Jim Monson

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words.

Thanks for the dog update. You are absolutely right. If you want a (loyal) friend, get a dog!

The blue box just appeared again. The context of this was as follows: 1. I had two different AD docs in separate Spaces and no blue box. One filled one screen in one Space and the other did not fill the other Space. 2. In trying to position of the one that did not fill the screen(although I try not to position it right in the top left corner of its screen) it jumped over into the full screen Space and became attached to that AD doc (= two tabs, one for each doc). This jumping into the other Space is of course a Mac problem and not AD. 3. In expanding the non-full screen doc, the blue box appears covering the screen area that the non-full screen doc had before occupied but leaving the resized doc as I had sized it. 4. Usually clicking around on the screen does not eliminate the blue area, but this time it did. If this again happens I'll let you know. The above is simply an update as of today. The problem appears to be in the above sequence. I'm not sure if it is connected to AD, or to Apple, or to a combo of the two.

That's what I thought it might be, Stokerg. I was working on High Sierra where it occurred in Affinity but then upgraded to Mojave where it continued. It does not happen often, but when I does I simply close Affinity and bring it up again. It does not happen outside of Affinity, but it is always when going from Space to Space. The size of this "shadow" box is the same the Space from which I switched. No way I have found to delete it, and perhaps were I to find a way to do that, I'd delete or close what I had in the previous Space. No big problem and I'll try to document it ... but as usual, since I wrote it has not happened again. Guess that's one way of "fixing" it.

Agreed. I've tried every combo I can think of and cannot get the linkage needed for the text flow so am using my template made one time ... but no complaint. Affinity has helped me more than I could ever wish.

Thanks so much to both of you and your kind patience! As I have found in the past, the Affinity staff knew what we users needed and made it happen ... even if I don't experiment long enough to find the solution they already created. I had searched for such a link but could not find it. Thanks for including it. BTW, that is a beautiful collie you have. Long ago my family raised many litters of collie pups. Nothing like pups and a kid on a farm....

As I work with AffPub docs on my iMac I often have each of two docs on a different Space. In only have three spaces active, one for general things and the other two for separate AffPub docs. This allows me through a keyboard shortcut (CNTL plus a cursor key) quickly to shift from one Space to another. I know I could have them both on the same page and AffPub window and go back and forth from one tab to another, but I find it much easier to switch Spaces. After awhile a blue shadow screen (attached below) appears over an AffPub doc or alone on the Space after deleting the doc on that Space, but it follows me as I switch from Space to Space, appearing over the other AffPub doc on the other Space. I cannot get rid of it unless I quit AffPub and bring up the program again. This does not happen with any other program I use. I'm thinking it has something to do with RAM management for AffPub, but that is only a guess. Does anyone else have this issue? PS: In the attachment below my screen is dark grey and the blue/grey part of the screen is the box I'm talking about.

Thanks, Walt. I'm just getting back to the forum. I want the linked blank empty text boxes in order to drop a very long text into and not go through the process of linking each one. I have many times done what you suggest (creating a master of linked facing pages and adding many of these to my doc), but then I must link each of these facing pages to each other since linking one does not link them all, nor should it. Perhaps the designers of APub already thought of this and make it possible but I have not found that as yet. It is not a huge problem, but for one who has a very long text to paste into APub, it would be nice to have a quick way (perhaps via an option in the Section) to have the added pages from my master page automatically link to either the page above or below. Not to worry. I'm beyond this with a template that I created that has what I need. Your comments are much appreciated!

Thanks, Walt. I know that one cannot link master pages.What I meant to ask is how to create a doc or section of multiple pages (say 50) in which all of the frame text boxes on the master page are linked together, from top to bottom. My work around is to make a master page with facing pages and the link them on the master page. I then add a facing page in my doc from master page. I then duplicate that doc page a number of times and link all of the text boxes in the doc. Then I copy those pages (with linked text boxes right through, from 1 to the last page), duplicate that and link my first block of text pages with my duplicated one. Sound strange but it works. My question/request is that rather than going through this process I wish I could have the option (perhaps in the Section panel) that would automatically link all text boxes in a particular section. This I couild bring over my text from my old InDesign doc and simply drop it in. For now I am making a template as per above. I hope this cleared it up for you.

