Affinity Publisher Text Style Overrides Graphic

[Andy_W]

Hello,

Currently trying to make the switch from CC and the adobe subscription overlords, but struggling to find some comparable features in affinity... Hoping this one is included and I'm just missing it!

If I have a text style applied and then make overrides locally to the text, in CC you have the Style Override Highlighter which shows you where overrides are. Is there something similar in publisher?

 

[thomaso]

Hi @Andy_W,
Welcome to the Affinity Forums!

As far I know this feature was requested by users but not implemented yet. Currently the UI can even be misleading by displaying confusing information for certain selections (Move Tool vs. Text Tool) if an object includes more than one style: for instance it may show "[No Style]" for characters and no "+" symbol or info for an applied paragraph style with local overrides:

To get an override displayed accordingly in the UI items, you would need to place the Text Tool cursor at an appropriate location, respectively select a text.

Thus, as a workaround, it can be very useful to create a Character Style (click the '+a' icon) for each type of a local override …

… to get at least a hint in the character information by NOT displaying [No Style] but an empty field with an object selection (Move Tool vs. Text Tool) … while the paragraph information is still misleading then.

[Andy_W]

Hi Thomaso,

Thanks so much for the detailed reply and suggested the work around. Your suggestion seems like a useful one, I'll definitely put that to use.

Thanks again!

Andy 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Andy_W

[R C-R]

11 hours ago, Andy_W said:

... in CC you have the Style Override Highlighter which shows you where overrides are.

Just curious but does that include any way to tell which overrides each part of the text uses?

[Andy_W]

Hi RCR 👋 

Theres a brief overview of how it works below. The way I use it is just to  see where overrides are applied, then I check the character or paragraph panels to figure what those overrides are. As far as I’m aware the highlighter does not give this info specifically, but I could be wrong. 

https://tech4pub.com/2016/03/15/indesign-cc-tip-style-override-highlighter/

[thomaso]

@Andy_W, there is more difference to ID in text style handling which is worth to be known since it can modify applied text formatting in a quite unexpected way: In Affinity if you choose "Delete Style" (via menu or Text Style panel button) for a selected style then no dialog window appears but the style just gets deleted. Tricky: the formatting of text that has this style assigned is not preserved (as override) and only the formatting of the current paragraph style appears.

Then, also different than possibly expected: If the affected text has the Affinity "[No Style]" as paragraph style assigned then this style appears after deleting an applied character style. The Affinity "No Style" is a misleading term for an Affinity default style. (a text can't have no style / no formatting)

Unfortunately, for saved text styles in Affinity there is no option like "Show Unused Styles" that would enable you to avoid "accidentally" deleting a text style that may be assigned somewhere in a document. So, on the one hand, it can be useful in Affinity to create a new character style from each override setting, but on the other hand, there is a lack of features to keep track of & clean up not only manual style overrides but also a long list of saved text styles. Kind of lose-lose.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

Unfortunately, for saved text styles in Affinity there is no option like "Show Unused Styles" that would enable you to avoid "accidentally" deleting a text style that may be assigned somewhere in a document.

But there is a "Delete Unused Styles" option, right?

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

But there is a "Delete Unused Styles" option, right?

It doesn't solve the problem. Should I delete all unused first to detect what had been unused / what are used … especially if the goal is to delete a certain style only? The problem remains that the interface is misleading, with both …

… Move Tool …

… or Text Tool selection.

Although we know forum reports about a text selection showing more than one paragraph + character style selected in the Text Styles panel, these reports appeared to be classified as temporary app issues in that specific documents rather than a reliable behaviour or "by design".

[R C-R]

33 minutes ago, thomaso said:

It doesn't solve the problem. Should I delete all unused first to detect what had been unused / what are used … especially if the goal is to delete a certain style only?

I am not sure I understand what you mean regarding that function. How can 'delete unused' delete any styles that are used? What does it matter when it is used? And if the goal is to delete just a certain style, why can't you do that directly from the Text Styles panel?