Catshill

Check that the outline colour of the text is not transparent or non contrasting. Temporarily hide the image layer to ensure the text is visible and doesn’t have an attribute set, like leading, that means the text isn’t visible.

I’d welcome confirmation from Serif developers that this is the case and also recommended best practices. Implementing a feature that is so fragile doesn’t appear logical. Based on comments here, I may be offloading my assets from the application to regular folders.

Is this what actually happens? When assets are added are they increasing the size of the application and slowing it down?

From the layers panel, right click to get a menu and select duplicate.

I did consider using MS Word to import the data but I have had inconsistent results when importing anything other than plain text from non-Affinity products. Merging Word and APu styles in particular has been problematic but I perhaps could create dummy styles like [Name style] in Word and then use find/replace in APu to turn these into actual styles. I'll probably go down the Affinity data merge route now as explained above.

The data is merged from an xlsx file of about 80 records. It is inserted into APu as part of a brochure and each field is given a text style in APu. In this specific instance and because of the way that data merge works, I need to change the layout (not the data) from the resulting output. That is why editing the source data (or importing text from a PDF) is not appropriate in this instance. The last suggested option is not appropriate because the outcome is not required in tables but as follows... I can live with the following... Use the data merge layout tool on a master page as above with the fields styled using text styles. Generate the output to a new APu file. From the resulting output, link each text frame. Click in the linked text frames, select and copy all the content. Paste the output into a single text frame and edit to to arrange content (so that Producer and location only appear once) as required... <Producer 1> <location> <description> <No.1> <name1> <type> <No.2> <name2> <type> <No.3> <name3> <type> <Producer 2> <location> <description> <No.4> <name1> <type> <No.5> <name2> <type> <Producer 3> <location> <description> <No.6> <name1> <type> ... So resulting output is... Acme Company Weymouth, Devon Established by Josiah Wedgewood in 1834, the company have been making furniture since 1960. [1] Windsor Chair Furniture [2] Wardrobe Furniture [3] Wall Light Electrical M&S Company Matlock, Derbyshire Established by Olivia Smite in 1934 and specialising in modern designs. [4] Revolving Door Furniture [5] Stool Furniture Milliband Hemmingway Stroud, Gloucestershire Traditional plumbers with a large stock of supplies. [6] U Bend Plumbing

There is also the issue that they were written for version 1.

Workaround4 I took the results of the data merge and manually linked each frame. I was then able to select all the text which I was then able to copy into a new document. I was hoping for a less manual method.

Workaround3? I exported the results of the data merge to a PDF. I then opened this in a new instance of publisher with these two options set However rather than being presented with a single frame of text, I was left with multiple text boxes.

This annoyance sadly persists in V2. I don’t know if will ever be fixed.

Or a commercial decision possibly based on the increased cost of paper.

Is it possible to merge multiple records into a single frame so that they can be edited? I have a data merge set up using the data merge layout tool but I need to edit the contents to delete unwanted data and have the other records move up to fill the gaps. This is proving difficult because of the multiple frames created by the layout tool. Workaround 1? If it's not possible to have multiple records on a single page without using the data merge layout tool, a way of combining the text from each separate frame into a single frame would be a workaround. Workaround 2? Instead of using the data merge layout tool, I tried adding the fields multiple times to a master page but this created duplicate records. Is there a field I could add to advance the record by one? Context... Catalogue comprising Name and description followed by multiple records. Note the number of products may vary. Required output: Name1 Description1 Product 1 - other fields... Product 2 - other fields... Name2 Description2 Product 3 - other fields... Product 4 - other fields... Product 5 - other fields...

Have you tried turning on a visual grid and enabling snapping? That would seem to be more appropriate for this case than the baseline grid.

Thanks. That might be the best way for me to go.

I need to produce a catalogue that uses three different products on three different master pages that are displayed using three different data sources. Given that (from the above) I can only use one data source at a time, is this possible/sensible to import each of these as follows: Add data source 1 and generate output Using output generated above, add data source 2 and generate output Using output generated above, add data source 3 and generate output

I am producing a set of over 100 labels using Data merge. A fit to frame function in APu (by reducing font size) would be appreciated. Currently I am having to do this in Microsoft Publisher which has this function.

I don’t think it does but I will check when I get the issue again as unfortunately I cannot summon it up at will 😁

I’d take a look at the Affinity Revolution and Olivio Serakis videos on YouTube

I was hoping that the issue of linked graphics not displaying correctly (see below) in APu would have been fixed with the 2.1 update but sadly not. My guess is that the application is running out of memory to display the PDF image but the file is less than 600Kb so that seems strange. This is a PDF (I am not sure if ADe or APh files are affected) linked file but changing it to embedded makes no difference. Using the Replace Image from the Picture frame returns the full image but it "disappears" again after some time working on the file. In the absence of a solution, a refresh option would be helpful.

This is a case where having and setting an overriding text style can help to ensure consistency.

I think this is is key when dealing with APu. Even though I produce magazines rather than books I get my authors to adopt the above strategy typically using Google Docs.

Maybe I am misunderstanding the OP, but I did not see a request/need for shapes to be updated or that the base object needed to comprise linked elements.

You could create the shape and make it an asset or symbol.

The baseline grid tool icon is on the top toolbar by default.

In that thread Ash said “The colour thing, that is noted but will likely not be a 2.1 thing“ .