Meanderling

@thomaso Yep, that's pretty much what I did in the end It didn't click at first, because I testing separate styles & TOCs, so didn't have the autoflow option available, but after some reformatting, I think it's the best workaround. Thanks to both of you for your input!

Hi @Old Bruce, I don't need page numbers, so that's not an issue. Manually replacing the Returns doesn't change how the text flows, it will still flow top to bottom, then across. Also, any manual changes you make to the TOC will be lost each time it's updated. Actually, I just figured out a slightly better solution than to create individual TOCs, and that's to use the AutoFlow feature and just drag/draw the next text row in. That's a win in my book, but being able to control the text flow in columns would be pretty handy (who knows, maybe a future update?).

In answer to your questions, the image below is essentially what I'm trying to achieve: The return at the end of the TOC entry would ideally cause the switch to the right column. The Columns option is not an option within TOC specifically, it's from the options menu applied to the text frame that holds the TOC - the below shows the menu item when the text frame is selected: An option to change the text flow within columns, as is possible with the Data Merge Tool (see top image), would be ideal. I've tried to force the behaviour by manually adding different breaks from the Special Characters menu, to both the source text and within the TOC itself, but to no avail. As far as I can tell, the only way to achieve my desired result is to add each row as a separate TOC - not the end of the world, but as there are so many options in AP, I wondered if I simply missed it... With regard to using the Data Merge Tool "without fusing the data import or generating a data merged document" - I doubt it's something that could be used here, but as I haven't come across this functionality before, I thought it might be worth looking into, mainly for reference sake. If I can't achieve something, I do tend to do fairly extensive research to find an answer, but in this case, I don't think there is a simple solution (other than what I've mentioned). Thanks for stepping in and trying to help though.

Hi @thomaso Thanks for your reply. Sorry, but I'm not sure I understand your question: I was actually wanting to use the text flow in a TOC, so that it flows across and then down (as in the left image). Obviously, as it's a TOC, it's limited as to what adjustments you can make, but as columns is an option, I wondered if I was perhaps missing a setting somewhere. Your comment (below) was interesting - I didn't know you could use the Data Merge Tool without actually data merging. That might be something I could look into? Can you link to any further articles or threads on it? It might not work for a TOC, but it might prove useful for something else

Hi all, I'm just wondering if there's a way to choose how text flows into columns? Something like the Data Merge Layout Tool, where you can select the Layout Order: OR The closest I've found is to use the 'Balance text in columns' option, but that gives questionable results sometimes (eg putting the last letter of a word into the next column, rather than putting the whole word into that column, which would actually make the columns balanced). Other than that, I haven't found a way to do it, does anyone know if there's another way? Many thanks!

It's doing it again... So, after a bit more investigation, I think I've figured out what's going on (assuming that's been the case all along?). The layer(s) in question have moved from the visible artboard into no-mans land, which is why they're not visible when I make changes. How they got moved or when, I don't know, as it's not something I did (I had to zoom quite far out to find them). I've also just noticed that when I hover over the symbol in the layers panel, it does briefly show a popup saying, "Unlinked Attributes: Transform/Constraints" - it's pretty quick, so I didn't notice before. However, it's worth noting that all layers within each symbol instance show a solid orange line, indicating that all layers are indeed sync'd. If I delete the symbols from the 2 artboards that aren't showing the 'missing' layer and drag a new instance from the symbols panel to the now empty artboards, the 'rogue' layer is still out in no-mans land (on both new instances), despite being able to see the exact same layer on artboard #3. This suggests that it's this layer that has become unsync'd... However, if I delete the object in no-mans land, the object that's visible in artboard #3 is also deleted, confirming that this object is sync'd, as the solid orange bar indicates. If I delete all symbols from all artboards and drag a fresh instance of the symbol from the symbols panel, all new instances show the popup, "Unlinked Attributes: Transform/Constraints". Now that I've found the 'missing' layers, most of the behaviour makes sense and is correct (more or less). I'll even concede that the/a layer (or indeed, an entire group of layers) may have inadvertently become unsync'd and got moved (although it seems unlikely). However, there's no dashed orange line in the layers panel to indicate this (if I deliberately unsync things, the dashed line shows up, so the functionality is working). I also don't understand how a fresh instance (from the symbols panel) can be unsync'd from the off - is this a bug or am I missing something? I've attached a trimmed down file, as @walt.farrell suggested. If this is deemed a bug, I'll move this topic, or perhaps admin can do that?? Symbol_Test.afdesign

