Publisher 1.8 (Windows) -- 'Update text style' menu disappears

[MikeA]

I reported this to Serif via email (I wanted to send a screen shot and chose email because I can't add screenshots here due to some forum bug). If anyone has the time to test this, it would be useful to know if anyone else can replicate it.

The problem: trying to update an existing paragraph style fails because the "Update <name of style>" command is absent from the menu where it's expected.

Procedure: from https://fonts.google.com download the font named Lobster (the one having only a single variant, not the similarly named font having four variants). This should display the font: https://fonts.google.com/?query=lobster (Not my favorite sort of typeface but it's called for in a class I'm taking.) 

After installing the font: In Affinity Publisher, use the Artistic Text tool to create a small amount of text and format it using the Lobster typeface.

Go to the Text Styles panel, locate "Heading 1," and right-click it. If the bug occurs, the menu will not contain Update Heading 1 at all.

In my test document I then added text in a new frame, this time using the Text Frame tool. I assigned Arial to the text — and again the Update Heading 1 menu item did not appear. I deleted that text frame, made another one, formatted the text inside it using Arial—and this time the Update Heading 1 menu item did appear. In what way were these two operations different? I have no idea.

To keep testing...I added another text frame and used a typeface called Aleo (also downloaded from https://fonts.google.com). With that block of text selected, the Update Heading 1 menu item does appear as expected.

This is baffling. Is the disappearing menu item caused by a font problem of some sort? Or is there something I'm doing wrong in assigning formatting to text?

 

[MikeA]

The same thing is occurring as I go through other lessons in this online course. For example, the instructor has provided a sample text file that is inserted into a set of linked text frames. The frames are set up (not linked initially) on the document's master page. Then the text file is placed into the first text frame on a document page. Then the frames are linked together and the text flows throughout the document.

The text contains a number of single-line paragraphs that are to be turned into subheadings. The procedure is:

•  Select a one-line paragraph and highlight it.
•  Set it to no paragraph style.
•  Change its size, typeface, and color.
•  Locate Heading 2 in the text styles list and open its context.
•  Select Update Heading 2 from the menu.

But there isn't an Update Heading 2 item in the context menu. It isn't that the item is there but "greyed-out"; it just isn't there at all.

What to do?

[walt.farrell]

You need to have the text style applied before you can update it that way, Mike.

So:

1. Assign the text style to the text.
2. Update the text's style.
3. Then right-click the text style in the Text Styles panel (or click its hamburger menu), and then click Update.

Or, for a simpler version of step 3, click the "Update Paragraph Style" icon in the Context Toolbar.

[MikeA]

Walt — this is what I observe in the presenter's video. (She's using the Mac version, probably 1.7 or earlier—it's definitely not 1.8.)
As I watch, she:

1. Selects a paragraph.
2. Sets it to NO paragraph style.
3. Formats it manually.
4. Presses the menu arrow for Heading 2. (Equivalent to right-clicking a style name in the Windows version.)
5. The "Update Heading 2" menu item appears within the resulting context menu.
6. She clicks "Update Heading 2" and that style is updated per her manual formatting.

When I follow along using the Windows version, and following her steps exactly, I do not see the "Update Heading 2" menu item. It simply isn't in the context menu. In her version, it is in that menu.

But perhaps we're not talking about quite the same thing, I dunno.

When you say "You need to have the text style applied" do you mean a paragraph style or a character style, or both?

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, MikeA said:

When you say "You need to have the text style applied" do you mean a paragraph style or a character style, or both?

The one you want to update.

Maybe you've found a difference between Mac and Windows. If so, it's probably a bug.

Or, maybe you've found a difference between an older version of Publisher and the current version of Publisher. What version was the presenter using? What version are you using?

What course are you taking?

[MikeA]

Walt: you've solved it. This is partly user error—mine, in assuming I'd run across a bug—and an apparent difference between what worked in the Mac version in the online course, and what works in the PC version. Either that or I was an idiot and did not follow the online course's steps properly — in which case it's 100% user error and I must now go off to the wilderness and do penance (which is appropriate anyway, considering that we've entered the Age of Social Distancing). 

The course is Publisher for beginners by a company called Affinity Revolution. They have short tutorials on YouTube and longer classes offered for Affinity programs via their web site. This beginner's class probably wouldn't be helpful for someone who'd already been using Publisher for a while but it's useful for someone like me, who'd never before worked with Publisher. And it was priced very reasonably.

As for other operations with styles: Is there such a thing in Publisher as "create new style from current formatting" or simply: create new style?

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, MikeA said:

As for other operations with styles: Is there such a thing in Publisher as "create new style from current formatting" or simply: create new style?

Look at the actions at the bottom of the Text Styles panel:

It would still be good to know if this is (a) your mistake, (b) a Mac vs Windows thing, or (c) a 1.7 vs 1.8 thing

[MikeA]

>> bottom of the Text Styles panel

The sheer number of things I'm capable of missing (or incapable of seeing) continues to astonish me. I suppose I could try blaming the sizes of objects in the UI (I'm glad I don't use a 4K monitor or I might not be able to see much of anything in the UI).

Agreed — it would be useful to know how (if at all) the versions differ on the two platforms. For now I'm going with user error, but I'll watch that section of the video again, this time without trying to follow the steps, to see if I missed something obvious.

[MikeA]

>> bottom of the Text Styles panel

The sheer number of things I'm capable of missing (or incapable of seeing) continues to astonish me. I suppose I could try blaming the sizes of objects in the UI (I'm glad I don't use a 4K monitor or I might not be able to see much of anything in the UI).

Agreed — it would be useful to know how (if at all) the versions differ on the two platforms. For now I'm going with user error, but I'll watch that section of the video again, this time without trying to follow the steps, to see if I missed something obvious.

[MikeA]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

It would still be good to know if this is (a) your mistake, (b) a Mac vs Windows thing, or (c) a 1.7 vs 1.8 thing

@walt.farrell 

I've just reviewed the course lesson referred to above. The presenter:

1. Starts dragging on-screen with the Artistic Text tool.
2. Lets up on the mouse button, then types a headline.
3. Selects the Move tool and ensures that the new text frame is selected.
4. With the text frame selected: changes its contents' — the newly entered headline's — font and  color.
5. Displays the Text Styles panel.
  •  (The panel shows that the new text's paragraph style is [No style].)
6. Presses the menu control for the style Heading 1.
  •  (The resulting menu does contain Update Heading 1.)
7. Clicks Update Heading 1.

This updates style Heading 1.

So: she did not have to assign the style to the text before she updated it.

Is it that the procedures are different in the Mac and Windows versions? Looks like it to me. Or did the procedure change when 1.8 was introduced? That I don't know.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, MikeA said:

Is it that the procedures are different in the Mac and Windows versions? Looks like it to me. Or did the procedure change when 1.8 was introduced? That I don't know.

Thanks. No idea. Perhaps someone who uses a Mac will comment.

[pekka kana 3]

i have the same problem. i'm trying to follow the tutorial but "Update heading 1" isn't in the menu. Windows 10, Affinity Publisher 1.8.3 

EDIT: Seems like I can update styles I've created myself. It's not helping me however in creating a table of contents because I can't see my own styles in the TOC style name listing....

EDIT 2:
Nope, now i got it. Heading was a "paragraph" style and the one I created was a "character" style. When I converted my style into a "paragraph" style, the update button disappears!
The disparity between two style categories in the same menu makes this all very confusing! Why are there even two style categories?