Publisher jumps between layers

[KenOlisa]

I am writing a book using Publisher. Of late (so it might be a volume problem?) I have had difficulty accessing the text in a frame.  When it goes wrong, I click on a layer and then on the page and the focus switches to another layer.  The attached video clip illustrates my problem - I want to correct the spelling error, so I click on the layer and then on the page's text frame and then active layer switches to the page number frame.  Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong?

[R C-R]

Hard to tell from what is showing in your video exactly what is happening but from the vertical red bars in the Layers panel it looks like the text might be part of a master page. Is that possible?

[thomaso]

As far I see with the artistic text tool in the story frame on page 40 selected you click on page 41 in the word "repalec", which oddly causes the text frame below getting selected, correct?

Can you upload the .afpup, possible reduced to pages around 40/41 and related master pages?

[KenOlisa]

Thank you to R C-R and thomaso for your willingness to help - very much appreciated.

R C-R: The text frames are (naturally) defined on the Master pages but the text is on the actual page. The Master pages are the L & R spreads plus page numbers

However,

thomaso:Yes, your understanding is correct - but unfortunately, I can't send you the extract because when I try to delete the pages other than 41 & 42, they are also deleted!  I don't understand why - but I guess it profiveds a clue as to what I'm doing wrong.

All help gratefully received.   

[thomaso]

• Does it work to place the text cursor as wanted if you set the text frame with the page number to invisible on the master page beforehand?

• Can you select the story frame on page 41with the Move Tool (black arrow cursor)?
– If yes, what if you then double-click on "repalec"?
– If not, can you select it if you have moved the story layer on top in the layers panel hierarchy before?

• What APub version are you using?

[000]

That's odd. It looks as if your mouse click selects the first frame on the page, when you click ... please try to edit your master pages and move the two frames with the page numbers to the bottom of your layers palette (so that the two main text frames are on top and the page number frames below them).

[Dan C]

Hi @KenOlisa,

Sorry to see you're having trouble.

I can see in your document that you have a master page assigned to this spread, within the master page objects are 4 text frames, 2 containing your text, and I suspect 2 empty text frames directly above these frames, which is what you're selecting when the layer selection changes.

Can you please provide a copy of your Publisher document here, so I can look into this further?

Many thanks in advance!

[KenOlisa]

Dear all.  Thanks for your rapid response to my cry for help.  very much appreciated.

Reading your different questions and suggestions, I think that the answer lies in my (mis)use of the Master pages.  Rather than waste your valuable time investigating what is increasingly looking like  'operator error' I'm going to reset them to see if it solves the problem and I will revert with the news.  Again, many thanks.

[thomaso]

On 9/8/2020 at 2:37 PM, Dan C said:

4 text frames, 2 containing your text, and I suspect 2 empty text frames directly above these frames

I rather suppose the apparently 'empty' frames are indeed containing a page number field on the master page. – Since these frames are placed ~ 0,5 cm below the story text frames there would be no reason to select them when the text tool clicks on a word ~ 4 cm above the pagination frames.

I wonder whether it's related to a text frame selection issue recently reported:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/121611-selecting-the-wrong-frame/
Here the selection issue is a side effect, the main topic is about an export issue:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/122170-publisher-export-selection-to-jpeg-or-png-without-background-issue/

 

[KenOlisa]

I thought that I had cracked it.  I set up a new Master set - no page number fields - and copied the old document into the new one.  But again I have experienced this strange jumping phenomenon which I have captured in the attached screen video

I make sure that the Left Spread is selected but when I try to select text I jump to the Right Spread and text on the facing page is selected!

It doesn't make a difference if I use the Artistic or Frame tools.   Any ideas?

[thomaso]

As @Dan C already asked for can you upload this document, or an .afpub with affected example objects?

[KenOlisa]

thomaso  Thanks for following up.  I didn't load up a file as I thought I had cracked it.  I was wrong!  Here is the file for your study.  Interestingly, I tried to just send the two pages in the video but when I deleted the others, the problem stopped.........

Any advice would be very welcome. 

Test_for_help.afpub

[thomaso]

How got the text created and formatted: Is it an imported .idml or .doc(x), and got the styles imported, too?

I notice this odd selection behavior most often with text frames in your file which have a numbered or bullet list (but apparently not all of those pages). The issue appears to be in particular that a text frame behaves as if it would start at the upper left corner of a spread of facing page, regardless whether it is on a left or right page. 

With no object selected when moving around with the Frame Text Tool it shows two cursors: the "T" cursor   for dragging a new frame, or the text cursor for editing text. At the affected frames you see the text cursor only even left of and above the affected frames. If you export an affected text frame as Selection (not page or spread) (you need to detach its master layer for this) then the exported area is larger than the text frame: it starts at the upper left corner of the spread. – Both occurrences remind me to the reported selection issue linked above.

Workaround:
Here it seems to fix the issue if I first assign a different style (e.g. "MAD Body") and then I re-assign their initial styles. After I did so on pages 35, 43, 44 each of them were not affected of the issue after the re-assigning. – That would mean it's not a matter of the styles themselves, which made me wonder how styles were assigned at first, e.g. during import?

[Old Bruce]

On 9/10/2020 at 3:15 PM, KenOlisa said:

thomaso  Thanks for following up.  I didn't load up a file as I thought I had cracked it.  I was wrong!  Here is the file for your study.  Interestingly, I tried to just send the two pages in the video but when I deleted the others, the problem stopped.........

Any advice would be very welcome. 

Test_for_help.afpub 3.79 MB · 3 downloads

I have been messing about with this and it seems to me that there is some problem with the Master Page "Content Pages" in that if I delete the Left Page's Text Frame and then copy the Right Page's Text frame and relink the text flow all seems fine. 

It makes me curious as to how the Master Pages were made. Is this an imported or copied document? Were the Master Pages made by duplication?

[KenOlisa]

Old Bruce, thank you for persevering with this.  I created the Content Pages from scratch.  Drawing a text frame on each of the two pages (L and R) and then adding the page number text boxes.

The text on each page is copied and pasted from a MSFT word document - all done on my iMac.