dlampel

To all who have participated in this conversation I want to report that I tested the issue (right-click in text frame when document floated to a second monitor) in Beta 2.4.0.2256 with success. No crash! Thank you to all those who contributed to this fix.
By the way, just a reminder: An easy workaround is to keep the documents in the UI and float the control panels to the secondary monitor. This workflow I have been successfully using for the last few weeks (in v2.3).

To all who have participated in this conversation I want to report that I tested the issue (right-click in text frame when document floated to a second monitor) in Beta 2.4.0.2256 with success. No crash! Thank you to all those who contributed to this fix.
By the way, just a reminder: An easy workaround is to keep the documents in the UI and float the control panels to the secondary monitor. This workflow I have been successfully using for the last few weeks (in v2.3).

To all who have participated in this conversation I want to report that I tested the issue (right-click in text frame when document floated to a second monitor) in Beta 2.4.0.2256 with success. No crash! Thank you to all those who contributed to this fix.
By the way, just a reminder: An easy workaround is to keep the documents in the UI and float the control panels to the secondary monitor. This workflow I have been successfully using for the last few weeks (in v2.3).

I have been doing more testing and have discovered an environment that causes reproducible crashes. Tests were run in both 2.3.1 and 2.4 Beta with identical results. I tested with files created from long-standing templates of my own, current files not created from templates, and brand New files with Filler Text. The more recent tests were conducted after a reboot. My working environment is to have Publisher with a large number of open Panels displayed in my right-hand (physical) monitor, with the display and editing of my documents floated in my left-hand (physical) monitor.
Here are the results:
The right-click crash never occurred when documents were not floated to my left-hand monitor, but instead left inside the Publisher UI. The right-click crash usually, but not always occurred when the documents were floated in my left-hand monitor.

Just a quick follow-up to my last post. Using the 2.4 Beta I arranged the Publisher UI with an open document on my left-hand monitor, and all my control panels on my right-hand monitor. When I right-clicked on some text, the program did not crash. That is, by leaving the document in the UI, it did not crash.

Just a quick follow-up to my last post. Using the 2.4 Beta I arranged the Publisher UI with an open document on my left-hand monitor, and all my control panels on my right-hand monitor. When I right-clicked on some text, the program did not crash. That is, by leaving the document in the UI, it did not crash.

No problem at all, your kind feedback is certainly appreciated as we love to help our users and we take great pride in the service we provide 
That's wonderful news, I'm very glad to hear this!
I can also see that our development team seems to have identified the underlying cause of this issue and are currently working to have it resolved - hopefully in our next upcoming beta version.
The 'Serif Info Bot' will post in this thread automatically when our team have confirmed the issue is resolved, so once this occurs we'd appreciate if you are also able to test the fix in the new beta version that will be released, to confirm that the issue can no longer be replicated as it can in 2.3.1.
Hopefully this should also mean you're able to use the beta without experiencing this crash and can return to editing in Affinity uninterrupted!

Just a quick follow-up to my last post. Using the 2.4 Beta I arranged the Publisher UI with an open document on my left-hand monitor, and all my control panels on my right-hand monitor. When I right-clicked on some text, the program did not crash. That is, by leaving the document in the UI, it did not crash.

Thank you for all the helpful information. Frankly a lot of it was above my pay grade; difficult for me to understand--especially all the acronyms. But when I returned and reread (and looked up the meaning of the acronyms) I concluded you may be on to something. For my two monitors are not identical. The one on my right, displaying the Publisher program, is an older, slightly lower resolution monitor than the one on my left, to which I drag document windows. So I am going to dig into this possibility, following your suggestions, to see if it helps, and will report back. Thanks again for taking the time to help.

I have been doing more testing and have discovered an environment that causes reproducible crashes. Tests were run in both 2.3.1 and 2.4 Beta with identical results. I tested with files created from long-standing templates of my own, current files not created from templates, and brand New files with Filler Text. The more recent tests were conducted after a reboot. My working environment is to have Publisher with a large number of open Panels displayed in my right-hand (physical) monitor, with the display and editing of my documents floated in my left-hand (physical) monitor.
Here are the results:
The right-click crash never occurred when documents were not floated to my left-hand monitor, but instead left inside the Publisher UI. The right-click crash usually, but not always occurred when the documents were floated in my left-hand monitor.