@walt.farrell Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. I'm not sure screenshots would help, as it's not possible to show the expanded layers for more than 1 artboard at a time (not on my screen anyway). All it would really show is that the active layers are within a symbol and that none of the links are broken. As for sharing, it's actually client work and therefore not really suitable for sharing - I thought about re-jigging it for that purpose, but then I stumbled upon the 'cut & paste' hack I mentioned, so rather than lose any more time, I figured I'd better make the most of it... while it lasts. If the issue comes back, I'll do what I can to make it shareable and super obvious in a screencast, as that would probably be the best way to show the issue. Thanks again.

@Lee D Thanks for letting me know - it didn't show up before or when I opened Publisher & Photo, so I thought it best to mention it, in case it was related to the issue.

Hi all, I'm using symbols to see what a design will look like within different mockups. I have 1 artboard for the main design/symbol and have used an instance of that symbol on separate artboards; 1 showing it in a desktop view, the other showing the instance within a mobile view - the symbols have never been unsync'd. The design isn't that complicated and the file size is around 40MB. While designing, I'm trying out different coloured overlays, painted with a textured brush on a pixel layer. I have 2 groups containing the coloured pixel layers, occasionally one or other of the groups will stop showing any of the coloured overlays on any of the symbols. Alternatively, it'll show the overlay(s) on only 1 of the 3 symbols and not necessarily the instance I'm actually working on. Likewise, if I put the paintbrush over a symbol in an active artboard, the preview may or may not show and if it does, it may not show on the active artboard. All the layers are still visible in the panel and within all instances, I can even see that they contain colour, it's just not showing on the artboards - restart, reboot, copying & pasting the layers within the same file or pasting them into a new file doesn't bring the colour back. However, I've just discovered that if I cut the pixel layers and paste them outside their original group, the colour is visible again. Even if I regroup them, the colour remains - although I'm not sure how long that will last... Occasionally the file size bloats by 10-20MB for no apparent reason, but that doesn't necessarily accompany the above behaviour. Thinking that perhaps the file had become corrupted, I recreated it, but eventually I get the same behaviour. Very odd... Wondering if anyone's experienced similar or has any idea what might be causing the problem?? Many thanks in advance!

Excellent point! Because it had 'hung', bloated the file and lost visibility of layers within symbols, I assumed it had crashed and corrupted the file in someway - seeing crashpad_handler seemed to support my suspicion, but if you think that's not the case, I'll shuffle along and see what else I can rustle up Thanks for stepping in!

@walt.farrell thanks for confirming - I don't recall seeing it before, but then I probably wasn't looking for it... Still, there's the issue with the missing layers and nothing in ...\User\.affinity\Designer\2.0\CrashReports\reports. I have no idea what the problem is - any recommendations?

Hi all, I'm getting the above showing up constantly in Windows Task Manager for Designer, and crashpad_handler.exe showing up for Photo & Publisher (v2), this happens on opening and even without having any files open. I've no idea how to get rid of this or if it's OK to ignore - can anyone help? I've mostly been working in Designer recently, which seems to be fine for the most part and although it's been hanging on occasion, it resumes after a few seconds with no error messages and no shutdown. The other thing it's been doing (even without hanging beforehand), is that it'll suddenly stop showing overlays within instances of a symbol, ie the overlay (which is just a coloured pixel layer over an image) will show on one symbol, but disappears from the 2 other instances of the same symbol on different artboards. I can see the layers if I click into the instance, I can even see that they have colour, but the layer(s) isn't showing on the artboard. At first I thought maybe the file had become corrupt, as it's file size increased from around 40MB to 59MB for no reason, so I recreated it from scratch, but it's happening on this version too. There's nothing particularly complex going on in the file and no extreme memory or CPU usage showing in Task Manager, but clearly something is amiss... [ I'm on Windows 10, Intel i7, 16GB Ram & plenty of available space - it's old but I've never had any issues with Affinity v1 or v2 until now ] I have searched the forum for crashpad_handler, but haven't found anything that seems to relate to my situation. I've also tried 'Repair' in the Apps Advanced Options, and before I try reinstalling (or anything else), I thought I'd see if anyone has any suggestions or experienced anything similar. Many thanks in advance!

