Publisher 1.7.3.481 Bugs

[SoCalMan]

Publisher 1.7.3 is a wonderful piece of software, but so buggy it is almost impossible to use.

- Linking a simple .jpg image works almost 1/3 of the time.

- Synchronizing defaults from selection doesn't work at all.

- Linked pictures can suddenly "disappear", i. e. become impossible to select.

I bought two licenses even though I need only one just to support Serif.

Is there any near term hope?

 

Jim Meketa

San Diego, California

 

[Jon P]

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- Linking a simple .jpg image works almost 1/3 of the time.

Can you elaborate? Are you using File > Place and then placing the picture fails to place it in the document? It places it and nothing renders? Does it appear in Resource Manager? This isn't common behavior so I need some more information.

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- Synchronizing defaults from selection doesn't work at all.

What type of object and default properties aren't synchronizing? For example a quick test here with a quickshape and the colour/fill properties, syncing is working for me.

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Linked pictures can suddenly "disappear", i. e. become impossible to select.

Can you attach a file that demonstrates this? The only reason I could think is if they were off the spread for some reason, can you select them by using "Locate" in resource manager? If the images are linked when you upload the file you may need to provide the image for me to re-link it.

[SoCalMan]

Jon:

If I use the Place Image Tool to select a .jpg from a folder the photograph is often instantly inserted in a random spot in the document and cannot be moved around regardless of the Text Wrap Settings I assign to it.  After two or three attempts with the same file the behavior changes and I get the little cursor that permits me to insert the photo where I want.  At this point it seems to work just fine.  I will try it using File/Place to see if the behavior differs.

Once an image is inserted it appears in Resource Manager.  When an image suddenly becomes impossible to select the only cure is to locate it in Resource Manager, delete it, and start over again.

I cannot synchronized text wrap settings.  No error message, it just doesn't work.

And finally a truly alarming issue.  Several times when I open my document it appears to load the document, the linked photos, the fonts, everything, and then Publisher instantly closes.  Nothing is lost except my time and my confidence in the software.

Thanks for your help.

Jim Meketa

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, SoCalMan said:

If I use the Place Image Tool to select a .jpg from a folder the photograph is often instantly inserted in a random spot in the document

Be careful what you have selected when you use the tool, until you figure out what you're doing. Perhaps first make sure that nothing is selected (e.g., click on the page with the Move Tool outside of any object). Or just note what is selected when you try to use the tool, which may help you figure out more about using it.

I've also seen some odd occurrences, but have never figured out exactly what is happening enough to document it and figure out if it's right or not. But I think it's related to what is selected at the time.

[Jon P]

It sounds to me like you have the the cursor active inside a text frame when inserting images. This means they are by default placed inline in the frame, so you might not be able to move them as you'd expect.

If you double check you have the move tool active before placing images hopefully that should resolve that issue for you, if you think it's something else let me know.

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I cannot synchronized text wrap settings.  No error message, it just doesn't work.

This is by design, we intentionally don't synchronize text wrap settings.

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And finally a truly alarming issue.  Several times when I open my document it appears to load the document, the linked photos, the fonts, everything, and then Publisher instantly closes.  Nothing is lost except my time and my confidence in the software.

The next time this happens can you please navigate to %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\CrashReports\reports and upload the latest crash report, it might shed some light on what is happening.

Thanks

[SoCalMan]

Jon, Walt:

My documents consist of text and linked photos, hundreds of them.  If I cannot synchronize the text wrap settings every photo has to be handled individually, a real pain in the arse.

Next strange crash I will try to upload the crash report.

I will experiment with the advice I got about selecting and linking pictures.

Minor issue: the characters in the glyph tables render too small to see easily.

Otherwise, a thousand thank yous for the software.

Jim Meketa - San Diego

[walt.farrell]

7 hours ago, SoCalMan said:

My documents consist of text and linked photos, hundreds of them.  If I cannot synchronize the text wrap settings every photo has to be handled individually, a real pain in the arse.

If you use Picture Frames you might consider setting up a Picture Frame with the Wrap settings you want, and saving it as an Asset. (Note that it will be invisible in the Assets panel, so you'll want to set the Assets panel to "Show as List".) Then for each place where you want a photo, drag the Picture Frame from the Assets panel, adjust its size if needed, and Place your image into it. It will have the Wrap settings you need.

[SoCalMan]

Thanks for the ideas, appreciate your input.

Picture Frame does indeed capture the original Wrap settings, but all of my photographs have different aspect ratios as they have been cropped, and none have the aspect ratio of the pre-defined frame.  If I Set Frame to Content from Frame Properties the frame is adjusted to the photograph's aspect ratio.  So far, so good.  But if I then attempt to resize the frame the photograph is cropped in an unpredictable way.

[walt.farrell]

11 hours ago, SoCalMan said:

Picture Frame does indeed capture the original Wrap settings, but all of my photographs have different aspect ratios as they have been cropped, and none have the aspect ratio of the pre-defined frame.  If I Set Frame to Content from Frame Properties the frame is adjusted to the photograph's aspect ratio.  So far, so good.  But if I then attempt to resize the frame the photograph is cropped in an unpredictable way.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Set Frame to Content from Frame Properties". The settings I have available scale the picture to the frame (or don't scale it at all). None of them adjusts the frame to the image.

Totally missed that function (Set Frame to Content). I agree with Carl's suggestion, below.

 

[carl123]

11 hours ago, SoCalMan said:

If I Set Frame to Content from Frame Properties the frame is adjusted to the photograph's aspect ratio.  So far, so good.  But if I then attempt to resize the frame the photograph is cropped in an unpredictable way.

After "Set Frame to Content"

Go into Frame Properties and select "Stretch to Fit"

Your image/frame will maintain its aspect ratio when you resize it (hold the Shift key down!)

[SoCalMan]

Jon P

Publisher continues to crash at random intervals, it just quits.  Sometimes I get a recovery file, often not.  The folder %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\CrashReports\reports is empty.