Text will not indent properly when positioned next to an object configured with text wrap.

[BlueSailing]

For some reason, when I insert an object such as a picture into a text block and configure it with text wrap, it becomes impossible to indent new paragraphs when they occur adjacent to the object. (please see red arrows in attached png)

I've had this problem for a couple of years and have always solved it with a workaround by inserting an invisible object which forces a normal paragraph indentation.  But these invisible objects present many problems in a  long document such as a book. 

I've played around with the Picture Frame Borders and with the "Clear Fill on Populate" and "Size Frame to Content" settings but just can't make it work.  Please advise!

 

Thurmond Chuck and Lynda 2.afpub

[Old Bruce]

You have a very tiny offset for the left side of the wrap on the picture.

You have spaces instead of indents set for the paragraph style (you should use the indents from the paragraph style and get rid of the spaces, some are 4 some are five some are...). The spaces are jammed onto the left side of the picture. There is also the word I that is stuffed in there on another line.

 

Easiest way to fix this is to use Largest side.

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You have spaces instead of indents set for the paragraph style...

@BlueSailing To see these leading spaces like in @Old Bruce's screenshot, enable "Show Special Characters" on the Text menu.

[BlueSailing]

Just an incredibly easy fix for such a huge, annoying headache!  Thank you Bruce!

You mentioned paragraph styles.  I work with text styles pretty well but never pay attention to paragraph styles.  

Could you send me a video which might provide some clarity between character, text, and paragraph styles?

 

 

[Hangman]

As @Old Bruce mentions, you have space to the left of the bottom most picture and the Wrap Style you've set is incorrect for what you're trying to achieve. I did the following:

1. Remove all extraneous spaces from the start of each paragrapgh
2. Remove Text Wrap settings, change Text Wrap Style
3. Reset Text Wrap Offset
4. Select Text and set First Line Indent in the Paragraph Panel

Obviously tweak the offset settings to suit...

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, BlueSailing said:

Could you send me a video which might provide some clarity between character, text, and paragraph styles?

I do not know of any video specifically for that but for example, the Text style types help topic has a brief explanation of how they differ & can be used.

So for example, in your afpub file, you have a "Body Style|Directory" paragraph style that is applied to each of its paragraphs. If you select that paragraph style in the Text Styles panel & edit it, you can set the First line indent to some non-zero value like say 0.2 in so you do not have to use leading spaces to get the paragraph indent style you want:

[BlueSailing]

Some points:

• I see what @Hangman did.  He cleaned it up first. Then he set the indents.  I've learned in Publisher that it's always good to clean things up first.  For example, another hoop I'm going to have to jump through sooner or later is cleaning up Master Pages when I add one file into another, or even copy/paste the contents of a page into another file. I'm ending up with a mess of Master Pages, so what I do is apply the new master to overwrite the introduced file and then delete that file's masters which have appeared in the Master Pages Panel.  But that's another topic.
• I understand what you're saying Bruce about changing the paragraph spacing.  But you're doing that in the TEXT Style editor.  You even referred to it as a "Paragraph STYLE".  Here's your comment, ".. in your afpub file, you have a "Body Style|Directory" paragraph style." But it's not a Paragraph Style, it's a Text Style.  It's massively confusing to me in Publisher to decipher Text and Paragraph STYLES.  They just seem to lean on each other too much.  

[R C-R]

32 minutes ago, BlueSailing said:

But you're doing that in the TEXT Style editor.  You even referred to it as a "Paragraph STYLE".  Here's your comment, ".. in your afpub file, you have a "Body Style|Directory" paragraph style."

Actually, I was the one who mentioned the "Body Style|Directory" paragraph style. And that is what it is, a paragraph style, not a text character style. (They are all text styles.)

As for your red 'too many things...' comment note that you are pointing to is the paragraph icon, not the nearby character icon (the one with the lower case "a").

They are two different things, both text styles but different in the scope of what they apply to. Also, there is a separate panel for Paragraph styles, just as there is for Character styles.

