Image frame destroys "balanced" text in multi-column layout

[pck1980]

I'm sorry for cross-posting this issue, but I didn't realize there's a forum for bug reports, and I think this is the better place for describing my problem.

I came across a very odd and annoying bug in Affinity Publisher 2.0: Under certain circumstances, moving an image frame over a two-column text frame completely destroys text balance between the two columns. I attached a small video of the phenomenon and a sample document.

It even happened that an empty image frame did not alter text balancing, but as soon as I added an image to it, it did.

The problem seems to have to do with the paragraph style: In the sample document, with the paragraph style to "None", the problem no longer occurs.

The only workaround I found so far is to manually adjust the size of the text frame so that it's just large enough to hold the text. As this includes "detaching" the text frame from the master page and "re-attaching" it, the workaround is rather annoying.

Bug example.afpub

[GaryLearnTech]

Hi @pck1980 I've got a different workaround for you that doesn't require detaching master pages or changing the paragraph style to "None".  However, I realise it may just be of academic interest if it's not practical in real life.

• Select the text frame
• Go to the Text Frame panel
• Turn off the Columns > "Balance text in columns" checkbox
• Change to the text tool
• Place your insertion point into the paragraph that you want to go to the top of the second column
• Go to the Paragraph panel
• Change the Flow > Start: anywhere to Start: In Next Column

Once you do that, you can drag the picture frame over the text frame and the text behaves as I think you'd expect.

[NathanC]

Hi @pck1980,

Many thanks for providing detail on the issue, i've been able to replicate this issue and it has now been logged with the developers for resolution.

It appear to be caused by auto-hyphenation being applied to the text style that your text style is based on, as soon as this is turned off in text style settings the text balancing issue no longer occurs.