Publisher crashing when attempting to build a book pdf.

[MCBPub]

Having nursed my latest book to the brink of publication using 2.1 beta releases, 2.1.0 crashes every time I try to export to pdf using Books. I have tried rebooting a couple of times to no avail. The book comprises multiple publisher files, each one making a single chapter.

I have noticed that Resource Manager reports that Nottingham Canal map (svg file) has been updated in a couple of chapters where the map is not visible and so far as I am aware has not been placed (and would be inappropriate), such as Appendix A. I am not sure if this is related to my problem. This map should only appear in the Nottingham Canal chapter.

Unfortunately I uninstalled the last beta release, thinking I would no longer need it, so have not been able to try exporting using it (it was working OK) - not sure if that is still available somewhere?

Any suggestions gratefully received! Thanks.

Win 10, desktop computer

ECiC book 1-01.afbook

[Hangman]

Hi @MCBPub,

Are you able to Zip up the Publisher files that make up your book along with any linked graphics and upload them so we can take a look?

[MCBPub]

UPDATE: 

Checked the book files. ECiC book 1-00.afbook which was the last one to successfully build a pdf was 640 KB. My first attempt at building version 1.01 yielded a book file of just 2 KB.

Thinking that the book file was being corrupted somewhere, I took ECiC book 1-00.afbook as a starting point and again used Replace Chapter to swap old versions for new for eight chapters. Changes were relatively minor - usually tweaks to wording, removing unnecessary spaces, one or two diagrams were updated and changed, about 4 photographs were edited outside the app and new versions swapped in. The overall number of pages remained the same, as did the document pagination. I saved this as ECiC book 1-01 OLD.afbook, the size was reported as 2 KB. 

I then decided to try again, not using Replace Chapter, but working as I had with PagePlus, using Add Chapter and then moving each one to the correct position in the chapter list before removing the old version. Part way through doing this I noticed that there were errors in the page numbers (screenshot 2023 05 24 Pagination error, book file not building.png). After using Synchronise there were still errors, but the total number of pages was correctly reported as being 156. Saving the book as ECiC book 1-00 SAVE TEST 02.afbook yielded a 640 KB file.

I continued replacing chapters as mentioned above, until finished. Synchronise prompted the Update Numbers window to appear three times, but by the end, there were still page number errors. Saving the book file again as ECiC book 1-00 SAVE TEST 03.afbook gave a file of 217 KB.

Interim conclusion: Swapping new chapters in and old versions out appears to be corrupting the afbook file.

I closed Publisher and re-opened it. I started a new book and added the book chapters in order, using the add chapter button at the bottom of the Books panel. I ran Synchronise Settings, but the first section, Preamble still started on p5, with the Preface and Introduction both starting on p9 according to the Books panel. The book ended on p156 which is correct. I tried using Update Numbers but nothing seemed to happen and the page numbers reported in the Books panel did not change. Looking at the first section, ECiC 04 Preamble 1-01 in the Pages panel, it listed the four pages as:
Page 1 (5)
Pages 2,3 (6,7)
Page 4 (8)
Saving the book file as ECiC book 1-01 Build from scratch.afbook also yielded a 217 KB file.

Finally I used this book file to attempt to build a pdf. This time it did not shut Publisher down after a short intermission but went on to build the pdf. The page numbering of the first 3 sections was incorrect as shown in the Books panel. The rest of the book, on a quick inspection, looks to be OK.

I tried to sort out the page numbering using Section Manager. I managed to get what I have called the Preamble section to go from p1-4 as it should. However it had been incorrectly given the section name Preface, when this should be blank.
Moving to Preface, the option to continue numbering was greyed out and I was unable to reset the page numbering correctly, until I discovered Page Number Options. I had to set this section to start on p5 manually, I could not use Continue Page Numbering.

ECiC book 1-01 Build from scratch 4.afbook was 217 KB and I was finally able to build the version 1.01 pdf, albeit with some manual page number fiddling. Clearly there are still one or more issues with Books, investigating insertion and deletion of chapters looks like the place to start.