Drop Caps number of characters dropped

[Furry]

Very new to APub. In defining a paragraph style for drop caps, I specify that two characters be dropped and indicate the character style for the drop caps. However, no matter what I do, APub only drops the initial character and applies the character style just to that first character. What am I doing wrong?

[firstdefence]

Within the drop cap option you have to uncheck the auto next to the characters option, then select 2 characters.

[Furry]

Thank you for your prompt response, firstdefence. Sadly, I had already done that. I am going to try and upload a screen shot to show you what I mean. You can see my cursor is in the first paragraph and that the necessary items are checked and set. I have asked for 2 line in height for two characters and have set the character style. I have unchecked the Auto box. Yet the paragraph is still only showing the first character dropped and only the first character in the desired character style. The third and fourth characters are the digit “1” and a space, both set to be superscript.

 

Not the same problem and I want to keep this thread on topic. But, as it happens, the paragraph style calls for Optima Regular at 12pt. The actual paragraph is in Calibri Regular at 10pt and it changed to that when I selected “Apply [style name] to paragraphs. 

For the record, 2019 iMac Retina with 27-inch screen running MacOS Mojave 10.14.6.

[GarryP]

If your second character is a space then the software ignores it.
If that’s not the problem then can you tell us exactly what the first four or five characters are at the start of the paragraph?

Your “Bible Reading Text Dropcap 2” paragraph style is based on a “Bible Reading Text Dropcap 1” paragraph style.
Try checking the settings for that style and see what the Drop Caps settings are. There’s a small chance that they could be ‘interfering’ with each other somehow.

Would you be able to upload a cut-down version of the document (just one page of text) so we can experiment with it?

[Furry]

No, the second character is not a space. The fourth character is.

The first five characters are “1”, “1”, “1”, space and “W”. This selection is from chapter 11 and the third “1” is a verse number. “Bible Reading Text Dropcap 2” is designed to be used when the chapter number has two digits. It is based on “Bible Reading Text Dropcap 1” which, as you have probably guessed, is designed to be used when the chapter number has just one digit. Up until now I have been using InDesign and, although I have had no occasion yet to use it in Af-Pub, I also had a “Bible Reading Text Dropcap 3” to use if a reading came from the higher numbered Psalms. No other parts of the Bible run to three-digit chapters.

Curiously, “Bible Reading Text Dropcap 1” works perfectly in the same document and does not cause the font and point size to change. I even tried it out temporarily on the page under review.

I have created a single-page Af-Pub file and have copied and pasted the page of which you have seen portion. I hope that helps. Because I live in Australia, it is now bed-time for me whereas I am aware that many of those who will read this forum are about to eat their lunch. So please forgive me if I am slow to reply at times.

Sample Page.afpub

[GarryP]

See attached video.
There’s something weird going on here but I can’t put my finger on it - how can I specify 2 and also have Auto switched on?
Hopefully one of the experts will be able to shed some light on it.

[Furry]

At least it is not just me!

[GarryP]

Nope, it’s not just you.
I think this may need someone with knowledge of both the design and the code to figure out whether the software is working as expected.
It doesn’t seem right to me but I might be missing some important information.

[Old Bruce]

One of the things I do is look at how the styles are set up and what they are based on. With this document there are far too many styles. What is this item detail Character style? it seems to be added to every Paragraph style. Also the names for the Paragraph styles seem to me to be excessively long, there are at least three Styles with " Drop Cap " in their names.

Are any of these imported from a Word Processor document, or an IDML file? 

[Furry]

Yes, most of these styles are imported from InDesign, not via IDML but simply copy-and-paste. But the sample file that I posted seemed to have a heap of styles created by AfPub from the beginning -- I did not create or import Bullet 1, Bullet 2 etc., nor many of the others.

“Item detail” is not meant to be attached to every paragraph style and I don’t know why it is. It was designed purely for two paragraph styles, “Item Head (news)” and “Item Head (worship)”. In the very first line of text on the sample page (not the asterisks) the paragraph style is “Item Head (worship” and the character style “Item detail” is applied to the Biblical reference on the left-hand side. I do not know how or why that character style has attached itself to all the pother paragraph styles.

I have used InDesign for many years but am feeling very awkward about AfPub as I have not yet learned its particular mind set. I have only been using it for about a week or ten days. The label “Newbie” is appropriately attached to my forum name!

[Old Bruce]

15 hours ago, Furry said:

Yes, most of these styles are imported from InDesign, not via IDML but simply copy-and-paste. But

This will be the source of your problems, there are bound to be features in InDesign which have the same name in Publisher but are not transferring over because the name of the function is the only thing that is the same. 

Rebuild them in Publisher.

[Furry]

Hmmm... I was afraid that might be the case.