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Multiple Page Document Import


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I am very new to Affinity Publisher. I was just trying to learn how to do what I am going to ask about here, on the Affinity tutorials page, with no luck.

I am building a document that is a collection of several PDFs and other text. Some of the PDFs are multi paged documents. Some are just two pages. Some are more than 30 pages. I am trying to build a document that will eventually have a table of contents, numbered pages, and use the inserted pages as reference material (evidence).

When I drop a multi paged PDF file onto a blank AD page, not much happens other than the first page showing and nothing else. If I then double click I get this very nice effect where all the pages of the document are now spread over as many new Affinity pages as are needed to show all the pages.

So far so good but then, it gets very confusing. The result is actually showing as embedded and is in a new tab. I can't see any of the rest of the pages anymore. When I am building my document, I want to see what I have added, but I also want to keep looking through the document I am building and see the new multi page addition as well as the pages that are before and after that section.

But the tabs don't seem to want to do that. Can someone please point me to a tutorial on how this is supposed to work? Thanks very much.

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Hi.

You've posted to the Discussions and Suggestions for Affinity Publisher Beta on Desktop but your question seems to refer to Affinity Designer.  Can you confirm which app you are asking about?

Jeff

Win 10 Pro, i7 6700K, 32Gb RAM, NVidia GTX1660 Ti and Intel HD530 Graphics

Long-time user of Serif products, chiefly PagePlus and PhotoPlus, but also WebPlus, CraftArtistProfessional and DrawPlus.  Delighted to be using Affinity Designer, Photo, and now Publisher, version 1 and now version 2.

iPad Pro (12.9") (iOS 17.4) running Affinity Photo and Designer version 1 and all three version 2 apps.

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48 minutes ago, emmrecs01 said:

You've posted to the Discussions and Suggestions for Affinity Publisher Beta on Desktop but your question seems to refer to Affinity Designer.  Can you confirm which app you are asking about?

Sorry, I meant the beta Affinity Publisher. Right forum, wrong name dropped. Just edited my post.

Still trying to get this page layout working through. Frustrating. I used the resource manager to make the document linked and not embedded. It says that I have done this. But the dropped in document, when double clicked still shows as a multipage embedded document that only seems to exist in its own tab. Clicking back on my page layout does not show this new double page spread of the document in my larger Publisher document. 

Publisher looks like a really great product. I can hardly wait for the beta phase to be over. Still learning the basics as this post is all about but, looking forward to mastery. I haven't enjoyed a good professional level page layout program like this since Quark - years ago.

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You can access all the pages of a PDF if you Open it. However, if you Place it you get access to only 1 page. You can choose which page in the Context Toolbar, but if you need access to multiple pages you need to Place the file once per page.

One option for you, rather than Placing the file multiple times: Open the your working document in one Publisher tab, and Open the PDF in another. In the PDF tab, you can move from page to page, and from the Layers panel copy all the content of a page. Then go to your working document, create a new page, and Paste the copied content onto the page.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

, if you Place it you get access to only 1 page.

There's meant to be a page selector for this case, but the UI is as yet not added

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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1 minute ago, Patrick Connor said:

There's meant to be a page selector for this case, but the UI is as yet not added

If there will be a selector for All pages (or a range), then great! If it will be still a single page for subsequent placement, then perhaps not as great. It would be most advantageous that at some time in the future one can place all or ranges.

Mike

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14 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

There's meant to be a page selector for this case, but the UI is as yet not added

Thanks, Patrick, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean. There is a page selector, giving access to any specific single page:

image.png.7a4e33a2c0b0b744d6c8639405d52a1b.png

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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I meant what MikeW said but phrased it badly. You should be able to place a range of pages or the whole document in a single place insertion, all from one embedded file. Not sure how many times you would click on the page(s) to place them all.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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13 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

ou can access all the pages of a PDF if you Open it. However, if you Place it you get access to only 1 page. You can choose which page in the Context Toolbar, but if you need access to multiple pages you need to Place the file once per page.

The question remains, how do I use the results from what occurred when I double click on a dragged in multi page PDF?

I am using neither Open or Place. I am dragging in the file I want to use and I am dropping it on a page in Publisher. Then, I am double clicking on the result and, it spreads and creates a separate tab with the results showing of the spread only. The rest of the document is no longer shown. You can click on the first tab to see the rest of the document, and now you have a second tab with just the PDF spread. But, how do I combine them (merge them)?

I don't see a way to take any results of that tab showing the spread and moving them to the main document. Dragging a page out of the spread tab and holding it over the first tab does not spring open the first tab as Apple normally will do if you hold a dragged item over a folder. Either I can see either the first tab that shows no spread, or, I can see the second tab that shows the spread only.

Added: I tested using Open and I am still getting od results. Open brings in the multi page document. When the results are all in Publisher, I can add a page and, use Open again to add another document. But then, I still get a separate tab with the separate imported results. Once again, how am I supposed to merge all of the documents I have imported as spread PDFs?

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19 minutes ago, levelbest said:

I am using neither Open or Place. I am dragging in the file I want to use and I am dropping it on a page in Publisher. Then, I am double clicking on the result and, it spreads and creates a separate tab with the results showing of the spread only. The rest of the document is no longer shown. You can click on the first tab to see the rest of the document, and now you have a second tab with just the PDF spread. But, how do I combine them (merge them)?

That is the equivalent of using Place, I believe. Once you double click on the document so it opens in a new tab, you can select a page in that tab. Then in the Layers panel select all the layers, and do a Copy. Then go back to the other tab, create an empty page, and Paste into it. Repeat for each page you want to copy.

Basically: Publisher is not designed to allow you to merge PDFs. In its current state, the process of bringing multiple pages in from different PDFs is complex, and not user friendly.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Basically: Publisher is not designed to allow you to merge PDFs. In its current state, the process of bringing multiple pages in from different PDFs is complex, and not user friendly.

At least now I know that this is about layers, thanks. That this app is not designed to allow bringing in multi paged spread PDFs is too bad. I am building a legal argument for a VA claim. I have many pages showing corroborating data as evidence. These documents are PDFs. Some are one page, some two page, and some a dozen or more pages. I was doing this in Nisus, my word processor. But Nisus can't handle dragged in PDFs very well. At least it doesn’t keep them as they were which is what I am looking to do.

I know I can do this in Swift Publisher 5 which is what I am currently using. That is, Swift will not do spreads but at least I can drag in a page at a time. And that is apparently all Publisher can do. Publisher seems a far more advanced app than Swift. One would hope that it should be possible to use an app that is about publishing to assemble a large document such as I have described, using many pieces of evidence and allowing for text boxes, highlight arrows, boxes and numbering to point out what the evidence does, and does not prove.

Darn!

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2 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

If you permit me to speak by metaphor, currently this house is still being built. You might find it will be a great fit for you when it is finished, or perhaps after the first major renovation.

I like the metaphor. Thanks.

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3 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

If you permit me to speak by metaphor, currently this house is still being built. You might find it will be a great fit for you when it is finished, or perhaps after the first major renovation.

I see, said the blind carpenter, as he picked up the hammer and saw. Personally, I enjoy word play, be it simile, metaphor, allegory, or something else. I am looking forward to the day when the escrow has been signed, the movers have arrived, and we can finally move into the completed house, open for business. 

Publisher in its present state is still under development and available in beta. I won't spend too much time in it for now as I need to get some things done. I have Swift and iStudio to work with. Either one will get the job done although Publisher looks quite promising.

 

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