... but is there any way to link the pairs of linked master pages to the next pair of linked master page created in the doc, short of manually doing this linking between each pair, and creating an empty doc of totally linked pages and saving that as a template? Of course, one could make multiple linked pages in the doc and then keep duplicating, linking and adding the linked pages to reach any number of linked pages. This is what I have done, but I wish there were an option in the Section panel that would allow linking all new pages in that section.

I thought it might be because my top layers had items from both sides of my two-page spread so I made separate top layers for the left page and for the right page and moved the items appropriately. The problem, however, persisted it appears that this is not the solution.

Thanks for your offer, Callum. I have attached a small part of the somewhat larger doc on which I'm working. The only way it differs from my doc is that I replaced texts with "Lorem...." If you follow what I have explained just above, no doubt you will get the same results as I have. The clincher for me is that when I copied the contents of the pages 2/3 spread and pasted them into the pages 4/5 spread I lost all the top layers and only the text boxes remain in the Layers panel. You can see that on pages 4/5 one can select any text box by clicking it on the screen. Note that EVENT HEAD layer only has one item in it, and that layer interestingly copied into pages 4/5. On pages 2/3 one must select the text box via the Layers panel. Only when selecting a top layer in the Layers panel do the text boxes under that layer become available to select on screen. BTW, realize that what I call a top layer is actually just a layer with items within it, but I used the term top layer here to make things clearer. I have written elsewhere that Affinity's decision to allow what I call items to appear in the Layers panel without being in a layer is very helpful. I hope it remains that way. I mention this because Introducing an actual layer into the Layer panel appears to cause the problem on pages 2/3. Sorry to be so verbose but Affinity wants a full description of any problem or bug. Trial for Affinity-190819.afpub

I just found somethings that I believe confirms the above. 1. After I click a top layer with only one item in it (as "Event Head" on one of my double page spreads) OR after quitting AffPub and bringing it up again without selecting anything, it is possible to select any item by clicking it on screen. Once I have done this, all of the items under that top layer can be selected on screen ... but I can no longer select any item under any other top layer until I select that top layer in the Layers panel. Once a new top layer is selected, all of the items below that layer can be individually selected by clicking them on screen. Obviously, the problem I am having is related to this. This also explains why when AffPub is brought up afresh I was able to select any item on screen. 2. I have also copied all of the items on a spread (with top layers and items such as above) and pasted them into a completely new double page spread. All of the items appeared on screen and in the Layers panel, but none of the top layers. I was able to select any item on the spread by clicking it on screen. This confirms that having top layers restricts on screen selection to 1) directly via the item in the Layers, or 2) selecting the relevant top layer in the Layers panel and thereby making it possible to on screen select all of the items under that top layer. Again, I would like to know if this is the way AffPub is supposed to work. If not, I suggest that you add this to the AffPub bug list. Thanks!

I have an idea that this may have become a problem after I put my AffPub work into top layers but cannot be sure. I'm attaching a snap of my layer panel in case that helps to isolate the problem. The reason I suspect this is that when I use CMD 'a' (select all on the Mac), the only items selected are in the top layer in which I last worked. If I click on a top layer then I can click on any individual item in that top layer and it is selected. However, items under the other top layers cannot be selected until I select that top layer. Perhaps it is supposed to work this way, i.e., one can only directly select an item under a top layer until that top layer has been selected. This, however, is rather inconvenient.

The CMD fix above does not always work so I must select the frame text box from the layers panel. Once I have done that I can click outside the box to deselect and then clicking the same frame text box works well, over and over again. However, this does not effect the other frame text boxes (now including those without a fill or stroke) which do not respond to my clicking to select them. They too only open via the layer panel. I realize that this sounds as if the relevant layers or top layers are locked, but they are all unlocked. Normally I would think this to be a bug, but since no one else appears to report the problem I wonder what I might be doing wrong.