Publisher: step and repeat

[footosman]

Hopefully i'm missing something but is there no step and repeat function at the moment? I can kinda of make do with the duplicate tool, but it seems a lot less accurate and longer. Even a move/copy option like indesign would be great. If anyone could shed some light that would be much appreciated.

Edited June 29, 2019 by footosman

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, footosman.

Publisher contains the same Power Duplicate functionality as the other Affinity applications, which should allow the step and repeat process that you're looking for. In addition to that Help topic, you might look at this Designer tutorial for Copy, Paste, and Power Duplicate.

[footosman]

Thanks I understand that. What I'm looking for is the ability to type in say duplicate object 10 times with 3 mm gap or to duplicate an object 10 times by x measurement. Rather than duplicate and drag, manually enter a gap and duplicate again. This process seems much less accurate and a lot more steps than just a dialogue box. 

Step and repeat is a pretty basic command on a layout package, hense why i'm a little miffed it's either not there or I'm missing it somehow. 

[GarryP]

Have you tried using the Alignment tool?
You can create your object, make X duplications (no need to drag), then use the “Alignment / Space Horizontally/Vertically” tool to give them all the spacing you need.

Edit: Added a short video.

Edited June 29, 2019 by GarryP

[footosman]

16 hours ago, GarryP said:

Have you tried using the Alignment tool?
You can create your object, make X duplications (no need to drag), then use the “Alignment / Space Horizontally/Vertically” tool to give them all the spacing you need.

Edit: Added a short video.

Thanks, i think this will be a much better compromise for me. Much appreciated. Not as elegant as a simple dialogue box, but workable. 

Edited June 30, 2019 by footosman

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
I think the alignment/distribution functions of Designer are probably still at an early stage – e.g. we don’t have radial distribution yet – so I hope there will be more functionality to come in future releases.

[Tali]

Surely it is an important tool to have, Alignment and Duplicate comes nowhere the same as Step and Repeat. For me making labels 10 to 14 to a page, once the design is setup on one Label I can then select all, Step and repeat in horizontal and vertical  buy adding the spacing is so easy. waiting for the next release PeterA

[hayman]

I'm a professional printer and I've been following this subject for over a year - hoping for a step and repeat function/dialog box to be added. I still find myself reverting back to using InDesign to perform quick &  common tasks such as step & repeating business cards 25up on an SRA3 page with an 85mm in one direction and 55mm in the other direction, creating a quick and accurate layout for commercial printing and trimming. It's disappointing that this has not been addressed - as I love using Publisher!

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, hayman said:

I still find myself reverting back to using InDesign to perform quick &  common tasks such as step & repeating business cards 25up on an SRA3 page with an 85mm in one direction and 55mm in the other direction, creating a quick and accurate layout for commercial printing and trimming.

Are you needing to save this layout in your file, or could you simply use N-Up printing, which the Affinity applications already support?

Have you tried using the Power Duplicate feature? Or the Alignment function mentioned above? They are quite simple to use.

[geraldv]

I think walt.farrell is correct - give it a go (Power Duplicate)

ie - if you have one business card for example (as a group) make a duplicate (edit - duplicate) move it to the right by as much as you need or the gap you require then do another duplicate the group will then move to the correct spacing. once you have the horizonta - simply group the whole lot and do another duplicate and repeat the process downwards or vertically.

Yes its not as quick as Indesign but still quite quick, I am sure eventually AF will surely add a step and repeat function.

Using the alignment method is also fairly quick. As GaryP posted.

[Bryce]

I'm sure a professional printer is not using Indesign to do n-up or Step and repeat. There are dedicated programs out there just for the functions needed press and step and repeat and n-up are just the basics. Quite Imposing is quite amazing - also made by the Brits - and gives so much more that it is worth every penny. Since it works with PDFs you have the functions from any program, not requiring it to be built into every one.

[AlanPickup]

I have been using the N-up print facility for quite a while now, but only for items that will be printed on ink jet / laser, or sent as a pdf using windows print to pdf and the quality is fairly good. The advantage of step and repeat is you only have to make an alteration to one layout if there is a correction or update. Is there a way of linking changes if you use power duplicate or do you have to  change each individually or remove the duplicates and start again?  Can the step power duplicate be recorded as a macro for set number of repeats? I have not produced or used macros up to now

 

I have not sent any N-up PDFs  for commercial printing, but I know there are problems trying to import the PDF back in Publisher with fonts as they are not embedded, even on the same PC. 

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, AlanPickup said:

Is there a way of linking changes if you use power duplicate

In Publisher or Designer you could use Symbols.

3 minutes ago, AlanPickup said:

Can the step power duplicate be recorded as a macro for set number of repeats? I have not produced or used macros up to now

Macros are available only in Photo (though if you also own Publisher they can be used there, too, via the Photo Persona).

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Macros are available only in Photo (though if you also own Publisher they can be used there, too, via the Photo Persona).

Also, in their current form, macros are quite limited compared to a scripting language, so among other things there is no support for loops, variables, branching statements, etc. So there is no way for a macro to do anything for a set number of repeats, other than to add every step or set of steps over & over for at least as many times as you want it to repeat.

[jscriba]

Yes, please, please, please.

As a long-time user of InDesign, step/repeat ist the one feature I really miss after moving to Publisher.

All references to existing transform or alignment options miss the point.

With step/repeat and the preview-option enabled you can quickly create 2-D arrays of text frames (or any object) and interactively see how any changes of offsets and horizontal/vertical repeat counters turn out on the page. Often, it's fractions of a mm for individual offsets that make the difference on how things fit at the bottom of the page.

It's a great tool for certain types of design, and doing labels without it is a royal pain. I regularly need to do small stickers for firmware versions and the like, which might have 100 Labels on a page. No, you don't really want to do this using individual transform commands to first build a row and then duplicate rows.

Please just steal it from InDesign instead of coming up with seemingly more elegant work-arounds. A simple dialog for entering the parameters is much more effective. (And those other tools you already have won't be spoilt.)

[Steve Porter]

I have used Quark Xpress for many, many years and using step and repeat is second nature to me for forms and for design. I now use Affinity Publisher as much as possible and really miss the simple and effective step and repeat function of Quark Xpress.