[BlueSailing]

I see all of your points rcr and appreciate you clarifying some things.  There was a little bit of an edge to your reply which seemed a littl condescending, although you probably did not mean it that way.  I can only give you my views. Publisher is not for the faint of heart. It has many niche complexities but once you learn how to use them the program functions like a dream. To me, there's just not enough info on character, paragraph, and text styles.  Text styles alone are pretty complicated, especially when you consider how text styles, TOC styles, headings, etc have different purposes.  Then when you import you can bring in a mess of styles that just interfere.  I know there are options to overwrite but those import windows are quite complicated also.  

Maybe a video which explains all 3 would be good. Especially if it covered how to import styles.  I'll throw in here a similar confusion I've had with Master Pages.  I make several different "sections" of a book (for my use, not the reader) and I bring them all together to form the full book.  I can tell you that I had to learn the hard way that all the Masters from all the different sections must be the same, in order to avoid confusion in the final document or book.  I think it must be similar with Text Styles and with whatever you are calling Paragraph Styles.

In the attachment you can see that selecting a Text Box populates both the Text Styles palette and the Paragraph Styles palette. That can be confusing, but especially when you note that there is a world of items in both those lists that I never put there in the first place. Clutter!  I only need FOUR text styles and probably only one paragraph style.

I don't know if you are affiliated with Affinity Revolution, but one of their videos is what I turned to in order to learn how to use Text Styles and TOC styles. They shared a link with a doc that had the text styles they use and I think those styles have infected almost everything I create in Publisher.  "Infected" is just a term.  I like Affinity Revolution and they have really moved me along in learning how to use Publisher.  I really like Publisher also, as well as the excellent and prompt support you provide.  Just need a little more clarity on styles! 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, BlueSailing said:

In the attachment you can see that selecting a Text Box populates both the Text Styles palette and the Paragraph Styles palette. That can be confusing, but especially when you note that there is a world of items in both those lists that I never put there in the first place. Clutter!  I only need FOUR text styles and probably only one paragraph style.

Like many of the panels, the Text Styles panel includes a panel preferences popup menu (looks like 4 lines with a triangle at the bottom corner). One of the items on it is delete all unused styles. That will eliminate the clutter.

What I think you are calling the Paragraph Styles palette is a popup menu on the context toolbar that allows you to quickly set selected text to any of the existing paragraph styles. To its left is a similar popup menu that allows you to quickly set selected text to any existing character styles. Unlike the Text Styles panel, these two popup menus do not allow you to create, delete, or edit any of the paragraph or character styles.

IOW, each of the 3 items has a specific purpose, so for example you can change the style of selected text without having to open or use the Text Styles panel.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, BlueSailing said:

Then when you import you can bring in a mess of styles that just interfere.  I know there are options to overwrite but those import windows are quite complicated also.  

There needs to be much more control on how to handle text styles from imported and copied .docx and .rtf files. I think everyone would agree with you on that.

I felt my blood pressure rise as soon as I saw the acronym TOC. I have not had much difficulty coming to grips with. Publisher but my lord, editing a ToC's styles is the one thing that just drives me up the proverbial wall. I hesitate to file bug reports about it because I am 99 and 44/100ths per cent pure certain that it is just me being dense.

[BlueSailing]

R C_R your instruction about "delete all unused styles"  was a big help and I've culled my Text Styles down to what I need. I just have to remember to somehow import those same styles into all my other docs.

My version of Publisher does in fact allow me to create both Character and Paragraph styles in the Popup menus. And even though I cannot delete them, there is an option for "No Style".  Still, I'm confused about the dif between the 2 styles. -- OK! I just got it. Paragraph and Character Styles are the same - it's just that P Styles apply the style to the entire paragraph your cursor is in.   So I've been making a big mistake!  I've been using P Styles to set the visibility of my page titles in my TOC.  It just so happens that the "paragraph" I was using was only one line, and that's what went into the TOC.  I should have been using the Text Styles Panel for that instead.  Right?

[R C-R]

31 minutes ago, BlueSailing said:

My version of Publisher does in fact allow me to create both Character and Paragraph styles in the Popup menus.

Yes, you are right about that. I should not have included "create" in my prior comment. Edited it now.