Find and Replace Color in Publisher

[Echoisa]

Hi all.  Long time InDesign user looking to switch to Affinity Publisher if possible.

I have a pack of printables that needs to be exported in nine different colors.  Due to the ongoing nature of this project and the fact that it's constantly being expanded and modified, I would like to keep all of the work in one file and just run a Find and Replace on the colors as I can in InDesign.  Does this feature exist yet and if so, where?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Joachim_L]

No, there is no such feature available yet. Managing colour still needs some (massive) work here. ATM colours can even be deleted from palette without any warning or replacement option.

[carl123]

Global colours are all you have for now, but you have to remember to create (and use) them at the start of the project

[Echoisa]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

Global colours are all you have for now, but you have to remember to create (and use) them at the start of the project

So I'd have to create a global color swatch and then adjust that swatch manually when I need to change colors for an export, is that correct?

[carl123]

Sounds about right.  I have not used global colours too much before.

But now working on some different "templates" where changing the base colour has been made a lot easier by using a global colour at the start of the project. 

So far, so good.

[Echoisa]

Does anyone know if there are any plans to add this feature before full release?  Or at all?  If not, I need to begin my search for another product.

[dominik]

3 minutes ago, Echoisa said:

Does anyone know if there are any plans to add this feature before full release?  Or at all?  If not, I need to begin my search for another product.

Hello @Echoisa,

the full release is scheduled for next week's June 19th. They are fixing up final things and I assume I am save to say that they will not add any new features before this day. At least not something entirely new as you are asking for. All I can do is to encourage you to look again at global colours and tints of these. I am not sure if this would work for your task but that's the only thing that is there right now and working.

Cheers,
d.

[Echoisa]

1 hour ago, dominik said:

Hello @Echoisa,

the full release is scheduled for next week's June 19th. They are fixing up final things and I assume I am save to say that they will not add any new features before this day. At least not something entirely new as you are asking for. All I can do is to encourage you to look again at global colours and tints of these. I am not sure if this would work for your task but that's the only thing that is there right now and working.

Cheers,
d.

Thanks.  Unfortunately, this will not work for me as it will cost more time than the rest of the program saves me.

[dominik]

2 minutes ago, Echoisa said:

Thanks.  Unfortunately, this will not work for me as it will cost more time than the rest of the program saves me.

I understand. Sometimes we have jobs to do that are a little special and this requires some research to find the right tool. I've been there, too 

Good luck with your project and maybe we'll see you around some time later.
d.

[Andreia Pereira]

It's there any update related to this topic? Or there is still no "Find and Replace Color" on Affinity Publisher?

Thank you.

[MikeTO]

You can't find and replace the colour of objects because at this time the panel is just for text. But just to be clear, you can find and replace text colour. Click the panel's Gear icon and choose Format.

[Andreia Pereira]

34 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

You can't find and replace the colour of objects because at this time the panel is just for text. But just to be clear, you can find and replace text colour. Click the panel's Gear icon and choose Format.

Thank you for your feedback. In this moment I'm needing to replace a color of objects. However I didn't know I could replace Text Color, so this information can be very useful 

[Pšenda]

9 hours ago, Andreia Pereira said:

In this moment I'm needing to replace a color of objects.

Edit in Designer..., Select Same Colour (Fill, Stroke), then set new colour. 

[WKansepa]

5 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Edit in Designer..., Select Same Colour (Fill, Stroke), then set new colour. 

Specifically use Studio Link in Publisher and select the Designer persona where you will find Select Same Colour...

[Andreia Pereira]

4 hours ago, WKansepa said:

Specifically use Studio Link in Publisher and select the Designer persona where you will find Select Same Colour...

Thank you! It really helps! But how can I expand the selection to all pages? I have a document with 32 pages and when I apply the selection the program only select one page. 

[fde101]

20 minutes ago, Andreia Pereira said:

how can I expand the selection to all pages?

Sadly this is not currently possible.  If you will need to do this repeatedly with the same colors in the same document, I recommend that when you replace them you use global colors for the replacements.  That way when you need to change them again in the future it will be one step across the document, but there is currently no way to do that unless the colors are global.

[WKansepa]

19 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Sadly this is not currently possible.  If you will need to do this repeatedly with the same colors in the same document, I recommend that when you replace them you use global colors for the replacements.  That way when you need to change them again in the future it will be one step across the document, but there is currently no way to do that unless the colors are global.

Yes, global colours is the way to go. This requires proper planning right from the start and unfortunately some users don't want to plan this way…

[Andreia Pereira]

1 minute ago, WKansepa said:

Yes, global colours is the way to go. This requires proper planning right from the start and unfortunately some users don't want to plan this way…

Ok, I'll take it in consideration. Thank you!

[Pšenda]

7 minutes ago, WKansepa said:

This requires proper planning right from the start

... of course, it can also be done subsequently/ex post (Select Same by individual pages), but it's a bit more work - if the colors change more often, then it's definitely worth it.

[fde101]

28 minutes ago, WKansepa said:

This requires proper planning right from the start

The problem is often that users are working with documents that are imported from other sources which would not be able to provide global colors, so they may have no choice in the matter when the document is first created or opened in Publisher.  If they are creating the document from scratch, it is rather obvious that global colors are the correct choice - but if they are working with a document that started somewhere else or which was provided to them by an outside source which did not use global colors, they are currently stuck with doing this page-by-page.

[WKansepa]

21 minutes ago, fde101 said:

The problem is often that users are working with documents that are imported from other sources which would not be able to provide global colors, so they may have no choice in the matter when the document is first created or opened in Publisher.  If they are creating the document from scratch, it is rather obvious that global colors are the correct choice - but if they are working with a document that started somewhere else or which was provided to them by an outside source which did not use global colors, they are currently stuck with doing this page-by-page.

Yes, I agree with you on this one. One always faces great challenges when working with a document started somewhere. I suggest that the Affinity team should introduce and implement in their own way something similar or even better than CorelDRAW's Colour Styles functionality which populates all the colours used in a document to create global colour styles. It doesn't matter whether it's a single or 500+ page document it will still work its magic.  You can then edit or merge the created global swatches to taste.

[Andreia Pereira]

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

The problem is often that users are working with documents that are imported from other sources which would not be able to provide global colors, so they may have no choice in the matter when the document is first created or opened in Publisher.  If they are creating the document from scratch, it is rather obvious that global colors are the correct choice - but if they are working with a document that started somewhere else or which was provided to them by an outside source which did not use global colors, they are currently stuck with doing this page-by-page.

Yes, that's my case! This is a pdf that was made on Auto Cad and another problem I'm facing it's that the Affinity Publisher is very slow and constantly freezing (and it's a small file, the problem it has a lot of layers). But for this I'll open another topic.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Andreia Pereira said:

This is a pdf that was made on Auto Cad

If you Open it in Designer, you will get Artboards rather than Pages. Then Select Same will work on all the Artboards. You can then transfer the Designer file into Publisher, and you'll be given the option to convert to Pages if you really need Pages.

[Pšenda]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Then Select Same will work on all the Artboards.

In general, the problem is that existing Search Select functions cannot be parameterized - to selected/all pages/artboards/layers/groups. This should be added, then the use will be much more useful.

[Andreia Pereira]

15 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you Open it in Designer, you will get Artboards rather than Pages. Then Select Same will work on all the Artboards. You can then transfer the Designer file into Publisher, and you'll be given the option to convert to Pages if you really need Pages.

That was the solution I was looking for! So yes its posible to Find and Replace a Color on Affinity quickly!! 😀

Thank you!!!!