Australopithicus

Special Note for Old Bruce: As a long experienced typographer, you will hopefully remember the name of the publication used by English typesetters and proofreaders as a THE style manual. Author was Horace someone or other I think. We still need that resource in my opinion. I find the Aus Govt Style Manual OK in general but the more revisions that are made the greater the use of US English style. I have adopted the Guardian and Observer style Guide if only it is more easily navigated than its Aus counterpart.

Boy! - that’s a useful debate. I very much appreciate your explanation and approach Old Bruce. I too started with hand-set monotype as a student designer, not a typesetter. First choose your font, then determine your set width! (Hence character style before para style). The College embraced the printing trades and typesetting in those days. I will never forget the steamy, heavy atmosphere in the College basement where slugs of lead were suspended from the ceiling on chains and were continually lowered into the melting pot reservoir to feed the Linotype machines. Minimal health and safety there mate - safety depended on the discipline of correct procedure! On my part all this Para/Character confusion was created by the import of a Word setting over which I had no control. Once imported it established the NoStyle settings and my settings clearly did not completely override the import. Of course I can see the imported settings by clicking on NoStyle, but many space instructions in the imported file are invisible. Having failed to fix the setting via the hierarchy of Styles, rather than try to fathom the interaction between Para/Character/NoStyle, I figured substitute my settings on NoStyle to get rid of the imported specs. This has worked and I can now recognise the value of the contributions you folks have made above. I can confidently create new styles free of the glitches previously encountered. The essence of my misconception was that a Para Style replaced a pre-existing para style. In fact it builds upon the pre-existing para style. My tinkering made the instructions more complex and the APub spat the dummy! Changing the pre-existing NoStyle solved the problem. Heaven knows what APub had imported from the Word document. Probably a ham sandwich or a Wimpyburger! To answer Old Bruce: Chapter, Chapter Head and New Caption were created to function as per Style description. Chapter was a default listing which I ignored, Chapter Head - my spec and New Caption, a standard caption format. I decided to create an individual text box for Chapter Head and apply a style to it so it would be immune from general story text flow. Same for New Caption. I would approach a table the same way and have in fact created a 3 column grid setting independent from the standard text box, with the story re-linked around it. This enables the story to flow around Chapter heads and tables as correction/revisions are made and I am free to relocate Chapters and table as suits circumstance. Footnote: A great virtue of the US market is the availability of independently published manuals in which intelligent experience such as the above is discussed, compared and evaluated. The Real World Kvern, Blatner, Bringhurst book about InDesign CS5 is a brilliant synthesis of the distilled experience of these three eminent typographer/designers. It remains essential reading despite its age. I cannot find an equivalent publication which discusses APub and I believe such a book is definitely needed. Serif have done a good job with Online Help and also providing step by step procedures in video. However, it is all step by step instruction. Many functions deserve discussion as the Styles topic above illustrates. These DTP applications are capable of supporting a variety of workflows but some are definitely better than others. I like Old Bruces approach as it underscores what I have learned from my errors. I appreciate comments from Thomaso, Mike W and all contributors; but where is the book or online manual to help us understand ? Perhaps we have a publishing collaboration opportunity here Gentlemen? I thank you all for your valuable input! Cheers,

Thank You Gentleman, I have seen the Light! Since the problem was created by style overides, and in an attempt to get back to basics, I have made ‘No Style’ the basis of Para and Font. This converts Arial para’s to Zapf and I now seem to have control over setting. In Character> Positioning and Transform, I found the leading indicator at bottom left (Just above ‘No Break), set for 12pt Arial leading which conflicted with my 12.75pt Paragraph setting. That explained the unexpected Para behaviour in large part. Converting ‘No Style’ to required settings was the sensible way to eliminate Arial. I thought creating a Zapf Style would replace the Arial, which it does only as long as the style is highlighted. Why font size changed I cannot explain. Being somewhat unfamiliar with the interface I was being caught out by the above conflict. There was no need to keep Arial so I got rid of my problems by deleting and replacing specs. Thank you very much Guys for your patience. The obvious is not so when a particular thought pattern dominates. Cheers.

Ok Guys, Have deleted old Para and Character Styles and rebuilt Styles. All is not well as the complete book has reverted to the first imported Word document default which is Arial 12pt. I expected complete setting would revert to the style I specified in my pallet. In fact as the screen shot below shows; only those para’s I have clicked and highlighted are changed. I clicked and dragged all pages in the master page section to highlight all text. Nevertheless Style changes have not taken place throughout book. What am I overlooking?

