AnnexPublish – Getting Started (Tutorial)

A hands-on walkthrough ("your first hour with AnnexPublish"). Whitepaper format, PDF-ready. Screenshots are captured according to the shot list at the end.

Goal of this tutorial

By the end, you will have built a one-page flyer: a page with guides, text set with a paragraph style, an image from the asset library, brand-kit colors, and a QR code — saved as .axpublish, versioned, and exported as PDF and HTML.

Step 1: Start a document

When launched without an open file, AnnexPublish creates a new document. Open an existing file via File ▸ Open… (⌘O) — for example the bundled sample Newsletter.axpublish from docs/examples. The window follows the suite layout: pages & layers sidebar on the left, canvas in the middle, inspector on the right.

Step 2: Set up guides and margins

Show margins and guides via the header buttons. Open the editor dialog via "Guides & Margins…" and define your own guides. While dragging, elements later snap to page edges, margins, guides, and other elements — threshold and activation are controlled in Settings.

Step 3: Add a text frame and set text

Insert a text element via the header button "Add text field" and drag it into position. A double-click opens the editor right inside the frame (click-to-edit): write a headline and body text. In the inspector, set font family, size, and weight (100–900), italic, ligatures, and small caps.

Step 4: Apply text styles

Open the styles panel in the sidebar: this is where you manage the document's paragraph and character styles. Select the text frame and apply a paragraph style; format selected text with a character style. Save styles you want to reuse into the application-wide style library.

Step 5: Place an image from the asset library

Open the "Assets" section in the sidebar — that's the suite's central asset library. Drag an image onto the canvas; it renders aspect-fit and is embedded as a reference to the library (no file copy inside the document).

Step 6: Use brand-kit colors

Link a brand kit with the document (inspector, "Brand kits" section): the brand colors appear as a dedicated section in the color palette, brand-kit assets as quick access. Assign a brand-kit fill color to a rectangle (header button "Add rectangle"). If you like, import the brand-kit text styles into the document.

Step 7: Insert a QR code

Click the header button "Insert QR code", enter the target URL, and choose the error-correction level plus foreground and background colors — matching the brand kit. The QR code is placed on the canvas as its own element and can be moved and scaled like any other.

Step 8: Align and distribute elements

Select several elements via Cmd/Shift-click or marquee selection. In the inspector, align them to six targets (left/centered/right, top/middle/bottom) or distribute them evenly, horizontally or vertically. The group drag snaps the shared frame; with Cmd+Alt+Shift you click through overlapping elements.

Step 9: Save and secure a version

Save the document with File ▸ Save (⌘S) as an .axpublish file. Then create a manual checkpoint in the versions panel (inspector) — you can restore this state at any time later. Enable autosave at the known file location in Settings.

Step 10: Linked Image, Design Grid and Baseline Grid

Replace the embedded image with a linked one: File ▸ Place…, choose an image and select Linked. The image appears in the frame with a link symbol in the layers list. Edit the source file externally – AnnexPublish detects the change and offers to update the link.

Enable View ▸ Design Grid and set up four columns with a 12 pt gutter. Align the text frame and rectangles to the grid. Then turn on View ▸ Baseline Grid and link the body-text paragraph style to it so the text lands on the baselines.

Step 11: PDF and HTML export

Via File ▸ Export… you produce a multi-page print PDF — layout-faithful, including text on path and QR codes. For the web, open File ▸ Export as HTML…: enter title, meta description, and base URL in the panel (which generates sitemap.xml and robots.txt) and decide whether the local consent banner is embedded. The export writes an index.html with embedded images — no external font or tracking services. Printing (⌘P) uses the same render path.

Result & next steps

Your flyer now exists as an .axpublish file, is versioned, uses a linked image and design/baseline grid, and has been output as PDF and HTML. Further topics — master pages, text frames linked across pages, text on path, data import, approval/review rounds, MCP automation — are covered in the manual (docs/manuals/en/AnnexPublish.md); the authoritative overview of all features is the feature list .

Shot list (for screenshot capture)