Moving / Adding / Deleting pages messes with page content from Master

[Hangman]

41 minutes ago, paleolith said:

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I have further problems. But the text really is serpentine columns, not parallel columns. I know this because it was submitted to the newsletter editor as a single column. So if I decided to flow it differently, the conversion to tabs would have to be reverted.

In that case, you could add an additional master page that uses three columns and apply it to page 10. That way you wouldn't have any issues if you needed to reflow the text and you'd maintain the same page structure which shouldn't cause you any issues if you need to move pages... 

 

[paleolith]

58 minutes ago, Hangman said:

add an additional master page

Makes sense. Thanks again.

[paleolith]

On 5/13/2023 at 5:45 AM, Dan C said:

Once this issue is resolved, the 'Serif Info Bot' will automatically post within this thread, including the build version number where the issue is fixed

Hi Dan,

This was five months ago. The bot has not posted, and the problem still exists in v2.2.1.

I am still unable to simply insert a blank page into my document without other pages becoming malformatted, as discussed at length above. The workarounds posted by other users enabled me to get my document to the printer, but feeling like I was walking on a tightrope the entire time. Once the doc was at the printer, I began editing it for a different purpose, and quickly discovered that I could not add a page safely even after upgrading to v2.2.1.

Is it possible to get a schedule on this?

Edward

[Dan C]

I can confirm this issue is still logged with our developers at this time - my apologies.

I have 'bumped' this issue to bring it to our teams attention once again and requested that this is investigated further, ASAP.

Unfortunately I'm unable to provide any estimated timeframe for this to be resolved but I certainly hope this fix is made available in an upcoming beta for you.

I hope this clears things up.

[Carlera]

The Affinity smart master page is an awesome feature, but this issue renders it useless. 

[Ulrich Goede]

I can confirm the problem, and I am glad to find out in this forum that I am not the only one. I have a document with two Masterpages (one for even, one for odd pages), which a dummy text in the header (left on even pages, right on odd pages). Every time I remove or add pages to the document, the page header text is either replaced or overlapped with the dummy text. Only single pages - not necessarily adjacent to the page operation - are affected.

Sometimes it helps to assign the master page again, but most of times I have to insert a new page (which has the working master page by default), drag the content over and delete the page with the broken header text. Very annoying! A quick fix will be appreciated...

(Windows 10, Affinity Publisher 2.2.1, document with 40 pages)

[Ulrich Goede]

Oh no, it event got worse. The page numbers in the footer are now sometimes replaced with the header text. Now i'm starting to get ... off!

[paleolith]

On 10/25/2023 at 8:54 AM, Dan C said:

I have 'bumped' this issue to bring it to our teams attention once again and requested that this is investigated further, ASAP.

BTW, Dan, it would help greatly just to see the analysis. If we knew exactly what conditions cause the error, it's likely we could circumvent it -- after all, though it's a very serious error for those of us encountering it, obviously most users have not suffered from it. Also, recovery procedures would be most welcome.

Here are a few of the conditions I note in the document I uploaded earlier in this thread:

• Two-page master pages. (Ulrich Goede's post would seem to indicate this is not the issue.)
• Pages with a master page that's been altered. This was clearly the case in my situation -- I had used the same master page for all pages, but then altered the text frames on two pages, and those two pages were the ones getting garbled. If I can avoid the problem by creating a different master page (or not using one) when I need to alter the format, that would be very good to know.
• Moving or adding pages, obviously. Perhaps few users do this -- I have no idea. Of course, when one needs to shuffle pages, the alternatives are few.
• Perhaps other factors that I have not noticed.

Unfortunately the only reliable recovery method I know if is to create a new document and copy objects to it. But without knowing the cause of the error, I might unknowingly create the same situation in the new document.

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, Ulrich Goede said:

I can confirm the problem, and I am glad to find out in this forum that I am not the only one. I have a document with two Masterpages (one for even, one for odd pages), which a dummy text in the header (left on even pages, right on odd pages). Every time I remove or add pages to the document, the page header text is either replaced or overlapped with the dummy text. Only single pages - not necessarily adjacent to the page operation - are affected.

The 'dummy' text from the Master Page will be promoted to the Actual Page if you replace the Master Page. I don't use 'dummy' or 'placeholder' text on my Master Pages, I do however name everything on my Master Pages, Header Left, Header Right, Page Number Left, and Page Number Right, etc.

If your Master Pages have Text Frames that are unnamed you run the risk of having the text placed into the 'wrong' text frame when you replace a Master Page.

One final suggestion, I would work with Facing Pages utilizing one two page spread Master Page instead of two Single Page spread  Master Pages. If you need to output a Single Page PDF file for your printer you can do so with a Facing Pages document in the Export panel.

[dangerd]

This is still a bug which makes formating my book which is hundreds of pages a nightmare. Every time I add or delete a page I have to move all the text frames over one by one on the following pages. When will this be fixed???

Also after flowing text into frames I can't seem to find a way to resize the linked text areas all at the same time.

