Columns in text frames

[SarahC]

I seem to be unable to make a multi column text frame.

I draw a text frame, then open the text frame palette. I try to increase the number of columns, in the dialogue box using the arrows or typing in the box. I can click this on/type whatever number I choose, but there is still just one column in the text frame. The details of the columns underneath shows the full width of the box as a column, with nothing in the gutter column.

When I click out of the text frame and back in again, the column dialogue box reverts to showing 1.

I've watched the tutorial on this, but following what they're doing is not working for me...

Does anyone have any ideas?

Affinity Publisher 1.9.3

[loukash]

This should actually work.
Does it happen in every new document?
Did you quit and relaunch Publisher?

[SarahC]

Thanks for replying @loukash.

I tried starting a new file, restarting publisher, updating publisher, (my Mac crashed at this point so I restarted in safe mode and ran disk utilities before continuing...), restarting my Mac, creating another new file, working on text frames on master pages and those on non-masters. All to no avail!

I opened an InDesign idml file (from cs6) which has a multi column text frame and it worked fine.

I'm stumped!

[Old Bruce]

Use the Move tool to select the text frame and then hit the enigmatically shaped icon for reverting to the factory defaults.

[SarahC]

Thanks for the suggestion, @Old Bruce. I'd wondered what that button did  :-)

Sadly, it doesn't solve this problem. I've started another new file, drawn a new text box, put some placeholder text in (just in case the empty box was the problem), tried changing the columns (same problem), hit the factory defaults button and tried again. But same thing. It just doesn't work.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.9.5, which is the oldest OS the Affinity web site says Publisher is compatible with. Perhaps that is the problem?

[loukash]

10 minutes ago, SarahC said:

I'm running Mac OS X 10.9.5

That would have been my next question.

11 minutes ago, SarahC said:

Perhaps that is the problem?

From what I read on the forums, there are difinitely some issues with Affinity on Mavericks or Yosemite that don't affect newer MacOS versions. This could be another one. (For the record, I'm using mostly El Capitan which also has its own set of quirks with Affinity.)

Is there a particular reason why you don't update your Mac to a newer MacOS version?
(As in: I have definitely my reasons to use El Capitan as my "mission critical" MacOS partition, but my MacBook can boot almost any version from Mountain Lion up to Catalina if needed.)

[SarahC]

@loukash I use InDesign CS6 for my business (typographic design). And I understand that it won't work (or will have problems) if I update my OS any further, which would be a major headache. I'm trialing Publisher as a potential replacement, hoping I could use both for a while while I learn my way around the new programme. I had thought of partitioning, but have done this in the past with messy combinations of Adobe software versions and found it really irritating!

How disappointing: I'd found the amazing optical alignment controls in Publisher and think they're fab!

[Fixx]

25 minutes ago, SarahC said:

I use InDesign CS6 for my business (typographic design). And I understand that it won't work (or will have problems) if I update my OS any further, which would be a major headache.

Mojave should be OK with CS6, at least I do not have any (major) problems with it.

[loukash]

44 minutes ago, SarahC said:

I use InDesign CS6 for my business (typographic design). And I understand that it won't work (or will have problems)

I use ID CS.5.5 on El Capitan without any more problems than what I was experiencing on Mountain Lion previously. As in: it will sometimes crash no matter what.
In some of my earlier testings it also worked reliably on Sierra, but I opted for El Capitan for other compatibility reasons (namely with my allegedly "obsolete" semiprofessional Firewire audio hardware), and for easy syncing with my backup MacBook (2008) that cannot run anything higher than El Capitan anyway. There are a few stability problems with Illustrator CS5(.0) on El Capitan which need to be worked around, but If you know about them and avoid those steps, it's easily manageable. Don't know if they also affect AI CS6.

However, I'm not using the actual "creative suite", I was always upgrading each CS app individually if needed; ironically, that was cheaper in the long run than upgrading to the complete suite en bloc.

44 minutes ago, SarahC said:

I had thought of partitioning, but have done this in the past with messy combinations of Adobe software versions and found it really irritating!

It's a process that definitely needs some planning.
In fact, I have waited until late 2019 to even give up Mountain Lion as my main OS of choice, the official release of Affinity Publisher lacking Mountain Lion support being one of the reasons.

Before the transition, I have cloned the original Mountain Lion hard drive to two fast 64 GB high quality USB sticks (excluding my Documents folder to save space), upgraded one to El Capitan and the other one to Sierra to test which apps and drivers would fail and how I could work around it.

After testing it, I bought a high quality 2 TB SSD, partitioned it accordingly and installed Mountain Lion (64 GB), El Capitan (1.6 TB), Sierra (64 GB), High Sierra (64 GB), Mojave (64 GB) and Catalina (64 GB). All documents and all frequently used apps are on the El Capitan partition, obviously, the other partitions being for occasional need of otherwise incompatible apps, or for testing only. (It's actually waaay more complex, but I won't go into details here. )

So, if your Mac still supports replaceable hard drives, you could just swap them, keeping the old drive intact and put it in a USB 3 enclosure for external booting if needed.
I even still have the original bootable Leopard 250 GB hard drive from the 2008 MacBook archived.

