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Double-click text box sizing anchors


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I have recently discovered that one can auto-resize a frame text (box) to "fit" the text within. This seems to be dependent on the starting width of the frame, the starting height of the frame, etc. For example, I can double-click the center anchor ("button") on the right of the Frame. This often resizes the frame and text to "fit" BUT it usually will leave a "margin" on left and right (spacing between the text and the frame edges). As I am trying to move the text box just a certain distance away from another object, I also want the text itself to be in the same position (say, 1/8 inch from the object).

When double-clicking the (left or right) center button, my frame text enlarges or shrinks and acquires an "inset" where the text has some space on left and right (not on top or bottom). The Studio Text Frame shows insets set to zero. My text is set to center both vertically and horizontally. The style of the text is controlled by a Text Style entry. The Paragraph section has the Decorations set to "none" - unchecked.

It is as though some internal process is attempting to "balance" the text rows to be somewhat even/equal and adding that space around.  In some cases where paragraphs are longer (more rows of text), the bottom-most row will often be shorter than the ones above. This makes the paragraph "stand out" and look a bit neater, but is a mystery how I can control that process.

It it notable that a brand new document with a new Frame Text - does not exhibit this "problem". I have searched extensively but have not found the cause of this behaviour.

I cannot find any tutorial material in the help sections of Affinity and I am hoping there is one out there to be seen.

Example text included as screen shots. Text is centered horizontally and vertically. First one is how I want the box sized. The second one is after I double-click the right, center button - the text gets some unwanted space on left and right. This double-clicking also has other qualities, such as moving the right or left edge clicked to center and space the text. So click the right edge center button and only the right edge moves; click the left and only the left edge moves; you can also click top center or bottom center edge buttons and the Frame Text will shrink to allow the text to just fit

Thanks for any insight you might have.

Screen Shot 2022-09-12 at 3.30.44 PM.png

Screen Shot 2022-09-12 at 3.34.07 PM.png

Screen Shot 2022-09-12 at 3.34.07 PM copy.jpg

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4 hours ago, thetasig said:

My text is set to center both vertically and horizontally.

For what you want, I think Justified Center will do it.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Thanks RC-R - Justified Center often leaves large spaces between words. For this particular document, I am using captions for photographs and using Centre Align. The captions are 'short and sweet' and rarely extend past a single paragraph. Because the document is dense with photos, the text captions need to be positioned close to the photo (sometimes underneath, sometimes above, or to the right or left). In each case, it is desirable to position the caption a (mostly) fixed distance from the photo frame. It is notable that the text itself (not the text frame) should be at that distance. This usually means "squeezing" the text box manually until some text row inside just touches the frame edges left and right. For some time, I was able to just double click one of the edge buttons and the frame adjusted itself exactly as I wished (no extra space was added).

Now I see that the Text Frame Width value (which has a required/default 1 column) is changed when I double click the box edge. In the latest version of the document, this action defaults to adding empty space to the right and left of the text inside the Text Frame. It would be desirable to somehow suppress this default, i.e., do not add empty space before and after the text. See the four screen shots of the Text Frame settings and before (desirable) and after (not desirable) results of double-clicking the right edge button. In this specific case, the text frame and column width should be  1.726 inches. After the double-click the box expands to 1.88 inches to accommodate the extra space added right and left.

Hopefully, there is a setting somewhere (I am obviously missing) that will get me back to this scenario - which I used to be able to rely on until I shrank my document and then had to re-do all of my text styles to match the object's new sizes (font size shrank, photos shrank). I used to be able to double click an edge and the box would fit the text precisely.

It is interesting, but baffling that if "Hide overflow" is unchecked, the text is expanded into a single row with EXTRA (additional) space added left and right. I guess I would never have assumed that check box would affect this action so drastically (it seems to be doing more than just "hiding" overflow, i.e., "preventing" overflow.)

Afterthought: It might be that the Text Frame "Columns" is interfering with my ideal - I don't really have any need for the concept in these captions.

Thanks for any insight.

first column: desirable (done manually); second column not desirable after double-click of edge.

 

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Why use a Frame Text text frame? Why not use an Art Text text frame? Just put in the necessary line breaks (AKA the soft return(Lord how I loathe that term and the equally despised soft hyphen in stead of discretionary hyphen. It is like using Emphasis instead of Italic or Strong instead of Bold.)) and Bob is your uncle.

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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1 hour ago, thetasig said:

Afterthought: It might be that the Text Frame "Columns" is interfering with my ideal - I don't really have any need for the concept in these captions.

From your screenshots it looks like for the second one the column width is set to 1.88 inches, compared to the first one's 1.726. I'm not quite sure how you got that difference but I suspect if you change the second one to match the first, they will look identical.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 minute ago, R C-R said:

if you change the second one to match the first, they will look identical.

I believe the OP issue is that when the side handle is clicked, one expects the frame to shrink to fit the text, but what is actually happening is the frame is enlarged for some reason.

I can't recreate the issue myself.

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17 minutes ago, prophet said:

I believe the OP issue is that when the side handle is clicked, one expects the frame to shrink to fit the text, but what is actually happening is the frame is enlarged for some reason.

I can't recreate the issue myself.

Could be an offset for the Paragraph Style, could be some interaction between the chosen font and language and Optical Alignment and who knows what all else.

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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1 hour ago, prophet said:

I believe the OP issue is that when the side handle is clicked, one expects the frame to shrink to fit the text, but what is actually happening is the frame is enlarged for some reason.

I understand that. I was just commenting on the difference in the column width settings, but I do not know why they would change by clicking on a side handle. Do you see that on your computer?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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