Artistic tool expansion

[Klaatujohnson]

I lost my expansion bar for the Artistic tool. When you hit the icon, you are supposed to get an expansion bar across the top of work are, now it is gone.

How do I get it back?

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

If that is the only thing missing, then probably you want View > Show Context Toolbar from the menu.

[Klaatujohnson]

Thank you so much! It was driving me crazy! And thank you for the quick response!

I have one more item.

Again, it just started so I think my hand slipped or something-

My TEXT BOX is now set so that the letters only go around the outside of the box. I have tried everything to get them back inside and have failed.

Any suggestions?

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, Klaatujohnson said:

My TEXT BOX is now set so that the letters only go around the outside of the box. I have tried everything to get them back inside and have failed.

Which application are you using?

[Klaatujohnson]

I am sorry. I am not sure h=what you mean?

I am on Windows 10. I have a brand new Affinity installed, last week.

 

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, Klaatujohnson said:

I am sorry. I am not sure h=what you mean?

I am on Windows 10. I have a brand new Affinity installed, last week.

 

Affinity Publisher, or Designer, or Photo?

[Klaatujohnson]

OH! I am using Affinity Publisher.

Thanks again!

[walt.farrell]

View > Studio > Text Frame, and check the Insets. If that isn't it, please provide a screenshot of what you're seeing, as I may have misinterpreted.

Please make sure the Layers panel is included in the screenshot.

[Klaatujohnson]

Thank you sir!

Here is my text box on a blank page. I cannot get the text to inside the box.

[walt.farrell]

That looks like an in issue with the Insets in the Text Frame panel.

[Klaatujohnson]

Thank you very much! I got it!

[Old Bruce]

I am wondering what this 50% refers to? 

[Klaatujohnson]

I have no idea! It is faded out o my screen....

[thomaso]

16 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I am wondering what this 50% refers to? 

It seems to calculate the gutter from the gutter value set in the Columns section of the Text Frame panel.

1 minute ago, Klaatujohnson said:

I have no idea! It is faded out o my screen....

It's faded because there is no gutter for 1 column.

[Old Bruce]

Here on Mac I cannot use a % for Gutter Width.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Here on Mac I cannot use a % for Gutter Width.

It seems to be initialized to 50% in the Context Toolbar on Windows, when Columns = 1. But in the Text Frame panel, the field is not displayed until Columns > 1. Then it initializes to some value in the document's units (e.g., inches).

I can enter a % value, like 50%, in the Gutter field in the Text Frame panel, where it acts like a field expression and modifies the existing Gutter setting. E.g., if the gutter says .333 inches, entering 50% makes the gutter .167 inches. (I have not tried this in the Context Toolbar.)

[thomaso]

17 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I can enter a % value, like 50%, in the Gutter field in the Text Frame panel, where it acts like a field expression and modifies the existing Gutter setting.

Whereas it may appear confusing that the percentage never refers to the frame or column width but always to a previous value of this field. So, after setting the gutter as percentage then setting again a percentage will calculate from the last absolute equivalent – even if you delete the field content before typing the % value.

So for instance if the gutter is e.g. "10 mm" then replacing this by "50%" will result in 5 mm. Now, replacing "5 mm" again by "50%" results in 2,5 mm, while 100% would keep 5 mm. This way it works different to e.g. leading, where % can be calculated from the font size. So its rather like values in the Transform panel, where literally replacing a value differs form adding by a different handling of decimals for the calculation (regardless of their visibility set in the UI).

No issue actually but possibly worth to know.

[Old Bruce]

I get the Document Units in the Gutter Width field. I do not see the 50% greyed out. I just see whatever the value for the gutter is, only one column and I see the value from when there was a gutter in the document units.

I wonder what the 50% would be half of in the screenshot I first put up (which was made from the first one from klaatujohnson)? The width of the frame? The width of a column?  Half of a distance of null? Has to be a mistake/bug in the Windows version.

I can use the % symbol when entering values for an existing gutter width and it behaves like 50% is equivalent to *.5 .

[thomaso]

39 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I get the Document Units in the Gutter Width field. I do not see the 50% greyed out. I just see whatever the value for the gutter is,

Same to me. I can't make any % value in the Gutter field of the Text Frame panel to be 'permanent', means, as soon I leave this field (e.g. by enter key or click anywhere), its entry automatically turns to an absolute value + unit. Good point, because this apparently permanent "50%" in the OP's screenshot made me think it would be related to the frame width.

@walt.farrell, do you get a percentage entry in the Gutter field after you have left it?

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, thomaso said:

do you get a percentage entry in the Gutter field after you have left it?

No. It is immediately applied as an expression when I press Enter or leave that field.