Text running through multiple frames

[LeifN]

I have a long text (10 pt) running through multiple frames. When I insert a new frame somewhere in between existing frames, the text flows through the new frame allright, but in that new frame the typesize is changed to something very small (3.5 pt) and somtimes the linespacing goes to maybe 50 pt.

For years I have used long flows of text through multiple small frames (also inserting new frames in the flow) on multiple pages using Adobe InDesign. That works very well :-)

Hopefully there is a workaround or is it perhaps a bug?

Multiple textframes goes wrong.pdf

Edited May 16, 2020 by LeifN
more accurate

[Old Bruce]

Hi and welcome to the forums @LeifN,

I think what has happened is you used the wrong handle to resize the text frame, the one at the bottom right which is outside/off of the text frame will resize the contents as well as the frame. The one at the bottom right which is on the corner will resize the frame alone. In my example I have the Text Frame baseline on and align to baseline grid is on too.

[dkamper]

Excuse me, I've been having the same problem. But it doesn't have anything to do with resizing an existing text frame. When there is more text inside a text frame than can fit, I click on its outlet port to load the text into the cursor. I then click and drag to create a second text frame connected to the first. The text that fills it shrinks in size (mine goes to 1.3 pt) and the leading gets ridiculously huge. If I remove text from frame 1, the text from frame 2 comes into frame 1 and assumes the proper format. If I add text to frame 1 pushing text into frame 2, it immediately shrinks.

It's giving me bald spots! Thank you for any insight.

Affinity Publisher 1.8.3 (trial), Windows 10

[LeifN]

So it is not an isolatated event after all! You describe the problem more clearly about the leading and the point size.

Maybe the fault is in the styles setting? They are much different to InDesigns tags.

When I reset the style setting for a frame the problem goes away but only to appear somewhere else in the flow!

For now I will use InDesign if I need to flow a long text as I haven't got much hair left :-)

Hopefully it will be solved in the next update.

Affinity Publisher 1.8.3.641, Windows 10. I am also using a special font for Tibetan Script.

[lacerto]

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[walt.farrell]

7 hours ago, LeifN said:

When I reset the style setting for a frame the problem goes away but only to appear somewhere else in the flow!

Text has a text style, which can determine font, font size, leading, etc. But a text frame doesn't, really. You can set attributes for the frame, but they apply to new text that you add into the frame. If you have existing text in the frame, changing attributes of the frame itself would not affect the text that already exists; it would only affect text you add after that point, as it is a default for new text in the frame.

If you wanted to change the characteristics of the existing text, you would select the text, and appy the style to it.

I'm not sure if that explains what you're seeing, or not, but it's an important concept to understand.

[lacerto]

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[walt.farrell]

40 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

I do not think that this is correct, or perhaps I misunderstood what you mean. One of the strong points of Affinity Publisher is that it allows direct formatting of entire text frames and does not require selecting text. It is of course also a bit hazardous feature, but very powerful and usefu.

You can set the characteristics before you start applying text, but you're not really setting the characteristics of the frame; you're setting the characteristics of the Frame Text Tool, via its Context Toolbar.

But beyond that, once you've added the text, changing those values on the Context Toolbar does nothing for the text you already added. The changes apply to new text that you insert where the text cursor currently points. If you want to have changes made in the Context Toolbar apply to existing text, you need to select the text.

Changes to a Text Style apply instantly to any text that has that style, of course. But that's something different.

[lacerto]

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[CaitlinG]

Hi LeifN, I'm particularly interested in your use of Tibetan. I will be producing Tibetan texts and would like to use Affinity Publisher, however thus far I can't get the letters to stack appropriately. Have you had success with typing in Tibetan?

Thank you.