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How to combine/join two publisher files?


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There is actually no other way than copy & paste or placing one Publisher file into the other using the „Place“ command.

I assume, this is a feature, which will not be present within a short time, because it is quite complicated to implement correct synchronising of

  • different document sizes/orientation
  • different document color profiles and resolution
  • different page attributes (single, facing)
  • different (or equally named) text, paragraph, graphic stiles
  • text flow
  • different dynamic elements (table of content, index, …, …)
  • and, and, and

What really helps and prevents evil surprises: planning one’s work before layouting and using the advantages of PDF (combining documents after output)

 

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Hi mac_heibu, thank you for your answer.

As long as I'm not confident that Affinity Publisher can reliable handle 300+ pages with lots of photos and illustrations on each page I prefer to split documents into extra files.

Joining .afpub files into a final version just for output looks like a safe way for me. Of course all my files have identical settings but should they differ as you mention I would expect that the first document determines the settings for all subsequent imports. So landscape pages may be truncated and colors get converted ...

Joining PDFs sounds good but I have no experience with that. I use a Mac and I do not have Adobe Acrobat. What could I use to join PDFs and maintain PDF/X.. compatibility.

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@macmacmac Take a look at this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202945

I would make test documents or copies of your main files first and use the copies to get a feel for what you can do but Preview is pretty damn good, You can open one PDF and drag Multiple PDF's in, or you can just drag selected pages. 

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20 hours ago, mac_heibu said:

There is actually no other way than copy & paste or placing one Publisher file into the other using the „Place“ command.

I assume, this is a feature, which will not be present within a short time, because it is quite complicated to implement correct synchronising of

  • different document sizes/orientation
  • different document color profiles and resolution
  • different page attributes (single, facing)
  • different (or equally named) text, paragraph, graphic stiles
  • text flow
  • different dynamic elements (table of content, index, …, …)
  • and, and, and

What really helps and prevents evil surprises: planning one’s work before layouting and using the advantages of PDF (combining documents after output)

 

Publisher already handles different page sizes orientations. 

I agree with MacMAcMAc, this is a simple basic requirement. And the problem with Publisher handling of PDF files means exporting and combining them is not a viable workaround for many files.

 

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@Gerard O: Nice to pick one item of my list! Of course Publisher handles different document sizes, but who knows if the user want and expects, that after combining different documents you end up with a multi sized document? And what happens with the other elements of my list? I am far from saying, that combining is impossible to solve, but saying, it is „a simple basic requirement“ really is a very „simple“ approach to this subject? But if you think it is …

By the way: Do you know, in which year of its existence QuarkXPress and InDesign implemented this „basic“ feature? Just investigate this, and you will be astonished.

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Thank you firstdefence. I see the problem in step 5: 

  1. Quote

    To save, choose File > Export as PDF.

    Will Preview leave the PDF/X-1a compatibility that my printer requires untouched? I doubt that and I'm afraid there will be problems with my printer.

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40 minutes ago, macmacmac said:

Thank you firstdefence. I see the problem in step 5: 

  1. Will Preview leave the PDF/X-1a compatibility that my printer requires untouched? I doubt that and I'm afraid there will be problems with my printer.

Just asked the question on the Apple community forum.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Got a reply re Preview

Quote

Apple has omitted PDF/A and PDF/X support within the fundamental PDF developer frameworks (Quartz.PDFKit), and neither standard are available from Apple applications whether exporting, or printing to PDF. This is true of any third-party application that uses Apple's PDF framework, instead of bundling a licensed PDF library with the PDF/A and PDF/X support.

 

As fellow users, we have no knowledge, nor can we speculate, about Apple business and internal product decisions. You can send feedback to the macOS product team if you choose. Dealing with Adobe licensing expense might be a formidable contributing factor to the complex problem of adding support for additional PDF standards.

 

You will need a third-party PDF Editor that supports the PDF/X standard for successful merging of your PDF documents. I recommend that you test trial downloads of candidate software for these qualities. There are affordable PDF Editors in the Mac App Store (e.g. PDFPenPro 11), and another competent Master PDF Editor from Code Industry that is about half the price of PDFpenPro 11. Either of these two offer trials, and will save a PDF in its current PDF/X -1a-2003 format as I have tested both.

 

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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1 hour ago, macmacmac said:

Thanks a lot firstdefence, I'll take a look at PDFPenPro and MasterPDFEditor.

Also take a look at PDFExpert £79.99

Screen-Shot-2019-07-08-at-19-23-15.png

 

 

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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On 7/7/2019 at 11:52 AM, macmacmac said:

Will Preview leave the PDF/X-1a compatibility that my printer requires untouched? I doubt that and I'm afraid there will be problems with my printer

I would think Preview just keeps the setting that originals have. I have used Preview a lot without any problems.

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