Well, that didn't take long. Downloaded and installed the 2.4 Beta. Repeated the identical steps--with an identical result: Crash -> Disappear.
By the way, this was not an old file in which I had experienced the same problem. This was a new file created since we last corresponded. 
I next opened a brand New File in 2.4 (not from one of my templates) and filled a new frame with Filler Text, right-clicked--no problem: context menu displayed properly. So I am wondering if the root of this problem lies in my templates, some of which I have been using for years, but I have regularly made new versions as Publisher has updated/upgraded the program. Just in case there is something to be gleaned from them at your end, I am attaching both the end document, and the template from which it was created.
Reflect0885.afpub Reflections_2023-24_portrait_1 column_v2.2.aftemplate

Leigh,
I updated both of the drivers you recommended, as well as all that were recommended by the manufacturer (Dell). That was a day or two ago. I just now loaded Publisher 2.3.1, and opened a recent document. I changed from the Move Tool to the Frame Text Tool, clicked inside an existing paragraph, and right-clicked. The program froze, then a few seconds later disappeared. I just loaded Publisher again, and repeated the same steps. Crash.
I am now downloading the 2.4 Beta, and will report back later.

I have been doing more testing and have discovered an environment that causes reproducible crashes. Tests were run in both 2.3.1 and 2.4 Beta with identical results. I tested with files created from long-standing templates of my own, current files not created from templates, and brand New files with Filler Text. The more recent tests were conducted after a reboot. My working environment is to have Publisher with a large number of open Panels displayed in my right-hand (physical) monitor, with the display and editing of my documents floated in my left-hand (physical) monitor.
Here are the results:
The right-click crash never occurred when documents were not floated to my left-hand monitor, but instead left inside the Publisher UI. The right-click crash usually, but not always occurred when the documents were floated in my left-hand monitor.

Not at all. I appreciate the efforts to ferret out the cause of these problems.

Log.txt

Dan,
I didn't know if this would work, since I am now running the updated v2.2.1, but it did crash, as before. Always before Publisher would almost immediately disappear. This time, my clicking in Task Manager seemed to halt the process (locking up the program without making it disappear from memory), but once the second DMP file was written, it did disappear.
The attached ZIP file contains the two (rather large) DMP files.
Publisher-DMPs.zip

Thank you, Dan, for all the advice. I will begin working my way through it. I like the last best: returning to the EXE versions! I will keep you posted.

Much appreciated, Dan and v_kyr. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the future to always convert .PSD files before placing them.
Thank you for your help with this.

My wish is that Serif would spend more time on stabilizing their programs than on adding new bells and whistles. I know many customers request these additions to the feature set, but I am growing weary of your programs--specifically, in my workflow, Publisher and Photo, and especially since v2.2--crashing repeatedly. By crashing I mean instantaneously, without warning or explanation, removing themselves from memory--i.e., disappearing from the screen.
Back in the day, I never experienced this with Adobe products. They were rock-solid, in my experience.
If there is something about a file that is causing the program to crash, tell the user what it is, instead of just disappearing! It's called "error management." I shouldn't have to come to the forums, describe my steps in detail, submit sample files, then hear back at a later date. The code should trip an error message that would give me a clue as to what is going on beneath the surface.
Please!

As I have said, I am able to get my work done with this situation, but it is reassuring to know that it is, apparently, a real situation, and not unique to me. Thanks for confirming this, Dan.

