the abbreviation IDML would similarly not require an explanation.

[William Overington]

Oh, I had not noticed that last sentence. Was it there all the time or a later addition?

William

 

 

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Oh, I had not noticed that last sentence. Was it there all the time or a later addition?

Oh, I do wish that people would state which “last sentence” they are referring to when they ask about it! 

If you mean the question about INDD files, I obviously wouldn’t have attempted to answer it if it hadn’t been asked. If you meant something else, please elucidate!

[William Overington]

Ah, yes, you answered 10 hours ago, that is about half-past midnight whereas I only saw it this morning.

Oh dear.

William

 

[fde101]

2 hours ago, William Overington said:

If you need some software to get going promptly, Serif do Serif PagePlus.

This assumes that @Chiefsub68 is running Windows.  If he is on a Mac that is less of an option.

[William Overington]

36 minutes ago, fde101 said:

This assumes that @Chiefsub68 is running Windows.  If he is on a Mac that is less of an option.

Well I suppose that I had implicitly and unconsciously assumed that he is running Windows.

William

 

[fde101]

17 minutes ago, William Overington said:

I suppose that I had implicitly and unconsciously assumed that he is running Windows.

Also, even if he is, any documents he creates in PagePlus would not be easily opened in Publisher later on when it does become available - though this would be true of practically any of the other existing options also, at least until IDML import is available, and that might be a few years out for all we know.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

This assumes that @Chiefsub68 is running Windows.  If he is on a Mac that is less of an option.

 

28 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Well I suppose that I had implicitly and unconsciously assumed that he is running Windows.

If you visit @Chiefsub68‘s profile page to view his (or her!) previous posts, you’ll find clear indications of Mac usage. 

[William Overington]

1 minute ago, fde101 said:

Also, even if he is, any documents he creates in PagePlus would not be easily opened in Publisher later on when it does become available - though this would be true of practically any of the other existing options also, at least until IDML import is available, and that might be a few years out for all we know.

Well, yes, but the original poster mentioned a need that he is "probably going to have to freelance from home" and I know what that might be meaning. So it depends what he needs to do. For example, if he gets asked to produce a magazine for a society given a pile of handwritten copy and the result is wanted in hard copy form as a nicely printed magazine, maybe it can be designed, typeset, printed, delivered and result in income for him and the fact that the PagePlus file might not be openable in Affinity Publisher might be a very minor consideration. In any case the text that he would have keyed could be saved in a WordPad plain text file if so desired using copy and paste and could be introduced into Affinity Publisher from there using copy and paste if needs must.

William

 

[William Overington]

9 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

If you visit @Chiefsub68‘s profile page to view his (or her!) previous posts, you’ll find clear indications of Mac usage. 

Well, I had not checked the profile but I had looked at previous posts and one is signed "Will", which is almost certainly male. This is not like the ambiguity of Sam, which once was implying male but now seems to be widely used by ladies each named Samantha.

William

 

[fde101]

4 minutes ago, Alfred said:

or her

Fair point.  In the English language it is traditional to default to the male pronouns when gender is mixed or uncertain.  It seems that has become somewhat muddled in more recent years, but as far as I know that is still the "proper" usage.

 

5 minutes ago, Alfred said:

you’ll find clear indications of Mac usage

There are currently a lot fewer options for higher-end publishing/layout titles then without going into more serious costs (or subscriptions).  There is QuarkXPress for a few hundred dollars, or InDesign for a subscription that will probably amount to more in the end; then there are programs like Printworks that are inexpensive but rather lacking in professional features or workflow, and Scribus which is free but not exactly "native" and people have questioned its workflow and user interface.

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Well, I had not checked the profile but I had looked at previous posts and one is signed "Will", which is almost certainly male.

Ah, I missed that (as you probably inferred)!

[jmwellborn]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Ah, I missed that (as you probably inferred)!

Unless "Will" is short for Wilhelmina.

[Alfred]

10 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

Unless "Will" is short for Wilhelmina.

Funnily enough, I thought of that one too! It could even be Williamina, although (like Davidina) it’s probably not very common outside of Scotland.

[jmwellborn]

5 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Funnily enough, I thought of that one too! It could even be Williamina, although (like Davidina) it’s probably not very common outside of Scotland.

And there are also the options of Wilda, Willa, and Wilma.    

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, jmwellborn said:

And there are also the options of Wilda, Willa, and Wilma.    

I went to elementary school with a Wilma and oddly none of us teased her about being on the Flintstones. And we didn't call her Will.

[Chiefsub68]

My thanks to OldBruce, JM, FDE, William and Joachim,

I am indeed a fella but you are right to check: today at work I’ve edited copy about a bloke called Karen and a woman called Laurence.

And I won’t mention the chap (well, I will, actually) who sidled up to my desk and introduced himself: “I’m the new guy in tech. My name’s Artu.” And I immediately said “And your surname is …” and broke into a fit of giggles. I can’t even see the domed bins in the office kitchenette without cracking up afresh.

Anyway, that’s by the by. I am indeed using a Mac (a veritable antique, a 10-year-old iMac bought last time I was made redundant).

As for the work, a friend has sent me an .indd file to see if I can replicate a project, so I guess I’ll be best off trying Scribus just for the one job.

I’ll let you know how I get on or whether I burst out crying and try to rebuild the book in APublisher.

Thanks for your help and hope to bump into you all again.

Will

[William Overington]

5 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

Unless "Will" is short for Wilhelmina.

Actually I had considered that but as there was no double lowercase letter 'l' I thought it unlikely! :-)

William