Auto link with multiple columns

[dangerous2a]

Hi,

I am climbing the learning cliff with this program and trying to create a document in Affinity Publisher where from page 3 on, I would like to have 2 columns per page, so I have tried to use the auto link function shown at the end of the tutorial video for text tools. This function is only shown briefly at the end of the video where an entire book is placed and linked, but only with one column per page throughout: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/publisher/desktop/video/337302558

Initially I set page 3 to have 2 columns and added a text box to the whole page. I then placed the text from a Word docx file into the top left hand edge of the text box. It just filled the page (no colunms) and the auto link did the same for the next couple of pages. Obviously these are only guides that can be overwritten and do not format the text as such.

I then set up page 3 with 2 equal linked textboxes snapped to the column outlines, placed the text from the Word file into the top left hand edge of the text box in the left column, which overflowed, as expected as it was several pages long. Page 3 was fine with 2 columns of text added. I then used the auto link again. The next few pages were filled, but only in the right hand column, the left hand columns being blank.  The link arrows only point to the right-hand column on pages after page 3. Dragging the column to the left sorts out the active page but susequent pages still have only one column filled.

Do I need to do anything else to get mutiple columns using auto link, or does it not work that way? Once pages are filled, there is no obvious way to select a section and change the column formats from single to double.

I have tried setting up a different master page for the muti-column pages but that still does not overflow into 2 columns, and seems to upset things on previous pages as well.

In the on-line tutorial, the linking is done into pre drawn &  linked boxes and this does work, however the auto link would be really useful if it can do multiple columns over multiple pages.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[walt.farrell]

You have tried one approach for multiple columns so far: using multiple Text Frames, each sized for the column you want.

A better approach might be to create one text frame, and in the Context Toolbar or in the Text Frame studio panel, set that frame to have multiple columns. That way you wouldn't have to worry about the text flow between them, as it would be automatic. You can do that to a Text Frame at any time.

Your situation is made more complicated by wanting to insert the entire document at one time, and by wanting to have some of the pages with two columns and some with one. I think that I would start out with a Master Page with a Text Frame on it, and 1 page. Then insert the file into that frame, then shift-click on the linking triangle to have Publisher create as many other pages as needed.

Then, for a page that needs to be multi-column: Select that page, and in the Layers Panel right-click on the Master Page layer, and choose Edit Detached. Then click in the text frame, and on the Context Toolbar set it to two columns. Or, for finer control, including gutter size, you might use the Text Frame studio panel if you're using 1.7. (In 1.8 the Context Toolbar has both the number of columns and the gutter size available.) Then click Finished.

That gives you 1 page with multiple columns. You can repeat that process for the next page(s), though obviously if you have a lot of pages like that a different approach would be better.

[firstdefence]

Just tried pasting Alice in wonderland (AIW) and with a master page set and with a 2 col text frame on the master page, pasting and then shift clicking on the red triangle did not fill any other 2 col text frame, it did however create the 2 col text frames and the pages.

I deleted the master page and just drew a 2 col text frame on page 3, pasted the AIW text then shift clicked on the red triangle and it created the pages, and the 2 col text frames and filled them with the story.

Forgive the formatting I just wanted to get the pages and text frames created. Here is the txt file I used AIW: AIW.rtf

[dangerous2a]

Wow! Instant Help,

Thanks, I will carry on up the learning cliff!

 

 

[jmwellborn]

@dangerous2a  Perhaps this may work for you too, and further to @firstdefence  instructions, I have tried this way, in case you wish to alternate between single column and 2-column page layouts.  I did this without using a master page.   Start with a single page, draw a single text frame to fit within your desired margins, and then go to VIEW>Studio>Text Frame and be sure that Text Frame has a check mark beside it.  Then open the Text Frame Panel and in the columns section change from 1 to 2 and choose your gutter width.  That will automatically change that first page to 2 columns.  

Place your text file on this first page.   Then click on the red arrow at the bottom right of the 2-column page, and your entire document will continue with 2 columns on each page.  All properly linked.

After this is done, for any page that you want to go back to having a single text frame, click on that page icon in your Pages Panel, highlight its 2-column text frame box on your canvas, and then go to your Text Frame Panel and change the columns back to 1.

This way you can go back and forth throughout your document without worrying about breaking the text flow links.

[dangerous2a]

I thought that there had to be  a way to set text to columns, just like in MS word etc.  I just did not find it.

Simple when you know how.

 

Thanks to all.

[joolstacho]

I can't even find out how to create multiple columns and flow text between them.

There's nothing on the 'context' toolbar (with Para text tool selected), and I can see nothing relevant in the Para palette.

I simply need to create a page with 2 columns and be able to flow text between the columns, and then create paragraph rules, - fine 'automatic' rules between paragraphs.

Maybe I need a later version? I'm using Affinity Designer ver 1.8.2

Is this too much too ask? :-)

 

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, joolstacho said:

I can't even find out how to create multiple columns and flow text between them.

There's nothing on the 'context' toolbar (with Para text tool selected), and I can see nothing relevant in the Para palette.

I simply need to create a page with 2 columns and be able to flow text between the columns, and then create paragraph rules, - fine 'automatic' rules between paragraphs.

Maybe I need a later version? I'm using Affinity Designer ver 1.8.2

Is this too much too ask? 🙂

 

Designer does not have multiple column support, nor flow between columns or frames. That is a function of Publisher.

 

[dangerous2a]

Hi,

 

My original post was about Affinity Publisher, and the advice given above worked fine for me in that program.

Affinity Designer remains a mystery to me as I have done very little beyond opening the tutorials there.

[walt.farrell]

24 minutes ago, dangerous2a said:

My original post was about Affinity Publisher, and the advice given above worked fine for me in that program.

Affinity Designer remains a mystery to me as I have done very little beyond opening the tutorials there.

My response was to @joolstacho, who has piggybacked on your topic.

[joolstacho]

Apologies for hijacking the thread! I didn't take enough care to note that the OP was referring to Publisher not Designer.

I'd better get publisher then eh?

Several decades using applications like PM, QXD, InDD has spoiled me... I ended up completing the job in Word of all things.

[BobGW]

It is an awful oversight to not be able to create columns in Affinity Designer. I know it can be done in Publisher but shame on you for not including this ability in Desinger

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, BobGW said:

It is an awful oversight to not be able to create columns in Affinity Designer. I know it can be done in Publisher but shame on you for not including this ability in Desinger

Publisher added many new text-related functions which remain unique to Publisher. If you're using enough text to need them, it's usually quite easy to do the entire project in Publisher rather than Designer (using the Designer Persona), or to transfer the file from Designer to Publisher (using File > Edit in...) briefly.

[uneMule]

Bonjour à tous,
en suivant ce fil de discussion, je me demande simplement comment envisager, ultérieurement, des modifications dans la mise en page sans utilisation de gabarits !?
Si j'ai bien suivi

*****

Hello to all,
following this thread, I'm just wondering how to consider, at a later stage, changes in the layout without using master pages!?
If I have look at this correctly