Duplicate Styles When copying

[thetasig]

Is it not possible to respect the naming of a style when copying between two documents? I currently am making an e-book format from a larger format document. It is a process of duplicating the original to a smaller format. It has to be done page by page. When copying a single text frame with text, the target document already has and uses the same Style (name). However, the process of copying creates a new, sequentially numbered version of the same Style. This seems to be more with the created Styles than with the built-in default Styles. An example is a "Box" style that has been created with blue text and a grey background: "Box Blue". The source document has a single "Box Blue" and the target document has a single, identical, "Box Blue." When I copy then paste another frame with that Style, a new Style is created: "Box Blue 1." This happens repeatedly and, as one example, I have 75 sequentially numbered new Styles all with the same settings and same name except for the sequential numbering. This plays havoc with the built-in concept of using a single Style to control many objects using that Style.

[garrettm30]

This is indeed one of the things I wish Publisher could improve. Not only does it not map styles of the same name, but reassigning the incoming text to another style and deleting the duplicate style is more tedious than it should be.

[Seneca]

3 hours ago, thetasig said:

Is it not possible to respect the naming of a style when copying between two documents?

Completely agree. 

I want my incoming text to adopt the styles I set up in the document.

I am waiting for the next Publisher beta to see where we stand in this regard.

Also, deleting styles and being able to substitute the about to be deleted style with another one is something that we should also have.

[thetasig]

My document has hundreds of new styles automatically created in sequential numeric order when copying from one document to another that has the same styles (by Name). Instead of using the same-named Style, a new one is created for each object using it. I am trying to find where those "new" styles are located so I can change them back to the "base" style that was originally used. Using "Find and Replace", I changed the search to Paragraph Style, and a drop-down allowed me to choose one of the styles that needed to be replaced. Then I clicked the "Find" button - nothing. So I went through the drop-down list trying one after another of the choices. Many of them return no response. Some do.

So the first problem seems to be that a bunch (about 120+) of Paragraph Styles were automatically created during the copy/paste, but now they are no longer to be found in use in the document. I'm estimating some 200 or more are not found, only a few tens are found. I have not edited any of them, and since they were automatically created, I am concerned that they SHOULD be in use somewhere. It's possible that the styles are there, somewhere, but not able to be searched for.

Second problem is that the Find and Replace/Paragraph Style drop-down list is very long and the list does not scroll automatically (downward) and does not respond to the mouse wheel. I've check the Text Styles list and there are many, many more below that I cannot get to to search for - some 250+.

Third problem is more of a feature request - instead of just a drop-down list, it would be handy to be able to search for a pattern such as "Body*" using standard wild-card characters.

Fourth issue is cosmetic/consistency. In the Style Panel, the list of styles is titled "Text Styles" - these are the same list of styles shown in the Find and Replace/[GEAR]/Paragraph Style list - and suggesting that both lists have the same titling, i.e., "Text Styles"

Attaching a screen shot of the long list that can't be accessed  below the last item seen...

[Old Bruce]

Try this

[Gabe]

Hi @thetasig,

If those body styles are different, they will be incremented. Are you sure they are 100% identical?

[thetasig]

They are identical. Styles are created anew with a sequence number suffix when an identical object, say a specific text box in one document is copied to another document. In this case, the two documents are "identical" sharing the same picture frames, pictures, text boxes, pages, having been copied from one to another page by page. For example, Style "Box Blue" in the original and set for "Text box Intro" ends up in the other document as "Text box Intro" with Style "Box Blue 1", etc. Note that most of my copying is by "group" - all objects on the same page are highlighted, copied, then pasted into the second document onto an empty page, and so on.

See the following issue link too - it seems other users are experiencing the same issue.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/116990-duplicate-styles-when-copying/

 

 

[Gabe]

This is not exactly a bug, but a feature requests. I see you already created a new post there. I'm gonna merge the 2 as they describe the exact same issue. 

[thetasig]

Thanks, Gabe. It is difficult for me to understand why a programmer/designer would handle the incoming duplicate style by creating a new style and renaming it as it is copied to another document that already has that exact same-named style. Is there some rationale or useful purpose that I'm missing here? Thank you.