Publisher 1.8.5.703/Windows: Text Flow Import: Only Right Hand Master Page gets applied

[Peter Falkenberg Brown]

Hi Folks....

I am royally stuck. I'm working on a book, using Publisher 1.8.5.703/Windows.

I created two master pages: a right-hand page (B) and a left-hand page (A), with inner margins wider than the outer margins.

I created a doc with text frames in the doc (not on the master pages). I'm NOT using facing pages spread. (I tested this problem with facing pages, but it made no difference.)

I pasted a long Word doc into a spot in between some pages, and after a while discovered that some of my pages were all using the *right-hand* master page.

So, I've repeatedly deleted all the pages except page one, and then set page one to use Master Page "Right", and then shift-clicked on the red arrow to flow in my document (that is already saved internally in the publisher file). It consistently uses the right-hand Master Page for all 300 pages.

I tried applying Master Page Left to the even number pages, and it did that correctly, but then the imported text frames were not positioned correctly (they were too far to the right).

* I was hoping that the shift-click import would automatically use the right hand master for the odd-numbered pages and the left-hand master for the even-numbered pages, but it didn't.

I tried creating text frames on the masters, but the shift-click on document page one ignored them.

I thought I had this figured out a while ago, but I couldn't find any notes (I ran into it before), and I've searched the forums for over an hour, with no luck.

* I don't want to have to move each left-page text frame by hand, and it seems like this should be an operation that automatically works, on a shift-click import.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

Peter Brown

 

[Wosven]

Hi @Peter Falkenberg Brown

When you tested with double master pages, were the frames linked?

[Peter Falkenberg Brown]

I tried to link them by shift clicking on the left and right master text frames, but I don't think I did it correctly.

Is there a specific operation that will link a frame on the left master page to the text frame on the right one?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Peter Falkenberg Brown said:

Is there a specific operation that will link a frame on the left master page to the text frame on the right one?

Click the link icon on the text frame on the left page. Then click the text frame on the right page.

[Old Bruce]

I do realize that you want to work with single page spreads in Publisher. But what you are wanting to do with different margins for the left and the right pages can very easily be achieved by using a single double page spread. After you are done you can export the double page spreads as single pages in a PDF.

On a double page spread Master page make your left and right Text Frames and link them by clicking on the left page text flow triangle and then going to the right page text flow triangle and clicking on it, not Shift Clicking as you said in you second post. On your actual pages you can autoflow the text from page one (the only page) by Shift Clicking on the text flow triangle.

[Peter Falkenberg Brown]

Dear Walt and Bruce,

Thank you very much for your responses!

I went through a number of iterations of tests, and this is what I ultimately landed on:

* The linked text frames on the master pages are not necessary. The lack of them made no difference with the steps below.

* The Facing Page spread makes all the difference, and with that selected, the shift-select on page one imports all of the pages into the correct *text frames* -- i.e. with the left page and right page text frames positioned correctly.

After testing with master page text frames (linked correctly) and without, there was one behavior that consistently happened, to wit:

*** All of the imported pages still received the right hand "B" master page.

* However, I then was able to right click on the left-hand "A" master page and select "apply to all even-numbered pages," and then everything was correct, i.e. the left pages had a correctly margined left-hand master page that matched the correct position of the text frame.

So: I think this qualifies as a bug, i.e. the text is imported into the correct *frame position* but all the pages have the right hand "B" master page applied, which is incorrect.

Fortunately, that last step of applying master page A was a quick fix.

And now it all works, except for that one bug.

I think this deserves a) a bug fix, and b) a write-up somewhere explaining the steps. It might exist, but I couldn't find it, and spent over 2 hours on this last night. Does the write-up exist anywhere?

Thanks again!!!

Peter

 

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, Peter Falkenberg Brown said:

*** All of the imported pages still received the right hand "B" master page.

If you didn't have the text frames on the Master Page, then I think that the shift+click method creates new pages based on the same Master that the original page had. So, since you started with a right-hand page, with the right-hand Master applied to it, the subsequent pages might have that Master even if they're left-hand pages. That might be intended. Or not. Feel free to post that as a bug, and see what happens.

If you had started properly with the linked frames on the left/right Master pages, it would have all worked as you expected.

[Peter Falkenberg Brown]

Dear Walt,

In fact, I *did* do as you described, more than once, with linked text frames on the master pages. Same result.

I linked them by:

- clicking on the left master page text frame's arrow on the bottom right

- double clicking on the right-hand master page to bring it into the editing window

- clicking on the center of the text frame in that right-hand master page.

Note that I only started with document page one, which has a right-hand master.

Would it have worked differently, if I had started with page one and two?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[walt.farrell]

That's surprising, Peter.

Whenever I set up a facing-page master with two linked text frames, and with one document page on the right, and I paste in a bunch of text and shift+click the linking icon, I get both the left- and right-hand masters applied exactly as I would expect.

Here's an example where I just did that: Facing-Master-Sample-Text-Flow.afpub

[Peter Falkenberg Brown]

Dear Walt,

Yes, interesting. Doncha just hate bugs that are intermittent?

I copied a book document that I had previously created, and then deleted most of the content, edited some other pages, and then pasted in about 100 pages of text from a Word doc. I then formatted those pages, which then became 250+ pages.

Then, having saved that afpub doc, I got to the point where I deleted all of the pages except page one, and then hit shift click, which brought in the content that had previously been saved.

So, I don't know if there's something in that hidden content that identifies it as master page right. I don't know how Publisher is storing its data when you delete the pages. It obviously keeps the *content* of those pages in its file, and restores it into "pages" when you shift-click.

As a programmer, but not knowing how Affinity stores data, it would be my presumption that the data I stored isn't "clean," but has some type of left-over marker that confuses the master page process.

Just speculating...

Peter