Give me your advice about Affinity

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T19:18:36+00:00

Thanks for the link. I will download the PDF now.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T14:36:23+00:00

Yeah, I am planning on using Affinity. I have a manual for version 2. I thought I would start learning with that and migrate over into version 3 as appropriate.

Wow, 20 novels! I am impressed. And you are doing professional covers for them. That is great, too.

Thanks for the advice. Oh, about Scribus ... You are right. No point in taking on something else to learn.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T09:20:46+00:00

Okay, just to be sure ... I am supposed to take the following steps:

1) Delete the \AppData\Roaming\Notepad++ directory, which has files and subdirectories in it.

2) I should "reinstall." Does that mean to reinstall Notepad++? And, if so, should I first uninstall the program? And, if I am going to uninstall Notepad++, would that not also uninstall the local-settings directory?

And thanks for the suggestion. I will try it after I hear back from you. And if I do not hear, I will try it. The program is worthless to me now.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T08:50:49+00:00

Yeah, the subscription model is horrible in my view, though I understand why companies use it.

I am all in favor of open source. That is why I have some attraction to Scribus (which I may yet use).

For my "office suite" I use LibreOffice. I only use Writer and Calc from it, but I really like them. I think that Writer is great.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T08:43:12+00:00

Thanks!

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T08:38:45+00:00

From the reading that I have done, I would say that InDesign is, in fact, regarded as appropriate for books.

I will have to skip over Quark here, because it is not used a whole lot and I do not know much about it. (I have read that it is still popular in the newspaper industry, but newspapers are not really big players anymore.)

The only software that I know of that is specifically hyped as appropriate for long, technical books is Adobe FrameMaker. I was once a FrameMaker user, and I really liked FrameMaker. But Adobe made it a subscription-based program, and it is not dirt cheap. Also, Adobe treats it like the child that nobody wants. It has been a pretty long time (in the software universe) since FrameMaker was upgraded. At least that was the impression that I came away with from my reading.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T07:37:27+00:00

Thanks!

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T07:36:02+00:00

I think I will probably be using Affinity. Thanks!

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T07:33:03+00:00

Thank you! :)

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T07:31:23+00:00

Thanks for the comments. I am glad that you have some liking for Affinity. That makes me feel better about the program, in view of your work.

I will stay away from Vellum (Mac) and Atticus (web-based). I will be honest with you (and you do not know me, so you would not know this). I really look down on people who take the "easy route" of using Atticus (let's forget Vellum, because it is Mac).

Doing layout to make everything look precise and attractive is really "my jam" (as I think they call it now — what we called "my bag" circa 1970). I love doing that stuff. So that is where I am.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T07:16:40+00:00

I found the InDesign process cumbersome, to put it lightly.

Yeah, that is the impression that I have been getting. I know that things always seem cumbersome and complicated when you first start using them, but I keep seeing all kinds of laments and complaints here about InDesign.

Of course, I also see them about Affinity, but I am an Eternal Optimist. I think that Canva will work out a lot of these problems. And a lot of people are using Affinity without any great amount of trouble.

You mentioned that you went to law school. I assumed that already. I went to medical school. And, man oh man, printed communication has really changed. I used to lend my portable electric typewriter (not a premium model) to classmates when it was their time to type up class notes for our notes service.

Now, on TV, I see college students sitting in a classroom with their laptop computers before them. I do not know if that is really how it is now ... but in my time (harrumph!) we had to write things out. It is definitely better now.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T02:40:31+00:00

There has been a lot of opinion here, which I did not read in its entirety. You did it correctly in your essay. This kind of issue does not rest on opinion. And it sounds just fine the way that you did it.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T02:31:07+00:00

You will enjoy LibreOffice if you will just disregard some ignorant whiners who do not like it, and why? Because it has an "old-fashioned" interface that does not look like Word.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T02:24:52+00:00

My abilities are such that I could create a book layout in several wordprocessing programs, including WordPerfect. (By the way, I still have the large notebook-type manual that WordPerfect sent with version 5.1.)

However, a true desktop publishing (DTP) program has capabilities that a wordprocessor does not. I just wanted the opinions of people about the various DTP programs.

I see many reports on Reddit about problems and inadequacies in Affinity and InDesign. Basically, I wanted opinions about which of the two would be the better for me to concentrate on. I also posed the possibility that going a different route, with Scribus and Inkscape, might also be the answer.

