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Some of those variables are already available via the Fields panel, Martien.

View > Studio > Fields, and then to insert a field's value into the document just make sure the cursor is in a text field and double-click the field's name.

-- 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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Variables that you can base on paragraph / character styles are crucial for making complex and maintainable documents like catalogues and books.

It would be nice to, for example, use multiple variables in one heading (document-wide brand or product names etc.), then it also pulls itself into a running header on a master page based on the paragraph style. 

Didn't have a chance to mess around with Publisher yet, maybe this functionality is already in there, so correct me on that. Right now feeling a bit hesitant to make a switch...

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2 hours ago, Toshchak Pёs said:

Didn't have a chance to mess around with Publisher yet, maybe this functionality is already in there, so correct me on that. Right now feeling a bit hesitant to make a switch...

It's not available yet. The best you can do is to create different sections and put a variable based on the section names.

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  • 4 weeks later...
3 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

I look forward to using variables based on styles, such as for running headers.

Sorry, but I don't understand how that would work. Example, please?

-- 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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16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but I don't understand how that would work. Example, please?

Think about manuals for ... well anything. Textbooks may be a better example.

Chapter X is your section, inside chapter one is a number of sections which vary in length from a page to several pages. You desire to have the sub sections titles on the bottom of the page and the Chapter X name at the top of the page.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but I don't understand how that would work. Example, please?

Sure, no problem. For a simple example, consider a basic book with named chapters. You probably would assign the title with a particular paragraph style, which perhaps you have named "ch_title." Next, you can assign a variable that is linked to ch_title. In InDesign, there are a couple of choices, such as "First use on a page," which will grab the text from the first time that paragraph style is used in a page. Next, you can then create your header on a master page, and in the header, you place your variable. Now you have running headers, so that on the top of every page, you have the name of the current chapter. The value of the variable will stay the same until the next time it comes across the same paragraph style. If you have to edit the text of the chapter title, the running header will pick it up.

You can also think of it in terms of a similar but more limited functionality within Publisher as it is now. To use the same scenario above, you could instead divided your pages into sections in the Pages Studio and name each section to match the corresponding chapter title. Then you can use the <section_name> field in the header, and it will work basically the same. There are two disadvantages with that for a simple book: 1) You must make the section name match the chapter title, and make sure if you edit the chapter title, you also edit the section name, and 2) If the page count or order gets changed, you must make sure the sections still line up with the chapter. However, with a little vigilance, it is not a bad solution for Publisher's first version.

To give you an example that is too complex for Publisher, here are three pages from a layout of the French Bible that I have been working on lately in InDesign.

10-2 Samuel.pdf

If you look at the top left of page 322 and the top right at 323, you will see running headers that show the first and last full verses on the spread. That is a combination of a couple of variables: first, it is defined from a character style on the book heading "2 Samuel," and secondly, each verse has a hidden verse reference (for example 1.22) that is tagged with the character style chap-verse-hidden. Then on the left page there is a variable defined to the first use of chap-verse-hidden on the page, and on the right we have another variable that is defined as the last use of chap-verse-hidden on the page. In that way, we have a faithful set of running headers throughout the text.

Similar would be a dictionary, where in the headers you have the first and last entry. If each entry is styled with a character style, then variables makes it simple to make running headers such that no matter the text flow, the first and last entry in a spread is automatically put in the headers.

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21 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

To give you an example that is too complex for Publisher, here are three pages from a layout of the French Bible that I have been working on lately in InDesign.

10-2 Samuel.pdf

Perfect example.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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On 8/9/2019 at 12:29 PM, Old Bruce said:

Perfect example.

Not anymore because it was removed. :)

[Edit: My mistake - I was logged out when I tried to download. Thought it was a public file. ]

My BOOK (created with Publisher, Designer & Photo):
Clearing a Path to Joy (And finding contentment along the way)

My WEBSITE (also developed using Affinity apps):
www.RolandK.ca — "Relentless adventures in self-expression"

[Power Mac & Intel PC (HighSierra/Monterey/Win 10]

 

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7 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

It does not look removed on my end. It is posted as a linked PDF. Look for "10-2 Samuel.pdf"

Also, there should be no copyright issue, as the text is our own revision of a translation in public domain.

My mistake - I was logged out when I tried to download it and it gave me a "file removed..." message. Thought it was a public file at first.

My BOOK (created with Publisher, Designer & Photo):
Clearing a Path to Joy (And finding contentment along the way)

My WEBSITE (also developed using Affinity apps):
www.RolandK.ca — "Relentless adventures in self-expression"

[Power Mac & Intel PC (HighSierra/Monterey/Win 10]

 

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+1

My employer is a company producing teaching materials that get revised for each calendar year. Custom text fields for adding document-wide settings like course codes and calendar years would be great.

This would really help. I'd like my employer to switch away from "you know who" :10_wink:

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1 minute ago, ahnungsloser said:

Any updates, when this feature will be implemented? It‘s my main missing piece ;-)

Serif doesn't provide information like that.

-- 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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  • 1 year later...

Our office is looking at switching to Publisher from InDesign. There are lots of things about Publisher we love, and there are a few things from InDesign that we will sorely miss. One of the things we will miss is the text variables feature. Defining a variable field (associated with a style) that you just type into a template and have it propagate throughout the document is wonderful. Hopefully this feature is not copywrite into InDesign. There must be a way to do this even if it works in a slightly different way. Please try to include this in the soonest update possible! (along with grep styles... but that is another topic)

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