Using the test file I sent you...
Open file Without touching anything in the file, and with the Move Tool selected, Footnotes shows the appropriate styles, as in Clip 1 below. Click on Sidenotes tab, and appropriate styles are displayed, as in Clip2 below. Switch to Frame Text Tool (Style names remain in list). Click anywhere in a paragraph and Notes dialogue becomes inactive, but Style names remain in list. Could not make the style list disappear. Duplicated steps 1-6 in the original file, plus...
added a couple of Footnotes, and a Sidenote. deleted some text switched to a different open file window, then returned to this file Could not get the style names to disappear! I have no rational explanation why before they seemed to disappear at the drop of a hat, and now I cannot make it happen. If it happens again, I will try to recreate the offending step. Just in case it might be helpful later, I am attaching the original file (although some of the links will be broken).
Meanwhile thank you for your time and effort on this.


Last-Things.afpub

Using the test file I sent you...
Open file Without touching anything in the file, and with the Move Tool selected, Footnotes shows the appropriate styles, as in Clip 1 below. Click on Sidenotes tab, and appropriate styles are displayed, as in Clip2 below. Switch to Frame Text Tool (Style names remain in list). Click anywhere in a paragraph and Notes dialogue becomes inactive, but Style names remain in list. Could not make the style list disappear. Duplicated steps 1-6 in the original file, plus...
added a couple of Footnotes, and a Sidenote. deleted some text switched to a different open file window, then returned to this file Could not get the style names to disappear! I have no rational explanation why before they seemed to disappear at the drop of a hat, and now I cannot make it happen. If it happens again, I will try to recreate the offending step. Just in case it might be helpful later, I am attaching the original file (although some of the links will be broken).
Meanwhile thank you for your time and effort on this.


Last-Things.afpub

I come at this discussion from probably a different perspective than most. I had to stick with Adobe CS2 (a suite given to me by a grateful subscriber) for many years because Adobe's prices had become astronomical and their later subscription program an absurdity--at least for me. I am neither a rank amateur nor a professional, but an experienced writer who has published his own work (more often than not in PDF form) for better than thirty years. With the advent of such programs as PageMaker, and then the early InDesign, I launched into full-fledged page layout. Beyond that, all my work is offered free-of-charge at my web site as a Christian ministry, so to one day discover the Affinity programs--quality programs for a far more reasonable price--I was overjoyed. I am most grateful for their "price point" and their fine software.

I never found Adobe products reliable.  They crashed all the time, and I lost data.  I once lost almost an entire project -- even though it had previously been backed up multiple times; when Illustrator crashed, it somehow lost all the backups, too, and I had to start over.  To some extent, that's just the nature of working with computers, and I would personally rather not pay not-small, and ever-increasing monthly fees for the same lack of reliability.

Also, there's "professional" and there's "professional." If your entire profession is "graphic artist," then you might get a good ROI out of a much (much!) pricier program with fuller features.  But plenty of us use software like this for professional purposes that comprise a part of our business, and don't find the difference in capabilities to be worth the vast difference in price.  Not every piece of software is going to be the right fit for every user, and that's okay.  But I've never been disappointed overall in the quality of a Serif product.

I come at this discussion from probably a different perspective than most. I had to stick with Adobe CS2 (a suite given to me by a grateful subscriber) for many years because Adobe's prices had become astronomical and their later subscription program an absurdity--at least for me. I am neither a rank amateur nor a professional, but an experienced writer who has published his own work (more often than not in PDF form) for better than thirty years. With the advent of such programs as PageMaker, and then the early InDesign, I launched into full-fledged page layout. Beyond that, all my work is offered free-of-charge at my web site as a Christian ministry, so to one day discover the Affinity programs--quality programs for a far more reasonable price--I was overjoyed. I am most grateful for their "price point" and their fine software.

I come at this discussion from probably a different perspective than most. I had to stick with Adobe CS2 (a suite given to me by a grateful subscriber) for many years because Adobe's prices had become astronomical and their later subscription program an absurdity--at least for me. I am neither a rank amateur nor a professional, but an experienced writer who has published his own work (more often than not in PDF form) for better than thirty years. With the advent of such programs as PageMaker, and then the early InDesign, I launched into full-fledged page layout. Beyond that, all my work is offered free-of-charge at my web site as a Christian ministry, so to one day discover the Affinity programs--quality programs for a far more reasonable price--I was overjoyed. I am most grateful for their "price point" and their fine software.