I certainly would Walt, but a few words from you may save much messing about at my end! I have yet to solve the problem. Taking your comment about page frames. I shall delete existing frames and re-create and relink. If that does not work I shall join a Monastery

Thank you for your thoughts tudor. Barking up the wrong tree unfortunately. Text is 10.5pt leading 12.75pt offer no common denominator in these sizes to qualify as a multiple. Leading is already set to ‘exactly’. Thank you for your interest Catshill. I agree. Starting a fresh import with a .rtf file is a good idea. I would like to save or convert the APub file to .rtf and start again, but the option to convert APub as .rtf is not available. Some respondents have already advised I use a file converter such as BBedit. BBEdit cannot read APub nor can it read .pdf. If someone can recommend a file converter they have used to convert APub to text file I would like to know about it. Personally I think the answer is buried in the Paragraph/Styles subcategories. If I were to delete all default Para Styles and reconfigure, would that delete text and require me to re-import original Word file? Meanwhile, how did you get on with the file I supplied Walt? Did you have time to experiment? I thank all respondents for offering their thoughts on this problem. Best Wishes,

Dear Walt, Thank you for taking an interest in this issue. I read and understood your comments. Re Text Box: I have never used scaling handle. Original file Word, not IDML. Word was imported and text frames set up automatically. No need for me to tinker. I have cut and reconnected text frames on pages 200 and 204 quite successfully so I feel confident that frames are not to blame. That said, you have more experience than me. How does the scaling handle actually create text flow problems? The fact that extending the depth of Left page 98 text frame to include both paragraphs (L&R), which I have then corrected, then found the para’s revert to error after restoring the text frame to original size on respective left p98 and right p99 as shown, implies text frame is a factor? This issue has manifested elsewhere but I have somehow solved it. Sequence of change: leading first, then font size has proved good in other cases. If I follow that principle in this case I achieve same size font with both para’s but p90 text expands to 13.593 leading or similar. So I can achieve consistent type size but not consistent leading. I have enclosed my file if you can find the time to examine pages 98 and 99 I would be interested in your findings. John Biography Final 27:8.pdf

Dear AP users. I cannot understand the behaviour I am observing regarding text size and leading defaulting to odd sizes not of my creating. As I correct text size in one para on left page, to required 10.5pt, it alters leading in the following right page para from 12.75 to 13.593pt. If I select the 13.593pt RH para and make leading the required 12.75, the previously corrected type size and para reverts to smaller type size 9.849pt and leading 11.959pt. Why the change in page number (L to R) changes font and leading beats me. One solution I tried was to extend the depth of the left page type box to include both para’s and re-set text size and leading as one block. When the text box is restored to its original depth pushing the RH para to its correct RH page, the leading returns to 13.593. If I restore RH leading to 12.75, left page leading and font size return to 9.849 and 11.959. I understand enough about the styles system to recognise the cause may be the original imported file being Word set in 12pt Times New Roman with leading and para spacing defaults which I cannot identify as I do not have Word. I also recognise my chosen font and style are based upon the imported file. I would like to eliminate specs of imported file if possible and specify clean Text and Para styles palette so there is only one style; not one style based on another. How should I correctly do this without losing my text?. Advice would be appreciated. Screen shot A shows text 9.489 highlighted for change to 10.5pt. Screen shot B shows RH para leading expanded to 13.593 as a result of Left Page font size increase.

Thanks Tudor. Actually I find the whole process very simple using cut and paste. I tried editors many of which favoured HTML code formatting and finally found Text Edit in mac accepted pasting text from Affinity cut and paste. The next logical step was to simply create a new Affinity file then cut and paste from old file into new file. Funny how reliance on apps tends to blind one to the obvious! Thank you to all respondents, Cheers all.

Sounds interesting. I was using Import and Export procedures, I had not considered drag and drop/copy and paste. Which text editor did you use Tudor?

Dear Serif, I find myself facing a situation where a series of client changes and updated requirements to an already designed a4 book, suggest I would be better off starting the 256 page book again from the beginning rather than fixing existing pages one at a time manually. I cannot work from original Word doc as far too many text changes have been made to the Apub file. I must work with text in the Apub file. However, once text is specified in Apub it can only be imported into another Apub doc in its final saved design format. I wish to strip out those format specs. column and border sizes and hard line returns, and finish up with text that I can re-import into a new Apub doc with new column specs, letting text flow throughout document as normal with imported text. If I could save the original Apub doc in .rtf that would possibly solve the problem but .rtf is not offered as an Apub file format. My only choice currently, is to duplicate my Apub file and manually revise each one of 256 pages. This is a huge time waster. I ask you to consider introducing a file format which is text only, so any Apub doc text can be reused easily in a different format in any new Apub document. This would add immense flexibility to Apub. The same text only setting could be easily imported in to each of several entirely different formatted documents. A huge saving of time and a great convenience.

Research establishes Serif have not provided access to any third party application developer to create a text file converter. Mater misericordiae!

Hi Garry, The option you offer is the one I seek to avoid. I have 256 pages and I figure there must be a better way than page by page adjustment. Maybe there is third party software that will convert. I shall search. Meanwhile anyone who has a better option gets my vote for Genius of the Month. Cheers,

Thank you for your interest Garry. Q1. I am changing type measure (column width, height and margins). I am changing type leading but retaining font size. My concern is all about getting the text into a file format that will flow into a new APub type area. Q2. I include hard returns for text lines as they will probably obstruct text flowing into a new format and deleteing hard return globally prior to import seems to me a wise step. I am making the changes to improve layout design. I cannot import original Word Doc as too many text changes have been made to the APub file. I trust this helps. Cheers,

Have completed an AF document A, and wish to re-create same text document with new specs for margins, type etc. called B. I seek advice on how best to do this. Importing the A afpub file into new AF doc over-rides new doc settings - type does not re-flow, old settings are preserved. I cannot save old file as a text only document. That would solve the issue as such text when imported would re-flow. That option is not available in the AF export options. So how does one best reflow text to new specs? I would also like to globally delete the old doc A, Para hard returns. How is this done?