Aww shame, I've been marvelling at how teeny-tiny the file sizes are Does 'Save History' record everything that's going on, including anything in the background or is it just saving user actions? If it's the latter, then it probably won't help, as the result would have taken a few steps to do manually and I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done it by accident. I tend to have a lot of things open on my PC, so keeping file sizes small is a good thing. However, as mentioned, AF has crashed/closed inexplicably a few times recently, so if you think 'Save History' will yield some tech info, I'm happy to do it. Thanks for looking into it for me!

Hi @NathanC, Thanks for replying! I've uploaded the files as requested - I'm not sure if the 'date modified' info will remain intact, but if it doesn't FYI, version _03.1 was saved at 00:49 and _04_X was saved at 00:50, so virtually identical (I added _X to the file name itself (without resaving) when I realised it was kaput). After that, I tweaked version _03.1 and saved it as a new version 4, on reopening it today, everything seems to be intact and as it should be. I wondered if I might have done something by mistake (it's possible!), but I don't think there's an easy to do what it did. For instance, if I'd somehow selected all the pages and replaced the existing master(s), that would account for most of what happened. However, pages 18-25 still have headings (but none of the other data that was on the page), but now they appear as text frames, rather pulled in from master, as per the original file. Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks again!! L

Hi All, Just wondering if anyone's experienced this or knows what might have caused it... I have a Publisher file with several master pages, which have been applied throughout the 100+ pages of the document. Everything was looking fine, I double checked the document and saved it as a new version because it was finished. However, today when I opened the new version, it's removed all of the master pages from the document and applied just 1 master page throughout. All masters seem to be intact, but are no longer applied to any of the pages. It definitely wasn't like that when I saved it. Luckily I have a version I'd saved a few minutes earlier, so no major damage (assuming I can remember what I'd done between versions), but so not helpful I wondered if the problem occurred because I'd applied master pages to master pages, but doing that has been mentioned elsewhere in the forum and nobody seemed to flag it as 'disallowed'. BTW Publisher has crashed or instantly closed a few times recently (for no apparent reason), but nothing like that on this occasion. None of the files look bloated, but the 'latest' version (without the master) is not surprisingly smaller than it's predecessor. Does anyone have any ideas what's going on? I definitely don't want that happening again, so any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks!!

Nearly 2yrs on from this original post, I'm suddenly getting the same behaviour in Designer (black background in text frame for no apparent reason). Thankfully @walt.farrell's fix still works - thanks Walt! I thought I'd resurrect this thread in case anyone else experiences this - perhaps the bug they fixed in 1.9 is back? FWIW - I'm using the latest version of Affinity Designer (1.10.5) on Windows 10 The file was created exclusively in Designer No text has been pasted in from anywhere Previous text frames within the document are fine and continue to appear correctly if copied & pasted within the document (only new text frames have the issue) The behaviour happens on text and artistic text frames The issue persists if Designer is closed/reopened and following a system shutdown The issue doesn't occur in new files or existing files, but appears to have started in a previous version of this particular file I don't recall any crashes or issues and haven't added a background to the text at any point (the background fill shows it has no fill) This doesn't appear to be a huge deal, as there are work-arounds, but like others, I have no idea how or why it started...

