Text boxes lock for unknown reason and can't be unlocked in any way

[upTheo]

Hi,

This happened twice today,  my first day of using AP for work, so I'm learning as I go along. I'm discovering, learning things and I'm liking the program more and more. After 6-7 hours of work, a text block has locked up and will not unlock in any way. The layer itself doesn't have a lock icon on it. Locking and unlocking the layer does nothing. I have tried to find a solution online. It did happen to someone with a beta version and there was no solution then.
I recreated the page. The same thing happened, this time with a different text block.

I love the synergy between Photo, Designer and Publisher. This is a really a great piece of software, but I can't complete my work on it for now. I'm still working tonight recreating my work in a word processor (far less capable than Publisher).

I suppose this is a bug. My apologies if I'm wrong. In either case, though, I have to know before I do real work with Publisher.

Up

[thomaso]

In which way do you experience the "locked" state? Not selectable frame? Not editable text? Does a frame once affected appear to be inaccessible forever?

Can you upload a screencast, including document window, tools and layers panel with unfolded layers?
Or upload a small document with an affected text frame?

[upTheo]

The text in the frame remains editable. It is absolutely impossible to move or delete. 

I am uploading a document in which I have replaced the text with body type, including in the locked frame. While replacing the text with body type. the footer has become locked too, by the way. The problematic frame was initially the one with white type on grey background.

Thanks for your help. I'm hoping this is not something simple I missed.

Up

LockedFrameExample.afpub

[Old Bruce]

51 minutes ago, upTheo said:

he text in the frame remains editable. It is absolutely impossible to move or delete. 

It is a text frame from the Master Page. If you use your Layers Panel you can Right Click/Control Click on the Master page layer and choose Edit Detached from the context menu and move or resize the Text frame.

[upTheo]

Thanks, Old Bruce, but that's not it. The Master Page has only four elements on it : two lines, one text frame that's extends to the margins of the document, and one text frame for the footer with some text and a page number element. The locked frame with a grey background is not a part of it. I shouldn't have said that the locked frame in the footer suddenly appeared while preparing the document for upload. This is misleading and I apologize. That frame is behaving normally, being an element of the Master Page. They grey background frame is the problem (if it one).

 

Up

[thomaso]

24 minutes ago, upTheo said:

They grey background frame is the problem

I can select, move, scale or edit this frame with a charm. This might mean the issue is not in the document but rather related to your local app + OS situation.
So, again, can you upload a screencast to make us see what you see?
Does a frame once affected appear to be inaccessible forever?

 

[Old Bruce]

I am not seeing the described behaviour here on Mac. Is this the "Locked" frame?

[upTheo]

Thanks for your patience and help, Old Bruce. 

The upper frame (with the images) is not the template for the other one, in case this was what you were asking. Detail, in this case.

But, I'm totally surprised by the fact that the problematic frame is as you point it now unlocked, and this not only for you, but for me as well. I don't know what to think.

Some maneuver, or sequence of operations, does generate a lock that will not be unlocked by the usual mean (padlock in the layer). This had me struggling for hours yesterday.

I'm seeing some light, but I'm not sure it will not happen again. I really don't know why we have that grey box unlocked now.When I saved and uploaded it, I was locked hard and impossible to unlock.

UP

[upTheo]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

I can select, move, scale or edit this frame with a charm. This might mean the issue is not in the document but rather related to your local app + OS situation.

Thanks Thomaso., II didn't see your post before answering Old Bruce.

I remember now that after struggling with this for hours yesterday, the only thing I could guess was generating those unwanted lock-ups was a specific suite of (unremembered) actions involving three possible functions : pinning, using inline in text and connecting frames for text flow. I didn't have time to approach this methodically, so I moved on and switched apps.

I'll give it another look in a couple days. For the time being, as I told Old Bruce, things are acting normally with this sample document. 

Up

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, upTheo said:

I could guess was generating those unwanted lock-ups was a specific suite of (unremembered) actions involving three possible functions : pinning, using inline in text and connecting frames for text flow.

Good hint. Possibly you had pasted the gray text frame inside the master page text frame on this page. That way it becomes a part of the master frame with reduced accessibility, you can recognise the nested state of this frame in the layers panel. In the attached .afpub you can try whether this was your experience and undo / redo by selecting the frame with the Move Tool and use cut & paste at the same or a different position on the page: 

LockedFrameExample_TEST.afpub

If you notice unwanted behavior again you might want to use the History Panel to go back to the start of the current session, either step by step or via the panel slider. You even can save the history with your document for various sessions with the according check-mark in the menu 'File'. For questions about specific features, like pinning or text flow, feel free to ask in the Questions Forum in case of unexpected app reactions.

[upTheo]

On 7/29/2020 at 3:52 PM, thomaso said:

Possibly you had pasted the gray text frame inside the master page text frame on this page

Thanks again.

I wonder how I could have done that (twice), but doing so would surely lead to the exact same problem. If there's a way to alter the master page from a content page using it, that's what I must have done. The sequence of operations would include pinning, using" inline in text" and connecting frames of flowing text.

I can get back to this now and see what's really happening. This said, there's a new version now. It may mean that this is fixed in some obscure way (if the software was ever at fault -- nothing like what happened is listed in the fixes, though). Well, I'll see.

Thanks for reminding me of the history panel. I've used it many times, but I can't remember if I tried anything with it regarding this problem. I'll keep it in mind.

Up

[thomaso]

uPTheo, it is less complicated to make it happen than you describe. Sample: If you copy or cut the gray frame with the Move Tool (arrow cursor), and (unintentional) double click on the master text frame on a document page and paste – then its done. Actually a simple copy/paste. The pinning happens automatically in this case and can be easy out of your notice, e.g. because the Pinning Panel is not present.

Note: The  content  of a master page text frame can get edited on a document page as easy as any other text frame, – but  the frame itself  must not get edited that easy, moved or scaled for instance, which appears like locked. – So, if it happens again: select the affected frame with the Move Tool, cut it, click with move tool anywhere outside the parent text frame and paste. Then it is "free" again.

[upTheo]

50 minutes ago, thomaso said:

If you copy or cut the gray frame with the Move Tool (arrow cursor), and (unintentional) double click on the master text frame on a document page and paste – then its done

Ah. It's absolutely possible that I did that.

I didn't know that relation between a regular document page and its master page. It is key. 

Thanks!

Up

[dbrear]

I had a problem today where I had the outline of some text frames visible but I could not select or delete them. Most annoying because they weren't visible in layers so I couldn't delete them that way.

It turned out that I had put them above my first page, then inserted a page before my first page, which most effectively 'hid' them from normal operations.

[fdelaneau]

I have a similar issue where putting an image Inline in text in a master text frame “freezes” it as you deselect it.

It is faily strait forward to reproduce : Copy an an illustration, paste it into the text. Deselect the current text frame then try to edit the text once more.

I tried it a few times and it isn't systematic but does occur quite regularly.
Once the frame is “locked”, you can't select it by any means. With linked text frames, I was able to move the text cursor into the frame and then removing the image solved the problem.

I can send the team my file if needed.

[Gabe]

Hi @fdelaneau,

Can you attach a screen recoding of your workflow, along with the afpub file please?

[fdelaneau]

Hi @gabe

I was finally going to take the time to make a video and an exemple file but it seems for now that 1.9 fixed the problem 😍

I’ll test it further and post a video if I can reproduce the problem again 😊🤞