Publisher: "All pages marked not for export" ...

[johndmoulton]

I just completed a 34-page picture book in Publisher. It saves just fine as a Publisher file, but when I try to export it as a PDF The program (v2) simply closes down! I saved a copy of the file and opened it in v2Beta and here, on save as PDF a pop-up (screenshot attached) states 'Nothing to export. All the pages to export are in sections marked not for export. No files have been exported."
This will be the fourth picture book I have created in Affinity Photo + Publisher and I have never had this problem before. Am I missing something?

iMac M1 (Latest version of Ventura (13.3.1)
Using both Affinity Publisher 2 & Beta (see above)

[Seneca]

12 minutes ago, johndmoulton said:

Am I missing something?

Hello @johndmoulton,

Have you unticked the "Include on Export" option in the Section Manager Dialog by any chance?

[johndmoulton]

Hi Seneca,

I don't use page numbers and so this does not apply. Here are my settings:

Hi Seneca. I don't use page numbers and so this does not apply. Attached is a screenshot of my settings - which I believe are the same as usual for me.

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, johndmoulton said:

Hi Seneca. I don't use page numbers and so this does not apply. Attached is a screenshot of my settings - which I believe are the same as usual for me.

The Section Manager mentioned by Seneca is not in the Export Dialog. It is available before you export in the Window menu, Window > Section Manager. Make certain that the Include on export is checked.

[johndmoulton]

Thanks, Old Bruce. But I don't want page numbers included, so this is not this issue.
MEANWHILE ... AND THIS IS REALLY WEIRD! ...
I tried Export the file again this morning and yet again Publisher simply shut down at 'go'.
So, I tried exporting just the first ten pages - fine.
Then I tried exporting just the first twenty pages - fine.
Then I tried exporting just the first thirty (of the 35) pages - fine.
Then I tried exporting all 35 pages again - and it worked!
GO FIGURE!

[Old Bruce]

Just now, johndmoulton said:

Thanks, Old Bruce. But I don't want page numbers included, so this is not this issue.

If you don't have Page numbers in the Publisher file then they won't be in the Export. If you have them in the Publisher file then you'll need to remove them, but they won't be added.

[johndmoulton]

Old Bruce: I have never used page numbers in Publisher, or had any cause to address their presence (or not) in any of my previous children's picture books. They all exported first time and were accepted by Amazon KDP without issue, so I do not see page numbers as the problem. As I write, I'm just happy that even though I had to 'baby-step' Publisher into to exporting the whole book (see above), at least it's now done (without addressing page numbers) - but that doesn't mean there is no issue here - all very weird to me.

[johndmoulton]

Here's the latest: I have discovered that if on export (to PDF) I leave the default, File Settings/All pages as is, Publisher2 crashes every time. However, if I select 'Pages' and enter 1-35 (effectively all pages in this case) it exports just fine. Given this, it seems I have a bug to report.

iMac M1 (Latest version of Ventura (13.3.1)
Using both Affinity Publisher 2 & Beta

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, johndmoulton said:

it seems I have a bug to report.

Though I am in V1 only, I currently assume the issue is related to your specific document – otherwise it might have been reported by other users already as a general PDF export issue. From your initial post it appears you get different results (crash in V2 / weird error message in V2 beta), while the last post points out a successful workaround for V2. This might indicate it isn't a 'simple' bug but requires certain conditions to happen.

– Did you ever save this .afpub via Save As… with a different file name? (to get rid of possible redundant data garbage)?

– Can you post a screenshot of the section panel for this .afpub? (I guess using page numbers in the layout is not relevant or required for sections or maybe section confusion).

– Can you detect in your document layout any indicator that might cause this issue? (For instance layout complexity, unusual / complex layer setup or resource types, text flow with/without pinned objects or text wrapping, …)

If you don't see a possible culprit:

– What do you get if you create a new, empty .afpub with same 35 pages setup and export this in one or the other way?
– What if you create a new document (same spread setup and colour setting), then import the affected .afpub via menu Document > Add Pages From File and then export the resulting .afpub?
– What if you export one of your three previous documents this way? Where they created in V1 or V2?

[Dan C]

Hi @johndmoulton,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

Are you able to attach a copy of your .afpub file here, so that I can investigate this issue further?

If you'd like a private upload link for this file, please don't hesitate to ask

[johndmoulton]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:56 PM, thomaso said:

Though I am in V1 only, I currently assume the issue is related to your specific document – otherwise it might have been reported by other users already as a general PDF export issue. From your initial post it appears you get different results (crash in V2 / weird error message in V2 beta), while the last post points out a successful workaround for V2. This might indicate it isn't a 'simple' bug but requires certain conditions to happen.

– Did you ever save this .afpub via Save As… with a different file name? (to get rid of possible redundant data garbage)?

– Can you post a screenshot of the section panel for this .afpub? (I guess using page numbers in the layout is not relevant or required for sections or maybe section confusion).

– Can you detect in your document layout any indicator that might cause this issue? (For instance layout complexity, unusual / complex layer setup or resource types, text flow with/without pinned objects or text wrapping, …)

If you don't see a possible culprit:

– What do you get if you create a new, empty .afpub with same 35 pages setup and export this in one or the other way?
– What if you create a new document (same spread setup and colour setting), then import the affected .afpub via menu Document > Add Pages From File and then export the resulting .afpub?
– What if you export one of your three previous documents this way? Where they created in V1 or V2?

Wow! Thanks for this. That's an awful lot to take in, let alone exercise! I'm on a tight schedule to complete another picture book right now, so will need to get back to this later if the issue persists. Meanwhile, I can say that the layout is very simple. All 35 pages were imported to Publisher as .afphoto linked files at the exact size required (including bleed) and that I have not had this issue with my previous three publications, all of the exact same size and nature. Just weird!