[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

@Leigh Thank you!

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

It's three weeks after I submitted the requested Publisher and log files to Serif. It's the first time I sent in such files and as I haven't heard anything back yet, I was wondering: Is there a typical timeline for Serif staff to respond? I also noticed that Lee_T didn't  respond to a PM and also that he hasn't been around for a couple of weeks.

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

I just sent the requested files.

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

Thank you for offering this help. I sent you a PM.

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

Thanks, Mike. 

Unfortunately, I cannot share the document publicly because all contents are covered by copyrights.

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

Thanks for getting back to me, Mike. It's a standalone document, not an Affinity Book.

So, this is not something that occurs often. Makes it perhaps even more difficult to sort out. I hope Affinity staff will chime in as I put a lot of work into it!

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

This strange story continues: I managed, it seems, miraculously to enter some ten new topics and then the app crashed again. The funny thing is that the ten topics and respective markers are all gone now! All the previous topics are still there.

I checked a previous incremental safe (including the ten new topics) and it didn't have them either. Makes me wonder whether there's a maximum number of topics (and markers) that can be created....

Anyone having any ideas?

[Publisher crashes when adding topics to the index]

After working fine when adding hundreds of topics to the index of a book of some 270 pages I'm putting together, Publisher has started to crash while adding a new topic from the Index Panel. Also when I try by adding a marker in the text, the program crashes. Interestingly, I'm able to add occurrences of words to existing topics and edit the existing topics.

So, I have a big problem because I've quite a few topics to add to the index. 

Is this a known issue? What can be done about it?

I'm on Windows 10 Pro and Affinity Publisher 2.4.0

[Formatting an index]

So simple once you know it. I must have been doing something wrong each time. But I'm getting the hang of it. Thank you, Mike!

[Formatting an index]

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Oops. But yes, for the index, it's the same principle and works fine. Just edit the "Index Entry Page Number" character style. 

Thanks for helping me out, Mike. If that's the case, I must be doing something wrong. Can you tell me how to do this, step by step?

As I mentioned in another thread, I still have difficulty with setting the character style and have it fall under paragraph style. I did read your expert guide.

 

[Formatting an index]

Guys, I'm talking about the index, not the TOC, and I think formatting is done differently there. At least I don't succeed in formatting the entry and page numbers separately.

[Formatting an index]

I would like the index entries with topic names to be bold and the page numbers to be regular. That works by using Initial Words in the Style Panel as long as I set it to one word because when I set it to two or more (some entries consist of more than one word), the bold setting spill over into the numbers next to it. 

I selected an End Character in Initial Words and tried to enter it behind the topic names but that doesn't seem to work. 

Is there a way to achieve what I'm after?

 

[How to bold first line of numbered list without bolding the number]

1 hour ago, Brian_J said:

Here’s a video on the Affinity Publisher YouTube channel that may be helpful. I think the entire video is worth watching; see time 9:13 for formatting the first sentence of each list item.

 

Seeing the section with the pink numbering, the penny dropped: Initial Words! That solved my issue. Thanks so much!

[How to bold first line of numbered list without bolding the number]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Does the following post help?

 

I seem to be doing the right thing, but with No Style selected, the number automatically turns to bold after I add the bold text line.

(Now I'm going to watch the Brian_J's suggested video tutorial....)

 

[How to bold first line of numbered list without bolding the number]

I read a lot of posts about Paragraph and Character styles but for the life of me, I don't manage to find a way to bold the first line of a numbered list without bolding the number. I still haven't been able to get my mind around how these styles interact and how I can make the appropriate settings. How can I do it?

[Text Flow]

Thanks! Actually, I just went through the whole document and it was easier than I thought. I selected the text of a chapter, cut it, unlinked the first text frame and pasted the text back in again. Now there's no problem when adding extra pages somewhere in the middle of the book. 

I do a 'save as' after, at least, every chapter, so that I can always go back when things go AWOL.

Brian_J and Old Bruce: thanks again for your help!

