Affinity Publisher (and friends

[woody649]

Apparently the folks at Serif are going to be releasing a new version of ... something ... on November 9. They have put out a truly execrable video teaser, for those who enjoy video teasers:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

I don't know what to expect. I know a huge number of users of Affinity Publisher are hoping for footnote support, and another significant number (me among them) are hoping for EPUB output. Does anyone here have any inside info on what's going to be coming from Serif?

[Bo Aakerstrom]

As far as teasers go, this one is very disappointing. Whatever it is it is hopefully worth the wait.

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Bo Aakerstrom

As far as teasers go, this one is very disappointing. Whatever it is it is hopefully worth the wait.

The wait has been approximately five years. Affinity has a user forum, and footnote/end note support and EPUB output have been the two features most asked for on that site literally for years. Affinity (Serif) provides the forum, but doesn't participate, so even the regular users and ardent boosters of Affinity software have no idea what to expect in the new release.

The astonishing thing (to me) is that more than one person on that forum thinks that video is absolutely brilliant -- the best thing since sliced bread.

[Bo Aakerstrom]

Well, in all honesty, a video of sliced bread would be about as entertaining as that "teaser".

[Steve Rindsberg]

So you're saying that the teaser is the best thing since sliced bread? ;-)

[Bo Aakerstrom]

No, but it is better than a teaser about sliced bread...

[Steve Rindsberg]

Originally Posted by Bo Aakerstrom

No, but it is better than a teaser about sliced bread...

LOL!

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Bo Aakerstrom

No, but it is better than a teaser about sliced bread...

Debatable.

A teaser about sliced bread would probably at least hint that it's a teaser about sliced bread. To follow the model of this one, a teaser about sliced bread wouldn't even mention bread.

[woody649]

The new versions are out.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/

Preliminary reactions seem to be mixed. The new Publisher still doesn't export to ePub, so that's a deal-breaker for me. They have added footnote/endnote capability -- sort of. It seems you can now create footnotes and endnotes within Publisher ... however, importing a document that already has footnotes and/or endnotes from Word or from InDesign doesn't work. So I'd rate that as a fail.

One positive improvement is that you can now compile chapters into a single file for a book. That's certainly an essential function and, to be honest, I wasn't aware that version 1.x (which I have) can't do that.

And the price now is considerably higher than it was for version 1.x. It is a one-time purchase, perpetual license, so still a lot better than Adobe's annual rental scheme ... but without the ePub export capability there's no reason for me to pony up for the new versions (plural because the suite includes Publisher, Photo, and Designer).

[woody649]

Update:


As I commented in a previous post, I have version 1.x of Affinity Publisher. The last release of that before the upgrade to version 2.x was 1.10. I had version 1.9, so I have now updated my version as far as I can go without buying the update.


I just made another attempt at using this program to format a book. I chose a small book that I have already published, so it is completely formatted for printing in Word.
I had to research it through YouTube videos, because it's well hidden, but there is a way to set up a single page and then auto-flow text into it.


BUT ... Affinity doesn't recognize section breaks from Word, so the chapters don't break where they're supposed to. I suppose there's a way to work around that (I can think of a couple of ways), but I can't justify the expenditure of time and effort needed to figure out something as basic as that when it should be built into the program.


I am very disappointed, to say the least.


The price for version 2.x is quite a bit higher than what I paid for version 1. Since version 2 didn't add either of the two features most users requested from version 1, there's no way I'm going to upgrade to version 2. I'll leave version 1 on my computer for awhile, but I expect I'll eventually get tired of seeing the shortcut icon on my desktop and uninstall it.


My assessment: don't waste your money. It may be good for laying out multi-column magazine pages with lots of graphics but, for books ... it's a non-starter.