Text Threading Error

[RenWaller]

I'm sure someone must have written about this before, but since it still hasn't been fixed I thought I would bring it up. 

It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes when threading text between frames, the text style doesn't keep at all. It still says it's the same, but in the menu, but between frames it's either way smaller or way bigger than what it should be. Applying the style again usually fixes it, but it gets really complicated when the text transitions between frames.

It happens in the beta too.

Can this be fixed?

2378 OIG Trifold.afpub

[walt.farrell]

A screenshot might help us focus on the area of the document that has the problem; I'm not seeing it easily. (Though maybe that's just me )

Also, just from your description, this has been discussed many times. The known causes are:

1. User Error: When adjusting the size of a Text Frame, if you use the detached handle to the lower right below the frame, that does not simply adjust the size of the frame. It also scales the frame contents.
   
   Soution: To adjust the size of the Text Frame make sure you use one of the attached handles (corners, sides), not the detached handle. But once you've "broken" a text frame by using the wrong handle, all you can do is delete that frame and recreate it.
    
2. Importing an IDML file: Some files cause this problem when imported into Publisher. I'm not sure Serif has ever figured out why.

[garrettm30]

@RenWallerI do see what you mean (@walt.farrell try extending the height of the small text frame at the bottom left of the second page and watch the reflow).

It seems that Walt's explanation #1 (rescaling the text frames rather than resizing) is the cause. It is really hard to tell, since we still have no way to know the scale factor of a given text frame. My recommendation is to redraw the text frames (being careful to avoid the outer scale handle) and put the text back.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, garrettm30 said:

It is really hard to tell, since we still have no way to know the scale factor of a given text frame.

I hope that someday the Affinity developers will expose that information, and allow it to be changed easily via a pair of panel fields. Or at least allow it to be reset completely.

[RenWaller]

Here are some screen shots as it goes both ways (really big and/or really small).

I tried redrawing the text frames and it doesn't seem to solve it. (But it may have this time around. It's just really inconvenient when you're trying to decide positioning.)

[MikeW]

And I hope that Serif provides a preference to hide the frame scaling handle altogether. 

[RenWaller]

As an addition, I'm not trying to rescale the text frame or anything in it, I am simply trying to thread the text (and you can see the crazy size differences in the different frame examples — I did no resizing on my own). Cutting the text and redrawing the frames seemed to work (at least this time), but it is an issue that keeps occurring in different documents.

 

*The text in "Group Health Insurance" is the correct size.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, RenWaller said:

I did no resizing on my own

So you got the size of the frame absolutely correct the first time you drew it, and did not make any adjustments to the frame's size by dragging after that?

[RenWaller]

Sorry, I was referring to the text. I did no resizing of the text. Simply threading it into the next box caused the crazy size changes. 

I think I'm being confusing. The problem I'm having is with the threading/resizing of the text. When I thread it into the next box it gets huge (or tiny). Make any sense? Does the file I sent not do that?

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, RenWaller said:

The problem I'm having is with the threading/resizing of the text. When I thread it into the next box it gets huge (or tiny). Make any sense?

Yes, it makes sense. And it's a symptom of having resized the Text Frame, at some earlier time, using the rescaling handle instead of the attached corner. The rescaling handle changes the size of the frame and of any content it may have now or later.

And once you've done that, the only cure currently is to delete that text frame and draw a new one, and relink it to the prior and following frames to get the text to flow properly again.

Unless you intend that rescaling effect, never use the handle I've highlighted below:

[RenWaller]

That's a really helpful explanation, thank you. I don't seem to remember doing that (as I just created this document), but perhaps you are correct. Thank you for the insight.

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Importing an IDML file: Some files cause this problem when imported into Publisher. I'm not sure Serif has ever figured out why.

Possibly related: In ID you have two options when scaling. Every new object is 100 % and may show a later scaling value or not.

Here a sample of both options if a text frame gets scaled to 150 %:

1. Apply the Scaling to the Content
–> scales text + its values (size, leading etc).
–> shows before + after transforming 100 % in transform panel.

2. Adjust the Scaling Percentage
–> shows before scaling 100 % / after scaling 150 % in the transform panel.
–> scales text but maintains its initial values + adds additionally scaled values in brackets.
–> can be reset to its initial size / or alternatively get the scaled size (150) assigned as 100.

While in ID both scaled objects look the same but display different values, APub interprets their content sizes differently but with unambiguous, correct font sizes.

The ID option to get the scaling value displayed in the transform panel is quite useful, less because its text size (which is displayed in its initial size) but as a control what object (frame) has been changed at all and what are still unscaled since their creation. And, of course and maybe the largest advantage, you can reset a scaled object with 1 click to its 100 % size – while you also may set any size any time as 100 %, too (e.g. if you decide during a design process that various scaled objects shall get set their different scaling values all to 100 % as their new common base). – The option is set in the app preferences and applies to all documents. It may get toggled any time during a session without influencing values of already scaled objects.

 

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, RenWaller said:

That's a really helpful explanation, thank you. I don't seem to remember doing that (as I just created this document), but perhaps you are correct. Thank you for the insight.

You're welcome.

There could, of course, be some additional way your situation could arise as the result of an unknown bug. 

I think that Serif can probably examine your file and determine if that frame was scaled, to give a definitive answer.

[thomaso]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I think that Serif can probably examine your file and determine if that frame was scaled,

What makes you assume that scaling is stored in the document if it was not saved with history?

If this info indeed exists in the file already it would be easier to improve the app and really helpful to get it displayed in the UI. If not as value even just a color marker (e.g. a colored handle) as indicator would make things less ambiguous.

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, thomaso said:

What makes you assume that scaling is stored in the document if it was not saved with history?

Because if the scaling were not stored, somehow, in the document, then the text would not change size when it is adjusted and different text flows into or out of the frame. The scaling does not simply affect whatever text is in the frame now. It affects text added in the future.

That couldn't happen if the frame didn't have some record internally of the scaling that was applied.