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Entire book text disappeared


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I completely laid out a 350 page nonfiction book with lots of quotes and images. Then I added a couple of pages near the start and inserted a TOC. Once I was finished formatting the TOC I noticed that ALL THE BOOK TEXT had disappeared. All the pages and images were still there.

I held down the Ctrl +Z and watched and at some point all the text reappear. So I did not want to redo the TOC and was trying to different things and it froze and crashed and now when I open it I am back to the full TOC with no text.

HELP! It took DAYS OF WORK to format. If I cannot recover the text I AM DONE WITH THIS PROGRAM and will buy MS Publisher. I never had this kind of issue with MSP.

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8 minutes ago, okmike said:

How would that work? Where would I put it so it could be downloaded?

You could simply attach the .afpub file to a post here, if you don't mind everyone being able to see it. Or you could wait for one of the Serif staff to provide a link to their private Dropbox upload site, which would keep it restricted to Serif staff.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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9 minutes ago, okmike said:

How would that work? Where would I put it so it could be downloaded?

You can upload it here (when you add a comment look for the 'Drag files here to attach...' panel).

Or, if you can't do that, request a private upload link and see if somebody from Affinity can look at it for you. Basically there is not a lot we (Affinity users) can do without seeing this file.

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This won't help you with recovering but it may help someone else without a crashed document.

3 hours ago, okmike said:

I held down the Ctrl +Z and watched and at some point all the text reappear. 

At that point you should have started looking at the history panel to see what was done.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

This won't help you with recovering but it may help someone else without a crashed document.

At that point you should have started looking at the history panel to see what was done.

I thought it only showed what I did, but I get your point. It might have showed something. I was looking for the exact point that the text disappeared but then it froze.

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  • Staff

Hi @okmike,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble.

The issue you're reporting is not one I've heard of previously and I suspect both an explanation and resolution could have been provided - but I see that you no longer wish to work with us to help resolve this.

I'm certainly sorry to hear you feel this way, but we thank you for trying Affinity.

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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@Dan CIt seems to me that okmike is frustrated by the loss of 350 pages of text which is understandable. I do not have the impression that he really intend no longer to use Affinity. If I were you, I would have asked him for the Publisher file anyway. Maybe it is not too late and you can give him a (private) link so Affinity team can look into it. It is possible that okmike came accross an error which was just lurking around the corner. Therefore, it is better to support him delivering the file in question than accepting his "bye bye".

@okmikeI am struggling with Publisher to for some reason and to be honest, it is because, I want to run before I can walk. I understand that Publisher is a very complex program with a lot of features and therefore, has a steeper learning curve than PagePlus X9. I perfectly understand your frustration, but don't allow negative emotions rule your actions because, that minimise the chance of a successfull solution. Despite all the negativity caused by loosing 350 pages, remain positive because it is from that side the solution will come. If you can, just do what others already asked you and post the file here in this thread. There are very knowledgeable people here, which maybe can do wonders with your file or at least gives you good advice. Despite my struggling with Publisher, I find it an excellent application. Last week I bought a course from Ezra and Ally Anderson (Affinity Revolution) about Publisher (by the way I also bought their Designer and Photo courses too) just because of my struggling. When I watch their course, I see why I am struggling so much.

But back to your problem. Did you not save your files in between steps with different version numbers? For example, if your file had the name "MyFirstBook" then you add "MyFirstBook_v1" and after another important edit you do another "Save As..." and give the filename "MyFirstBook_v2". You save all those versions until the project is finished or when you sure you do not need a version anymore. Whatever application you use, you should make a habit of this method because once in a while, every application can crash.

Which version of Affinity Publisher and operating system are you using? If you have dropbox or Google Drive, you can upload the file there and post a link here. In that way, we can take a look into your file. Maybe on somebody else machine, your text reappear, who knows? Personally, I think you are better of with Affinity Publisher then with MS Publisher. In the end, the decision is yours.

Chris

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Yes I saved the file, but I did not save it as a different file. I found MS Publisher online free, since I had previously purchased 2013 but lost the code. I would likely be prevented from using it anyway, because greedy corps expect you to buy it again when your PC wears out and you get a new one. Freaking greedy lunatics. Good thing people are able to crack them.

I am already almost 1/3rd finished with the book with much less frustration. Going faster than with Affinity but will have to do the TOC and Index manually.

So many bugs with Affinity. Maybe in 5 years it will be usable. I especially hated that it would continually hide a Style inside another style. I had to look for it a lot before I finally found it, and then I had to continually click the main style to get the nested style to show up again, and again, and again. This program is just not ready for prime time.

Edited by okmike
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If you have an Office 365 account, MS Publisher is already part of it. Personally, I would not use cracked software because the risks are too high. Only the sun shines for free. You never know what is added to the cracked code.

I agree with you that the organization of styles, has to be improved. The present system is very confusing. It is not clear to me if you are referring to the Cascading Style Sheets (hierachical style structure) or how the Cascading Style Sheets are organized in Publisher. I am sure we both know how those hierarchical styles work, so I assume it is  the latter. You are correct, that can be very much simpler and clearer. Take a look at the included screencapture coming from Ragtime. It looks outdated while it is taken from Ragtime 6.6.6 which is the recent version. However, looking outdated, you see with one glance the overview of the styles and which style is inherrited from another style.

