Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Applying a style to multiple picture frames


Recommended Posts

Hi,

When importing a file from another format, for example IDML or DOCX, I might end with the image (frames) having no style or the wrong one.

Is there a quick way to apply a style to several/all the images (frames) in a document/book?

Paolo

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, PaoloT said:

When importing a file from another format, for example IDML or DOCX, I might end with the image (frames) having no style or the wrong one.

Is there a quick way to apply a style to several/all the images (frames) in a document/book?

It is important to be clear about what you have:

  • If you have Images (JPG, TIFF, PNG) then you could use Select > Select Object > Images to select all of them. But that will not select other kinds of objects.
  • If you have Picture Frames, you could use Select > Select Object > Picture Frames to select them. But it's unlikely you would get Picture Frames from a Word file. I'm not sure if you would get them from an IDML file, either.

Once you have them selected (if they are all the same and thus selectable by one of these methods) you could apply a Style from the Styles panel. But I'm not sure how well that would work if you have Images rather than Picture Frames. Nor am I sure how well it will work if they have different sizes.

And I'm also unsure what you mean by them having the wrong style.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Once you have them selected (if they are all the same and thus selectable by one of these methods) you could apply a Style from the Styles panel.

This is where I was confused: I imported an IDML file, and it contained picture frames. When selecting them (with the Select > Picture Frames command), the ones containing just a single image didn't appear selected, while the ones containing at least two images appeared selected (framed in blue and filled in red).

Since the Styles panel shows the last selected style still selected, I can't see if a selected picture frame has a style applied, so I don't know if the object style they had in InDesign are preserved or not in Publisher. Since the original object styles are now shown in the list of styles in Publisher, I suspect they are not imported.

Hence, I don't know how I can selectively select only picture frames that had something like a "Screenshot" or "Hardware Element" object style in InDesign, if there is no style applied to a picture frame.

For some more details: what I'm trying to do is to separately select picture frames with a particular object style, to change their properties without affecting picture frames with a different object style applied. So that I can only change the "Screenshot" picture frames, and not the "Hardware Element" ones.

Paolo

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little doubt: is the Select command only working on the current page, and not on the whole document? The Layers panel only shows the layers in the page currently in the document window.

If this is true, I don't see a way to select all the elements of a particular type in the whole document. Editing would be only possible at page level, that wouldn't be particularly useful in a text document.

Paolo

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, PaoloT said:

When selecting them (with the Select > Picture Frames command), the ones containing just a single image didn't appear selected, while the ones containing at least two images

I didn't think Publisher Picture Frames could contain more than one image each.

11 hours ago, PaoloT said:

Since the original object styles are now shown in the list of styles in Publisher, I suspect they are not imported.

Object Styles are not part of a document in Affinity; they are part of the application. I strongly doubt that they would be imported as Styles.

 

11 hours ago, PaoloT said:

Hence, I don't know how I can selectively select only picture frames that had something like a "Screenshot" or "Hardware Element" object style in InDesign, if there is no style applied to a picture frame.

You can select things with the same Stroke as something you've already selected, but I'm not sure that will help.

11 hours ago, PaoloT said:

For some more details: what I'm trying to do is to separately select picture frames with a particular object style, to change their properties without affecting picture frames with a different object style applied. So that I can only change the "Screenshot" picture frames, and not the "Hardware Element" ones.

Again, you can select based on Stroke. You cannot select based on Style, as Objects don't have Styles. They have Strokes and Fills and FX. You can apply Styles to them, but that just sets the Stroke/Fill/FX (and other aspects that Styles capture).

10 hours ago, PaoloT said:

A little doubt: is the Select command only working on the current page, and not on the whole document?

No, Select Same/Object works across pages. Zoom out so you can see multiple pages to confirm that. Or make a selection then make a change, and you can check the different objects.

By the way, if you do have Images rather than Picture Frames, assigning a Style to them will probably not work well, as Image layers will accept the Fill from the Style, and will probably change color visibly.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I didn't think Publisher Picture Frames could contain more than one image each.

You can! I would guess that this is the whole reason for the existence of picture frames instead of simple pictures. Picture frames made of several elements allow for managing groups of images, or groups of mixed elements. It is needed for masking images with other images. The common use I do of them is to assemble a master picture, together with highlighted details and editable caption text.

However, this feature seems to be a bit hidden in Publisher. You can easily discover it if importing an IDML file from InDesign.

Try it in Publisher: On the pasteboard, group two images. In a flow of text, insert a picture frame. In the Layer panel, drag the grouped images inside the picture frame. Resize at will. You have a picture frame containing more than a single picture.

Obviously, I hope this feature will be made easier in the future, for example, by allowing a Paste Inside, or even being able to transform a group into a picture frame.

45 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Object Styles are not part of a document in Affinity; they are part of the application. I strongly doubt that they would be imported as Styles.

I have to really count this as a missing feature, and one that is a very important one for me.

Being able to manage picture frames as separate classes is something that I need. As for the above example, I have separate "classes" for hardware and software types of images. Each of them should be managed in a slightly different way. As you would with text styles, image/frame styles would be the natural solution for this.

In your example about selecting I see this different way of dealing with images: you are thinking in terms of graphic entities, while I'm thinking about objects. Yours are still images with editable parts; mines are black boxes, that once edited are to be managed as monolithic objects, that would have to be disassembled to return editable.

Paolo

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

Try it in Publisher: On the pasteboard, group two images. In a flow of text, insert a picture frame. In the Layer panel, drag the grouped images inside the picture frame. Resize at will. You have a picture frame containing more than a single picture.

Sorry, but the Picture Frame still has only one object in it. But thanks, I should have thought of that possibility. 

 

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.