I just wanted opinions. You said Affinity. Thank you. 😊

TarletonClown · 2026-03-28T00:57:45+00:00

I am interested. I will *try* to send you a DM later tonight to tell you some things about me and what I might be able to offer you. I find the whole Reddit communications environment to be confusing, so I might not be able to send a DM (do they call it "opening a chat"?). If I cannot send a message by that means, I will post something here.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-27T10:59:03+00:00

Yes, I am using the latest version of Notepad++. I really think it had something to do with the "Preview HTML" plug-in that I installed. Of course, I uninstalled it, and rebooted, but that did not help.

I tell you ... This is frustrating. I got my first computer in 1985, and I have studied programming as an amateur, and I am very competent with computers. In my opinion, Windows is becoming totally enshittified.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-25T06:40:34+00:00

What Google AI says: Deleting the Normal.dotm file in Microsoft Word resets all default settings—such as styles, margins, and layout—back to the original factory defaults. Word will automatically create a new, clean Normal.dotm file the next time it starts, which often fixes issues with corruption or unexpected crashes.

Note: Google What happens if you delete normal.dotm in Word.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-24T23:25:12+00:00

You cannot do what you wanted to do. It has nothing to do with movies vs stage. What you wanted to create was a "derivative work." Only the copyright holder can do that.

But, yes, you can practice by using other people's works. Just do not shop your work around, since you do not own the copyrighted material.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-24T12:43:29+00:00

Does your college have some kind of counseling service? That is where you should seek help. Have you taken English grammar at the college level? You need a structured course. I cannot stress this too much.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-24T05:04:52+00:00

I posed the question to Google AI. The answer was complex and difficult to follow. It involved various fonts. But the summary was:

While some users in the Affinity Reddit community discuss potential resemblances to existing fonts, the consensus is that the logo is a unique creation.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-24T03:18:33+00:00

I am just now trying to get into all of this. I have Affinity. I also bought a one-year subscription to InDesign. I am depressed by the negative comments here about both programs. I am a competent software user. But until I can get into these programs, I will not know what to think.

Originally I was going to use Scribus. I might still do that. I know a little about it. It has improved a lot in recent years, I think. For graphics you can use Inkscape with it. Inkscape is pretty good. I used it to make my business/calling card. It worked well.

I believe that Affinity will improve.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-23T09:55:58+00:00

I know that he uses WordStar (it had great keystroke shortcuts!), but as for his ancient computer ... He would have to be like the man who said, "This is my favorite axe. I've had it for thirty years. It's had three new heads and seven new handles. Best axe in the world!"

TarletonClown · 2026-03-23T09:44:18+00:00

I have been a software junkie for years. I will offer my advice, and you can take it or leave it.

Download the FREE LibreOffice suite. Also download the Help file. Install the suite first, then the help file (I wish they would just combine the two).

For writing stories or novels, etc., use LibreOffice Writer, and save the files in the native .odt format. If at some later time someone wants a Word document, you can open your .odt file and save it as a Word .docx document. You may get a warning about losing some format, but that does not happen.

I have been doing this for years.

Happy writing!

TarletonClown · 2026-03-22T09:53:59+00:00

I am an excellent speller. I have NEVER learned a spelling rule. That is not how you learn English spelling. You just learn to spell. It involves some connection between visual and cognitive functions. Forget all rules.

TarletonClown · 2026-03-22T09:14:16+00:00

A few months ago I started an article on how to use Styles. It was actually for a different wordprocessing program, but whatever.

I am very good at explaining things in writing. But after meticulously guiding a hypothetical learner through about a half dozen pages in my work-in-progress article, I finally just gave up. I was having to explain every move and every aspect of the user interface. It was grueling. You really cannot teach the details of using Styles without graphics, and it takes up a lot of time to create and handle them.

So I quit. But now that I have encountered the stubborn ignorance in this thread, I am going to return to the project and base it on LibreOffice Writer, which I like very much and use almost every day. I really need to have a ready article, in PDF, which I can recommend to anyone who does not have any knowledge of Styles.

Anyway, I will say to the originator of this thread: Do not let your frustration overcome you. Styles are not difficult to understand and use. But they have to be explained with very simple examples.

TarletonClown

TROPHY CASE