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, dangerd said:

This is still a bug which makes formating my book which is hundreds of pages a nightmare. Every time I add or delete a page I have to move all the text frames over one by one on the following pages. When will this be fixed???

Also after flowing text into frames I can't seem to find a way to resize the linked text areas all at the same time.

Hi and welcome to the forums. I do agree that the way master pages and spreads work could stand to be improved, but you should be able to add and remove pages fairly easily from your book as long as you add and remove an entire spread at the same time. I don't recommend adding and removing single pages when using facing pages. I've provided a lot of tips on the various approaches to setting up books for efficient use in the free manual I've shared in this forum - please see the link below in my signature.

Cheers

[Old Bruce]

19 hours ago, dangerd said:

This is still a bug which makes formating my book which is hundreds of pages a nightmare. Every time I add or delete a page I have to move all the text frames over one by one on the following pages. When will this be fixed???

Also after flowing text into frames I can't seem to find a way to resize the linked text areas all at the same time.

Are you using Text Frames on Master Pages? Or are you making your Text Frames on Actual Pages?

Master Pages with text frames is the better way to go. I would use a facing pages spread for the layout of a book with hundreds (or even a dozen) pages. I would also use linked text frames on a Master Page and further I would name each and every item on all Master Pages with unique names. EG Left Page Number, Left Main Text, Right Page Number, Right Main Text, small graphic element, etc.

Then if I need to resize a text frame I can do it on the Master Page in which all the text frames will resize or if I need to change it on one Actual Page only I can so by right clicking on the Master Page layer in the Layers panel and choosing Edit Detached from the Context Menu.

[paleolith]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

facing pages spread for the layout of a book with hundreds (or even a dozen) pages. I would also use linked text frames on a Master Page and further I would name each and every item on all Master Pages with unique names

Not speaking for dangerd, but in my case I did almost all of this: 16-page doc, linked text frames on masters. But I did not rename the master elements to make the names unique. However, it's the pages which I Edited Detached and added or modified text frames (IIRC) that had problems much later -- not immediately when I could have backed off.

17 hours ago, MikeTO said:

don't recommend adding and removing single pages when using facing pages

Fits what happened to me. I used facing pages, and encountered the bug when I moved or added single pages. I haven't tried moving or adding full spreads, but of course that's not a path to a solution when you need to move or add a single page.

I'll be starting the next issue in a month or two. I plan to use single-page masters, as it turned out that I didn't need the facing-page features. I hope that will circumvent this bug.

Edward

[paleolith]

On 10/25/2023 at 8:54 AM, Dan C said:

I have 'bumped' this issue to bring it to our teams attention once again and requested that this is investigated further, ASAP.

Bumping this again in the hope of learning what conditions cause the error. Since it's an uncommon error, a workaround, or an avoidance mechanism, is more important to me than a fix.

[Dan C]

As I understand it, this will occur when using a text object on a Master Page, then adding custom content into that frame on the document page, and finally moving the document page order - with this master frame & page content applied.

For example, the following are the steps I've logged with our development team;

Quote

1. New file, multiple facing pages, default masters

2. On the master spread, add a text object to each page

3. On page 2, edit the master text object by adding some text

4. In the Pages Studio, drag page 2 to be after page 3
   ⚠Note that the master text from page 2 is now on page 3, as well as the master text from what used to be page 3, remains on the new page 3

5. Undo page move & text add on page

6. On page 3, edit the master text object by adding some text

7. In the Pages Studio, drag page 3 to be before page 2
   ⚠Note that the master text from page 3 is now on page 2, as well as the master text from what used to be page 2, remains on the new page 2

8. Undo page move

9. Add text to text object on Page 2, so that both page 2 & 3 have edited master content

10. In the Pages Studio, either drag page 2 to be after page 3, or drag page 3 to be before page 2
    ⚠The text from each page switches as expected, but is offset by the exact same amount from the opposite side of the page

I'm raising this once again with our team now, as I understand this is a longer outstanding issue. Our sincerest apologies once again.

[olivera]

Hello everyone,

I came across this issue myself and discovered the solution is the way you order your layers in Master Spreads.

My layers were all mixed up between the left and right spread so when I tried to move the left or the right half the layers were not sure how to organise themselves.

Fixed the issue by clearly labelling and grouping the layers from each page into 'Left' and 'Right' groups respectively and now it's easy to move and add pages with no jumbling up.

Hope this helps someone with this issue in the future.

Oliver

[ShaneW]

Hi All 

Why would this issue happen when (1) i'm not using a master page (2) the document has previously had pages moved without causing an issue and no changes to document setup have occured

[MikeTO]

11 minutes ago, ShaneW said:

Hi All 

Why would this issue happen when (1) i'm not using a master page (2) the document has previously had pages moved without causing an issue and no changes to document setup have occured

There's a new option in 2.6 that is on by default and which causes objects to move when you add, move, or delete an odd number of pages in a facing page document. If you don't like this, deselect Page Move Options > Anchor Toward Spine from the Pages panel's menu. The setting is saved with the document so you only have to do this once per document.