Repeatable Publisher crash after double-clicking secondary linked text frame

[Ken Hjulstrom]

Hi,

I'm up against a project deadline, so I can't provide a nice, concise example, but I've encountered a repeatable crash situation with Publisher. I compose a 40-page quarterly magazine, and for each issue, I usually begin with a copy of the previous issue's Publisher file, delete the contents, and then fill it with the new content.  Most of the pages consist of two text frames, side-by-side to create two-column text.  The frames are linked for the length of each (mostly multi-page) articles.  The crash occurs after I attempt to double-click in one of the empty text frames to generate an insertion cursor, after which I paste in an entire article's text, copied from a submitted Word file.  This what happens:

1. I double-click in the text frame, which is on the left page (I have "facing pages" displayed) but I don't get an insertion cursor.
2. Looking closely, I notice that the frame I'm clicking in is linked to by a frame on the previous page, so I realize that I need to remove the link.
3. So I scroll up toward the page that contains the link origin, and when I press the Shift key to use the mouse wheel to horizontally scroll to the right, Publisher completely disappears with no warning.
4. After further experimentation, I've found that the "scroll up" isn't necessary.  All I have to do to crash Publisher is to double-click on an empty text frame that's linked to by one on the previous page and then depress the Shift key, after which Publisher just "disappears" and I have to restart it.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this, and can replicate it.  For now, I've archived the file that demonstrates this behavior, and when I have the time, I'll try to distill that file to a simpler version that demonstrates the same problem

Thanks,

Ken

 

[Old Bruce]

While I cannot say why this is crashing for you I do have some advice.

2 hours ago, Ken Hjulstrom said:

I've encountered a repeatable crash situation with Publisher. I compose a 40-page quarterly magazine, and for each issue, I usually begin with a copy of the previous issue's Publisher file, delete the contents, and then fill it with the new content.  

Don't do this, start with a Template file. Make your template with Master/Parent pages containing the text frames, link them. Use the Text Frame's ability to have multiple columns instead of two columns.

Your template file can have all the necessary Paragraph and Text Styles included in it. There can be images of the Quarterly's logo and masthead. You can have all forty pages or just a few and make more as you go.

 

To break a linked series of text frames go to the last text frame with text in it and click on that frames overflow triangle. Now click on the text frame, this will break the flow to the next frame/page. All the following frames will be empty and still linked together.

[stokerg]

Hi @Ken Hjulstrom,

We would really need the file in order to investigate this fully, along with the crash report.  If you could upload the file and latest crash report to our Dropbox here i'll be able to see if its a new issue and needs logging with the Developers or if its an issue that we already know about  

[Ken Hjulstrom]

Here's a very simple Publisher document that demonstrates the crashing issue.  The document consists of two pages, each of which contains two text frames.  All four frame are sequentially linked to each other.

Steps to reproduce crash:

1. With the Move Tool active, double-click inside either of the text frames on the second page.  The insertion cursor does not appear, as expected.
2. Depress either Shift key.  Publisher immediately closes.

This doesn't happen if you double-click on the right-hand text frame on the first page, so it appears to be related to the double-click occurring on a linked text frame that isn't the first in the link sequence, and on a different page than the first text frame in the link.

Thanks,

Ken

LinkedTextFrameCrashTest.afpub

[Old Bruce]

18 minutes ago, Ken Hjulstrom said:

...double-click inside either of the text frames on the second page.  The insertion cursor does not appear, as expected.

Wrong Expectation. The frames are linked to the first page so that is where the cursor is.

Regardless, the file does not crash here on Mac OS 11.6.8

[Ken Hjulstrom]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Wrong Expectation. The frames are linked to the first page so that is where the cursor is.

Regardless, the file does not crash here on Mac OS 11.6.8

Thanks for the information.  You're correct that double-clicking on a text frame in a link sequence of empty text frames  places the cursor in the first frame in the link.  Here's some additonal informaton:

1. I'm running Mac OS 12.5.1, and the issue is repeatable for me, so perhaps it's OS related.
2. When Publisher "crashes", I'm not presented with the crash report window with the "Reopen" option; Publisher just completely closes as if I chose "Quit" from the File menu.  In this case, is a crash dump generated, and if so, where on my system would it be located?
3. I also found that it's not just the Shift key that initiates the crash.  It seems that hitting just about any key will cause the crash, though, curiously, hitting the Tab key causes the cursor in the first linked frame to tab to the right, after which I can type other characters, and they appear in the first text box as expected.  I haven't tested every keyboard key, but all of the other ones I've tried have crashed Publisher immediately.
4. I tried pasting text, but as soon as I held down the Command Key to do Command-V, Publisher crashed.  Using the Edit | Paste menu command, using the mouse to activate the menus, pasted the text as expected.
5. The keyboard I'm  using is a Matias Tactile Pro model FK302.  Curiously, when I updated from MacOS 12.5.0 to 12.5.1 about a week ago, at the conclusion of the update process, I was presented with a non-standard login screen that was prompting for only my MacOS password (there was no input control for the userid).  Although I was able to click in the password input control with my mouse, I was not able to type my password into the input control; no "dots" appeared.  The only way I was able to enter my password on that screen was to connect an older Apple keyboard, which worked.  Subsequently, I've had no problems at all using my Matias keyboard with MacOS 12.5.1.

[Catshill]

On 8/22/2022 at 11:17 PM, Old Bruce said:

While I cannot say why this is crashing for you I do have some advice.

Don't do this, start with a Template file. Make your template with Master/Parent pages containing the text frames, link them. Use the Text Frame's ability to have multiple columns instead of two columns.

Your template file can have all the necessary Paragraph and Text Styles included in it. There can be images of the Quarterly's logo and masthead. You can have all forty pages or just a few and make more as you go.

I can understand the logic of using a template but as I reuse a significant amount of content when I produce documents, I adopt the same strategy of the OP. I delete content from publications and refill. I don’t suffer from crashes (Windows user, no graphics acceleration) but then I don't link picture frames only text frames.