Affinity Publisher is created with the visual designers in mind. I am sure when when we ask the people here on the forum, based on what they see in the screencapture, which system they prefer, that the majority choose the Publisher way of organizing. The reason is that most people in the design world, are visual  types. So the non-visual types like you and me, have difficulty with the Publisher way but excel in the way Ragtime organize styles. Back in 1992, I was terrible with PageMaker but excelled in Quark Xpress. PageMaker was just too loose for me while, Quark Xpress with its frames, was just  the perfect match for me. With my  teacher, it was just the other way around, he sweared by PageMaker. The frame based working both in Publisher and Ragtime makes both of them my preferred choice. I use Publisher for publications where no calculations are necessary, Ragtime when I have to combine design with calculations or with heavy use of tables.

If I were you, I would not give up on Publisher. Despite of the bugs, it is a very powerfull application even in its first incarnation. Many people here use it daily and create astonishing applications with it. Because I have an Office 365 subscription, I took a look at MS Publisher for the very first time. Within 5 minutes, I could use Master pages, creating a new style and had no problems with the organization of styles. The difference between Apub and MS Publisher is that the latter is much more mature than Apub. On the other hand, Apub despite in its 1. version has already much more features. Even when it is included in my Office subscription, I still prefer to use Apub and Ragtime.

Don't make your decision in haste. When your book is finished, try to re-create it  again in Apub and see what happens. Make sure, if the error strikes again that you know your steps so you can share the whole process with Affinity. Only in this way, the Affinity team can solve the problem so it doesn't occur again in the future. A software development team is relying in many cases on user experience. If we do not document and share a problem or error with the developers, then we also contribute to the error to remain present. Dan C assumed too fast  that you really want to leave because he was mislead by your frustration. I can tell, based on your comments, that you not really want to leave but just let yourself lead your frustration. If you can, just post your damaged book file here. You never know that  the lost text shows up in somebody else's computer.

I hope you will reconsider Apub again and give it another chance. Anyway, I wish you every success with your book!

Chris

 

ParagraphStyleDialog.png

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I has nothing to do with visual or non, it has to do with quick and easy work. If I have to make several clicks instead of one, I choose the one. Why make me click then click again when all you have to do is show the stupid style in the box? This makes it more time consuming and troublesome. But the issue of losing 350 pages is the deal-breaker. I will not risk it again. Perhaps in a few years after many updates.

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I don't have Office, not paying for a subscription. Had it, but because of installing several times when I had to reinstall windows it will not allow it. So I am done buying it. I use WPS Office which is free and uses Word docs and is REALLY almost as good as Word.

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You are correct, losing 350 pages is a true deal-breaker. Believe me, I understand and respect your frustration. But why not uploading that file here, so that other people can take a look at it? Maybe there is someone who find the cause or maybe rescue your text, who knows? I think there is nothing to loose in doing so.

Your complaint about how to use the styles in Affinity Publisher is valid, I do agree too.

I also have WPS Office and it comes indeed very close to Microsoft Office. In fact it was the first Office alternative on the market and when my memory is not failing me, it is now more than 20 years on the market.

Wish you all the best.

Chris

 

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On 4/1/2022 at 7:18 AM, Bad_Wolf said:

... save your files in between steps with different version numbers? For example, if your file had the name "MyFirstBook" then you add "MyFirstBook_v1" and after another important edit you do another "Save As..." and give the filename "MyFirstBook_v2". You save all those versions until the project is finished or when you sure you do not need a version anymore.

I absolutely agree.

I was a professional science writer for some 20 years, and mostly had to use Microsoft Word (5 was the last good version). It was fairly routine for Word to crash and lose a whole file during a spellcheck, even on magazine articles. Of course, I had to run one more spellcheck just before sending a file to an editor.

Saving multiple named versions was essential. I never discarded them until after the article or book was published. For a book I wrote, or (long) textbooks I edited, I worked in chapters, saving multiple versions of each chapter. And I'm only talking about the words, not the layout, illustrations, etc.

On a Mac, you can use Time Machine to get hourly off-line backups (or as often as you like manually or with Backup Scheduler). There must be similar software for windows.

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18 hours ago, okmike said:

I has nothing to do with visual or non, it has to do with quick and easy work. If I have to make several clicks instead of one, I choose the one. Why make me click then click again when all you have to do is show the stupid style in the box? This makes it more time consuming and troublesome. But the issue of losing 350 pages is the deal-breaker. I will not risk it again. Perhaps in a few years after many updates.

It would be helpful if you would upload the file for Serif to examine, for at least two reasons:

  1. If there is a bug, that may let them figure it out and get it fixed.
  2. Perhaps there is not a bug, but you may have made some small mistake that lead you to think your text was lost. I can think of at least one scenario where it would be merely hidden. In that case, they could explain your mistake to you.

They can provide a private upload link if you would like to proceed further with this.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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6 minutes ago, okmike said:

I am willing to upload the file to the company if they send me a link.

 

Thanks!

I'm sure @Dan C can do that when sees this.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • Staff

Apologies as I was not working this past weekend, hence the delay. @okmike please find an upload link below -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/ZDHim7qOkrxXAduowtfl

Please reply here to let me know once this has been uploaded, many thanks in advance :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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  • Staff

Many thanks for providing this!

It appears you have 'broken' the link between flowing frames from page 3 onwards, hence the 'red eye' icon shown here - 

image.png

If you link this to your frame after the TOC, you will find all of your text is still within the document.

We'd also recommend keeping regular backup versions of your files separately from the main file you are working on, just in case you experience any further crashing.

I hope this helps :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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