Xs appear in the corners of selected objects

[MarioM]

I'm working on a book file in Affinity Publisher. Sometimes when I select an object and copy it, the object gets little Xs in the corners instead of the little circles and then I can't move the object, or edit its text, or float it or resize it. Basically it is locked and I can't do anything with it. Why does this happen? How do I prevent it? And how do I unlock it? 

[Wosven]

Hi,

That's because those objects are placed on the master pages, and usually you modify content but don't move them.

To modify them, go to the layer panel, right click on the layer for this master page, and choose "modify detached" or similar options.

[MarioM]

Hmm. But I don't have these objects on the master page. The Xs appear when I copy the objects. They did not have the Xs before I copied them because they weren't on the master page.

 

[Old Bruce]

Check your layers panel and see if they are locked.

[MarioM]

None of my layers are locked.

[Old Bruce]

54 minutes ago, MarioM said:

But I don't have these objects on the master page.

Yes you do

[MarioM]

Thanks for pointing that out, Old Bruce. What I don't understand is how the table got on the master page. I didn't put it there deliberately. All I did was copy it because I wanted to place a copy of the table on another page. Does this mean the master page is different for different spreads? How does that happen if I only have 1 master page? Also, it doesn't happen for everything I select and copy. Only for some things. I am very confused....

 

[Old Bruce]

There is a feature called Edit Detached when you right click (Control Click) on a Master Page layer in the layers panel. You may have entered that by mistake, this is what it looks like

   

The second screen shot shows that I can now place things on the Master Page layer simply by doing work on the page itself, so if I paste something onto the page it will be on the master page layer for that page only. The orange bar with the finish button will go away as soon as I move to another page and it will not return when I return to that page.

[MarioM]

Thanks for the information, Old Bruce. You've been very helpful.

 

 

[Old Bruce]

Glad to be of help.