[Text Flow]

Thanks, Brian_J. That might be a good way to go about it. While I was doing some stretching, I got another idea: Cut the last chapter, remove the text frame, create a new one via master page and paste the text back in. And then work my way up until I have all chapters in separate text frames.

Thanks, Old Bruce. Your advise seems to point towards using the Books feature and is completely logical  and would be perfect for projects such as mine. However, I saw too many posts advising against using it. So, I fell into the trap of one text frame. Duh!

Anyway, my question -- whether there's a way to unlink two text frames with the option to also cut the text there so that the second text frame retains its text -- has been, albeit implicitly answered in the negative. Too bad as it would have made my issue easy to solve. 

[Text Flow]

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Myself I would add the second chapter to the text flow as text, not a separate set of text frames/pages. Just copy and paste as text after the end of the first chapter.

If you really do want to have multple text flows then the first thing I would try is adding two pages (I will assume you are using double page spreads) at the end of the first chapter. Make sure to have None chosen for a master. This should make the flow of text jump over the new pages. Now apply your Master Page (I do hope you are using Master Pages) to the new pages and you should be able to add the text to the new text frames and auto flow the second chapter in the proper place with the original text flow continuing after that newly added second chapter.

Yes, I use a double spread and master pages. The issue is that I tried your second option but the flow of text jumps over some twenty pages. That's confusing and difficult to maintain when further edits are needed. 

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I have to say that I have no clear idea of what you are actually up against. Or what it is that you are wanting to achieve.

Is it simply adding some text (a chapter) to the middle of the existing text in the book? If so why do you need/want a second separate text flow?

Currently do you have multiple text flows in your book? When I lay out a novel I have one text flow for all the chapters. Multiple text flows as you describe will prove to be a recipe for disaster later on.

I want separate text flows for each chapter as their subject is not continuous (it's not a novel but a collection of various articles) and I wish to reshuffle them here and there. I would think that multiple text flows would prevent disaster later on. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

What specifically made you "discover" that the used workflow is "a beginner mistake" ?

In what way havoc ? Does the existing layout contain other elements (images, graphics, margin column, footnotes, etc) in addition to the story text frames? If yes, are they pinned to the story text?

By havoc I mean that when I change some settings in a text frame that is continued multiple pages down the line, I won't be able to see possible effects.

I hope that the above makes it clearer what the situation is and what I'm after. But, as I said, I might be wrong in the whole issue....

[Text Flow]

Thanks for your replies, guys. Both your solutions are a bit problematic because there are many other chapters following chapter 2. So, copying/pasting or inserting text will (possibly) play havoc with the layout. I'm I correct in saying that what I really want, namely cut the text flow between two frames but leaving the text in the second frame is not possible?

[Text Flow]

I'm putting together my first Affinity Publisher book (but not using the Books feature) and made, I discovered, a beginners mistake by adding chapter texts in one continues text frame. Now I need to insert another chapter somewhere in the middle and thus first cut the text flow between the two said chapters. I know how to unlink the text frames on the the two pages but would like to have the text of the second chapter start in its own text frame and not stay with the first text frame. Hope I made myself clear...

[Putting together a book]

3 hours ago, William Overington said:

I produced the result as a collection of PDF documents, even including some blank PDF documents: for example, so as to have the blank page after the half title and before the title page.

 

I want to be able to edit the text in one document so your approach wouldn't work for me. 

[Putting together a book]

Wonderful advice @Old Bruce! That gives me an idea how to approach this project.

Next, I'll read your directions and suggestions again to make sure I understood and can follow them.

[Putting together a book]

Wonderful advice Old Bruce! That gives me an idea how to approach this project.

Next, I'll read your directions and suggestions again to make sure I understood and can follow them.

[Putting together a book]

Those are very useful tips to get me started with text styles. Thanks.

Do you also have some suggestions for how to set up the document. Should I use the Books feature or work only in one document?

[Putting together a book]

What about removing all text styles before adding the documents to the Publisher document?