UPDATE: I deleted all pages from the document, except for the main page, with it's 1 x data source I deleted all data sources, except the one in use I deleted all master pages except for the main one I moved the tabs data from within it's own data merge layout and placed it within the existing layouts for their respective pages Preview looked fine OUTPUT => Skipped every other day, instead of every 2 days as it did before... NEXT... Deleted the remaining data source Re-started Publisher Reconnected the data source Reconnected all the fields individually OUTPUT => Exactly the same as above NEXT... I created a brand new document Connected the data source & fields Preview looked fine OUTPUT => Perfect! No problems whatsoever! Woohoo! I guess the file was corrupted or at the very least, deeply disturbed... It's so much more fun when it works as expected! 😁

Thanks so much for responding! That post took ages to write so that it made sense "only one CSV or XLSX file per Merge operation" - do you know if that's specified anywhere, I couldn't find anything that specific? Interestingly, I've got 3 data sources working perfectly in that document (including the 2 you highlighted). The only problem I've had with it, is with the tabs, which is using the same data source as other elements on the page. If anything, I'd have thought one of the other feeds would break. I might try creating just that spread, ie only 1 data source, just to see what happens... Anyway, thanks for your response, it's much appreciated!

I'm relatively new to Affinity and loving Publisher data merge! I think I'm reasonably competent with it, but this has got me stumped... Hopefully someone can shed some light, as it's been driving me nuts all week So, to bring you up to speed... It's a planner/diary, which consists of the following: A year to view 2022, merging from data source 1 onto page 2 A year to view 2023, merging from data source 2 onto page 3 A 2022 month to view Master page is applied to pages 4 & 5 - this merges with a new instance (within Data Source Manager) of data source 1 A day per page Master is applied to pages 6 & 7 - this uses a new data source, which contains fields for all the data you'd expect on such a page Everything above works brilliantly, merges beautifully and makes me insanely happy (oh the power, the ultimate power mwahahahaha!). Now, I want to add some tabs along the right edge of each double page spread. Sounds simple, but no! That's when it all goes a bit mental... Finally I got the tabs to work as required - but on a separate page (not page 7, where they're supposed to be). There were several issues and much weirdness along the way, so to cut a long story, short(ish)... Everything previews perfectly, whether the tabs are in situ on page 7, on their own page or not in the document at all. However, the generated output is only correct when the tabs are either removed or on a separate page. When they're merged on the same page, ie page 7, the output skips every 3rd day... What have I tried? Given all the 'weirdness', I've tried a lot - here's a brief recap: Due to the table behaving strangely, I've stripped the tabs back to the bare minimum (plain text in a table (no text formatting), 1 column, 6 rows) Due to crashes (turning a 70-80KB file into a 500-560KB file) I've 'recovered' and 'saved as' a new file several times. I've also recreated the file from scratch several times and rebooted my Windows 10 PC several times Having discovered (via this forum), that you can only merge with one data source per page (good to know!), I've moved the tabs info from its own data source to 'data source 1' None of the existing fields in 'data source 1' have been reused for the tabs and all field names are unique I've tried adding the tabs via a Master page and by placing the assets directly on page 7 I've tried merging the tabs data from the same data source instance (in Data Merge Manager) that's used for the rest of page 6 & 7, ie 'data source 1' I've also tried merging the tabs from it's own instance of 'data source 1' in Data Merge Manager I've checked, deleted and reconnect the data source (.csv) several times The pattern is so distinct, I can't help but think I'm missing something, but I have no idea what?? I should point out (in case it's relevant) I did try applying a Master to the odd pages only, but that didn't help and as mentioned, I get the same result Master or no Master. Likewise, I tried including the same merge fields on page 6 (data source fields are empty), so that both pages were identical, but that didn't make any difference. I could apply the tabs after the initial output, but I'm sure it can be done and I do love dynamic text (less chance of errors). Does anyone have any ideas or is what I'm trying to do not possible?? Many thanks!!!

Hi, Just wanted to add to this thread, in the hope that it saves someone some head scratching and lets the dev team know more about this particular bug... I'm getting the same as everyone else, thankfully the group/ungroup trick works like a charm. However, not if you're using an Artboard - the contour doesn't show up at all, even the group/ungroup trick doesn't work. The only work around I've found, is to create your art in another file and paste it to where it's needed. UPDATE: The Artboard issue mentioned above, may have been an anomaly..? I've just tested it using Artboards in a brand new file and it seems to work as per the rest of the thread. Maybe my file was corrupt somehow, but I thought it worth posting, in case someone finds it helpful.