Tony Cotterill Posted August 7, 2020 Share Posted August 7, 2020 There is a strange feature of Publisher. When a linked image is either updated outside of Publisher, or the Resource Manager is used to replace images the subsequent picture box displays a rather ugly black cross over the image. Now, I suspect this is a deliberate feature to give a heads-up that the image link has changed, but tbh, I find it rather distracting. Is there a way to turn this feature off without needing to Ctrl-Shift-W to turn all the frames and guides off? Cheers, Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Lee D Posted August 10, 2020 Staff Share Posted August 10, 2020 Can you do a screen recording showing the process as just externally editing a linked image inside a Publisher document doesn't show the X on the frame for me. It will show a distorted version of the image (no X) until I open Resource Manager and update, then the image appears fine with the changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cotterill Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Sure Lee, This is one page. The little symbols are all linked images which were relinked to SVG files using the resource manager. The black boxes we not there before the relink. It's not exactly a game-breaker, but it makes it harder to see the work. The larger red icon to the left was updated directly using replace image, and this seems to be the only way to get rid of the x-boxes. Cheers, Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cotterill Posted November 20, 2020 Author Share Posted November 20, 2020 Does anyone have any answers regarding this, yet? I suspect the black Xs are a deliberate feature and are supposed to be there to be helpful in some way, but I cannot for the life of me see how. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 47 minutes ago, Tony Cotterill said: I suspect the black Xs are a deliberate feature and are supposed to be there to be helpful in some way, but I cannot for the life of me see how. The appearance of the X is not caused by a missing or updated linked item but rather to the way the item got nested. The 'X' are helpful to recognize a (empty) shape object of type Picture Frame. Possibly you haven't nested the image correctly. Only if it shows a square symbol on the image thumbnail it offers the special Picture Frame features (scale, rotate). You can have only 1 item of this type within a picture frame but may nest several objects which don't profit from the frame feature. Those latter objects will maintain the X. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cotterill Posted November 20, 2020 Author Share Posted November 20, 2020 Clearly you are well more knowledgable about this than I am, Thomaso. I'm still a little unclear. Is the black X an indication that the image has been imported right, or wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 As you say the X on an image disturbs, so this is the wrong way then. – Another way to crop is to nest the image in a Rectangle Shape object. This will clip the image, too, but not show the 'X' at any situation and also doesn't offer the special Picture Frame features. – I recommend to simply experiment with the Picture Frame object for experience. Just try the two ways of nesting a layer inside another: move a layer onto another's thumbnail or move it onto its name. Just do it. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cotterill Posted November 20, 2020 Author Share Posted November 20, 2020 Thanks. I'll play around with it. Fortunately, it's merely a visual thing and doesn't actually get in the way of anything in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 3 hours ago, Tony Cotterill said: I suspect the black Xs are a deliberate feature and are supposed to be there to be helpful in some way, but I cannot for the life of me see how. To reproduce...the black X Set document to link files Create Picture frameFile > Place a JPG file into picture frame Use Resource manager to replace JPG file with a SVG file Black X will appear This does not occur (no black X) when you use the Context Toolbar's Replace Image button to replace the image in the Picture Frame 59 minutes ago, Tony Cotterill said: Fortunately, it's merely a visual thing and doesn't actually get in the way of anything in the long run. As far as I can tell the black X signifies that the image is not truly a Picture Frame image and as such certain Picture Frame controls in the context toolbar (e.g. "Properties" & "Size Frame to content") no longer work on the image. Note: If you use Resource Manager to replace the JPG file with another JPG file the black X does not appear. Likewise, other weirdness occurs when replacing different file types with other file types when using the Resource Manager - not sure if this a (Resource Manager) bug or not For now, I would suggest just using the Replace Image button on the Context Toolbar to replace Picture Frame images rather than the Resource Manager Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cotterill Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 On 11/20/2020 at 1:56 PM, thomaso said: Just try the two ways of nesting a layer inside another: move a layer onto another's thumbnail or move it onto its name. Just do it. Oh yes! If I drag and drop the offending Linked document onto ITS OWN picture frame it sorts it. WT*...??? I have to say this seems like a bit of a pointless feature TBH. It's like you have to 'remind' the program what's in the box. Bit like the resizing of some images (but that's another issue). I love this program but it does seems to have a few... corner case features... that seem a bit wacky. Thanks everyone for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Move Along People Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 - Quote Move Along people,nothing to see here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 2 hours ago, Tony Cotterill said: If I drag and drop the offending Linked document onto ITS OWN picture frame it sorts it. 1 hour ago, haakoo said: It's because a pictureframe can hold more then just images in affinity I doubt the disturbing X appears because a picture frame may contain several objects. Note here the affected image was placed by the Affinity resource auto-update feature. As @carl123 pointed out there is an additional issue with the UI for specific file types (e.g. SVG), which may be related to the useless and confusing X of this specific topic when updating the OP's resource: On 11/20/2020 at 4:00 PM, carl123 said: This does not occur (no black X) when you use the Context Toolbar's Replace Image button to replace the image in the Picture Frame (...) Likewise, other weirdness occurs when replacing different file types with other file types when using the Resource Manager - not sure if this a (Resource Manager) bug or not Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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