Publisher: layered PDF woes

[Eli Kurtz (He/Him)]

I've created a PDF with a tan background that can be toggled on and off for easier printing. In the final file, each page's background acts as a separate layer, toggled individually (see "FoxitPDFLayers" attached). In Publisher, I'm pretty sure I did this by selecting the master page and creating a layer via the layers panel (see "PubMasterLayers" attached). It was fumbling around that got me this far!

Is there a way to group all these layers together (across all pages) so when I open the PDF there's just a single toggle to click? I've been searching for this online for weeks and keep coming up blank.

[firstdefence]

If you have a master page just make a background with a rectangle shape and make it tan coloured, when you want all the pages white just turn the rectangle shape off on the master page. 

As always when editing large documents, make a backup first before making sweeping changes.

[Eli Kurtz (He/Him)]

Thanks for the quick response, firstdefence!

If I understand your instructions correctly, I could use this method to create a PDF with a tan background or a PDF without, but not a PDF with a background that could be toggled on and off by the end user, correct?

[firstdefence]

That sounds about right, though I think it might depend on the capability of the software they are using.

Is it your intention to have it editable, i.e. give the end user the capability to turn the tan background off or on to suit?

[Eli Kurtz (He/Him)]

You've got it right: I'd like for the end user to be able to edit the PDF to turn the tan background on or off as desired.

I came to the Affinity suite after doing layout work in Scribus. Generally Scribus was not a good fit for my needs but it's ability to set up what you might call "master layers" is something I miss in Publisher. For example, in Scribus I could create a layer called "Background" and one called "Images." Then, no matter what page I worked on in the document, I could place all artwork on the Images layer, and I could assign (in this case) the tan background to the Background layer on the master page. Then when I exported to PDF, end users had the option to toggle the Images layer to turn all artwork on or off, and the same with the background. This made it really easy for users to receive an attractive PDF that they could simplify for the sake of at-home printing.

As far as I can tell, the closest solution in Affinity Publisher is what I've done in the first screenshot of my OP: the tan background for every page appears on its own layer, each one of which must be toggle on or off individually. That's no longer convenient for the end user when we're talking about a 20-page document.

[taxiforblack]

Any solution for this yet? I have spent a long time creating a 55 page document and I need to put objects from several pages into one layer....