If it's already got a non-swapable drive, you can clone it to an external USB drive as a bootable backup, then upgrade the internal drive.

In any case, whatever you choose to do: Backup, backup, backup!

[Wosven]

HI @SarahC,

Can you share the file? Without knowing the width of the page, it's difficult to check if your columns are too wide or not...

Do you have problems with older files with columns already set?

Apub_4columns.afpub

ApubBeta_4columns.afpub

[sfriedberg]

13 hours ago, Wosven said:

Can you share the file? Without knowing the width of the page, it's difficult to check if your columns are too wide or not...

I was thinking along the same lines.  Maybe the width of the 1st column doesn't allow any others to fit in the frame/page.

[SarahC]

Hi @Wosven and @sfriedberg 👋

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think it looks like this is due to a problem with Publisher running on my operating system (OS 10.9.5), although I'll happily share a file with you.

@Wosven I've opened your Apub_4columns file and the columns appear absolutely fine - see the screenshot attached. It's similar to if I open an idml file from InDesign CS6. That works too.

I'm also attaching a Demo file I've made, and a screenshot of it as it appears in my software. I've included the transform palette do you can see the width of the text frame at the same time as the (not working) columns dialogue box.

I think if my Demo file works fine for you guys then that will confirm that it's a problem with running Publisher on my old mac. 😞

 

Demo.afpub

[SarahC]

@loukash - Thanks so much for the response. It all sounds very complex! 

The setup I have now, 10.9.5 with CS6 works perfectly for me. There are no problems. The problem will come when my computer eventually fails (it's 8 years old now) and I won't be able to run CS6 on a new machine.

I really do think Publisher looks fantastic, so I'm wondering about buying a license now so I have it ready to use on a new computer whenever I need it. It's just a shame I can't use both for a while while I learn how Publisher works. It's going to take a while to learn my way around!

[Wosven]

@SarahC,

I had no problem adding column to your file (in the Beta APub) on Windows.

[Lee D]

@SarahC We're aware of some UI issues that are affecting previous/older versions of macOS. These are logged with our developers to investigate further, however we don't have a timeframe on them being resolved.

[loukash]

5 hours ago, SarahC said:

attaching a Demo file I've made

Works fine on El Capitan.

5 hours ago, SarahC said:

It all sounds very complex! 

Of course, such an upgrade can always be made "less complex".
But if you want to be on the safe side – and you should if you're using your Mac to make a living – then some safety measures are highly recommended.

5 hours ago, SarahC said:

10.9.5 with CS6 works perfectly for me. There are no problems.

You're likely connecting to the internet with your Mac, right? Eventually it will break because Mavericks won't support modern protocols anymore. That's already the case with Mountain Lion: no more Messages, no more FaceTime, broken App Store, barely usable Safari, Waterfox Classic being the last usable browser.

5 hours ago, SarahC said:

The problem will come when my computer eventually fails (it's 8 years old now) and I won't be able to run CS6 on a new machine.

8 years is not that bad. My main MacBook Pro is the mid-2012 model, the last one with matte display and a built-in DVD drive. And they will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands! And as noted, I also have a MBP from 2008 which is still my "beaten up" backup and travel machine. Both equipped with a 2TB SSD drive, they are now faster than ever. The only weak point is – as always – the battery: the available aftermarket replacement batteries are of mediocre quality at best and will start failing rather sooner than later.

5 hours ago, SarahC said:

It's just a shame I can't use both for a while while I learn how Publisher works.

Really, it's not that complex:

1. get an external USB drive
2. clone *) your internal drive to the USB drive
3. boot from the USB drive and upgrade it to Mojave: support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683
   CS6 apps should still work OK under Mojave: roaringapps.com/app/adobe-indesign-cs6
4. use your Mac while booting from the USB drive for some time until you're sure all works as it should

When you're ready to upgrade for good:

1. get another USB drive to make a final bootable archive backup of your Mavericks drive (you'll never have "too many" backups; only the one "too few" when you'd need it)
2. clone your previously used Mojave USB drive to the internal drive

*) There are several highly reliable apps for cloning drives and performing bootable backups: ChronoSync, SuperDuper, CarbonCopyCloner, just to name a few. I'm using ChronoSync daily for multiple automatic backups, but it can do cloning as well. I also have SuperDuper since the days when ChronoSync didn't have the bootable backup functionality yet. If I were to pick just one, it would be ChronoSync: it can perform literally any thinkable sync or backup scenario that there is. Whereas the other two are more of "a few tricks ponies", even though very good at it.
Disk Utility can also do drive cloning to a limited degree and for free, but that method is definitely more complex.