Resizing a text box changes the line height of the text inside

[weheartgames]

I have a document that behaves strangely when I resize the textboxes in it. As I drag the bottom handle to resize the text box, the line height increases. See the attached video. This does NOT happen on a new document. You can download the document I'm working on here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h32y6agrvo5pegz/2020-11-NOV-Issue.afpub?dl=0

I'm using Publisher version 1.8.4 on Mac OS 10.14.6; MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015).

[MEB]

Hi weheartgames,
You are resizing the group that contains the text frame, not the text frame itself (check the Layers panel to see what's selected). If you select it instead, it will scale properly. I'm checking why it behaves like this inside the group.

[Old Bruce]

I cannot be certain but I think it may be down to the fact that you are not resizing the Text Frame so much as the Group containing the text frame is being resized. No need for a group there as far as I can see.

[weheartgames]

Yep, that's it! I must have fat-fingered Command+G on that text box at some point without realizing it. Thanks so much, I definitely wouldn't have figured that out on my own! Is there some visual indication that you have a group selected? Or do you just have to click the "Layer" menu item, to see if "Ungroup" is available?

[MEB]

No, there's no visual indication on canvas that you have a group selected. You can check the status bar on bottom to see what's selected (it should say 'Group' selected - some tools may not show it), the Layers panel, or deduct from the Layers menu or right-click functions as you have done.

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, MEB said:

there's no visual indication on canvas that you have a group selected.

There was no scaling handle shown for what otherwise looked like a text frame, which provides a hint

[carl123]

33 minutes ago, weheartgames said:

Or do you just have to click the "Layer" menu item, to see if "Ungroup" is available?

In this instance, when you have the group selected rather than the text frame you will not have the auto-flow arrows that appear when you have selected the text frame

Also, in the context toolbar, in your video, you will also see it says Group (far left) and there is an Ungroup button

[MEB]

walt,
That's only valid (exceptionally) if the group contains a text frame, for any other objects including artistic text there's no indication you are dealing with a group on canvas. The context toolbar hints and Ungroup button appear if you have the Move Tool selected only.

[Olaf Welling]

I’ll attach my question here, as it is about the very same subject: How can I scale a group of things, text among these, so that the text is scaled, too? I’d prefer numeral scaling of 200% right now.

[Old Bruce]

23 minutes ago, Olaf Welling said:

I’ll attach my question here, as it is about the very same subject: How can I scale a group of things, text among these, so that the text is scaled, too? I’d prefer numeral scaling of 200% right now.

If the text is in an Art Text frame it will scale using the Transform panel. So you would need to copy and paste from a Frame Text frame into one.

[garrettm30]

On 11/25/2020 at 9:09 AM, Olaf Welling said:

How can I scale a group of things, text among these, so that the text is scaled, too?

Select the group, then drag the outer handle at the bottom right corner of the selection (the handle that seems to be floating outside of the rest of the box).

Note that when you do that, currently Affinity apps do not display the scale factor in the UI, so you have no idea if and by how much a text frame is scaled. This weakness has been often bemoaned on the forums, and indeed it can lead to some confusing results with linked text boxes.

I understand your preference for numerical scaling (which I generally share). Unfortunately, I do not know how you can scale numerically (as a single operation) in a way that text scales as well. Off the top of my head, if absolutely I absolutely needed that, this cumbersome workaround might do the trick:

1. Duplicate the group.
2. Resize the copied group numerically (the text will not be resized).
3. With snapping turned on, drag the outer handle of the original group until its size snaps to the duplicate.
4. Delete the duplicate.

Anyone with a better idea?

Anyway, the request for improvement in this area seems valid to me.