Too much space between paragraphs

[Bad_Wolf]

Hi everybody,

Can you please help me with the following problem in Affinity Publisher for Windows?

I have a text frame and a text baseline grid of 18 pt. Leading is also 18 pt and there is no space between two paragraphs. All the text is aligned to the baseline grid. The text is nicely in register with the baseline.

However, I have an intro line and then the accompanion introducing  the content of the text below it. So intro text and the text directly below are separate paragraphs. There is always an empty line in between. It is like the intro text is too big, but it is not. The intro text is the same height as the other text.

I am searching for hours now to find what I do wrong but I cannot find it. I attach the file with this post so you can see.

Please, can you tell me what is going wrong here? I will appreciate your help very much because I am completely stuck. Thank you in advance.

Chris

 

[walt.farrell]

Did you include the file? I don't see one.

[thomaso]

Possibly there is a space defined after/before paragraphs?

[Bad_Wolf]

Thank you Walt Farrell and Thomaso,

I appreciate your input very much.

I included the file but it seems to get lost after edit. I  do not know what I did. To be fair, I include the document with this reply again.

But Thomaso is correct, it was the spacing after a paragraph inside the paragraph tab which was responsible. It was set to 12pt but I did not set that value. Affinity Publisher for some reason put the value of that field to 12.

Something else which puzzles me is  that in the paragraph styles I used that value was 0. Still Publisher took the value of 12 from the paragraph tab instead of those values specified in the text styles. I taught a defined style has precedence over those values in the paragraph tab. Clearly not.

My advice is if you experience such kind of strange things, look into the tab panels to check the values there. In my case, it was the paragraph tab but I can imagine that the same can happen with the character tab.

Wish you both a very nice day and all the best!

Chris

202011_01.afpub

[thomaso]

57 minutes ago, Bad_Wolf said:

It was set to 12pt but I did not set that value. Affinity Publisher for some reason put the value of that field to 12.

In this case it is caused by the style currently saved as "[No Style]" ... followed by several custom saved text style settings:

You can display the "[No Style]" setting in the upper section of the Text Styles Panel.
Unfortunately it is very tiny, even in unfolded mode. Here I copied its content to a new text frame for easier overview, its space after 12 pt becomes obvious:

Since your style "Intro" is set to be based on "Basestyle" which is based on "[No Style]" while both your custom styles have the space after set to "[No change]" which will make them use the setting saved in "[No Style]".

 

Unfortunately the style "[No Style]" can not be set with an editor window but gets its setting rather from a selected text and its formatting which can be saved via the "Synchronize" button in the toolbar (+ optionally for the entire app via menu Edit > Defaults > Save).

 

[Bad_Wolf]

Hello Thomaso,

Thank you so much for your detailed and clear explanation which helped me greatly in understanding the Publisher way of handling styles.

I expected that the "BaseStyle" I created, would have left the values I did not change to 0 even when it was based unintentionally on "No Style". When I am using CSS, the first thing I do is a CSS-reset. Then from there on, I start defining my own parameters for the tags I use.

With the "BaseStyle" it was my intention to do kind of the same but I failed because one parameter (space after in paragraphs) was still set by the "No Style" style.

Without your detailed explanation I would succeed in getting it right, however without  truly understanding what I am doing. Now I see and understand where my thinking was wrong.

Whatever application I use, I  always have a "basestyle" where all my other styles are based on. I only put the common used formatting in that "basestyle". Then I move on with styles like "intro's" or "bodies" where I only change  those values which need to be different.

I will create a document with a "BaseStyle" present, which put all values to "0" or  the standard values I use most. Then I will import this "BaseStyle" with every document I create. In this way, I know for sure which values I have to set or change.

Thank you again for helping me.

Wish you a very nice day and all the best.

Chris

 

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Bad_Wolf said:

(...) it was based unintentionally on "No Style"

(...) failed because one parameter (space after in paragraphs) was still set by the "No Style" style.

Note that – possibly different to CSS – the style "[No Style]" always has a specific formatting saved, e.g. a certain font face, size, leading, ... etc. – so it's name "No" is kind of misleading. That means if you create a new saved style and do NOT alter its default "Based on:" property in the Text Style Editor window then you define your style this way kind of intentionally as being related to "[No Style]".

Additionally this can appear more complex & confusing by a certain Affinity feature: When choosing the Text tool + activating "No Style" then a newly created object often appears in the style of the recently used formatting in this document. This can make it easier to maintain a current setting while working, for instance to draw all new curves with the same stroke width and color (instead of NO stroke at first). So, if I open your document and...
1. select the Text Tool,
2. select "No Style",
3. create a new text frame + some text,
then it appears in a look used in your document (e.g. font family: "Century Schoolbook", font weight/face: "Italic",... etc.) though "No Style" is selected. To get rid of this formatting I can use the button "Revert Defaults", also I can intentionally save my custom Defaults with my custom application (but not with a specific document !). That means you can use the Defaults for both, to reset any formatting and to define a certain formatting as Defaults (either temporary in the current session or saved for the app).

So to start editing a new style you could a.) first create a text frame + click the "Revert Defaults" button in the toolbar and/or b.) first clear any unintended property of "[No Style]" with an intentionally styled text selected by using the Defaults "Synchronise" (+ optionally "Save") option.

[Bad_Wolf]

Hi Thomaso,

Thank you so much for your long and clear explanation which I appreciate so much. Please, accept my apology  for replying so late but for some reason, I did not notice your reply. Honestly, there is no excuse and believe me, I do appreciate your help so much.

A few weeks  ago I ordered the Publisher Workbook and will follow the tutorials to learn more about Publisher. I had to finish the particular project fast with a tight deadline, so I assumed too much.

Thank you again for your useful advice.

Wish you a nice day and all the best.

Chris