How to get text to ignore an a Affinity Publisher text frame shape?

[[gawr-juhs]]

I'm after some assistance here. I have a rectangular text frame in Affinity Publisher, but it's top left corner is a curve.

When I place text into the frame, the curve seems to affect the first couple of lines of text – almost like the frame has an internal text wrap.

What I'd like to know is how do I get the text in the frame to ignore the text frame shape, and just follow the inset measurements that I'm specifying in the Text Frame panel. 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[thomaso]

Without any interface item (e.g. selection, bounding box, panels) your screenshot doesn't tell what we look at exactly and we can guess only. It seems you have the green object used as text frame. To keep text and background separate make sure they are two separate objects / layers in the Layers panel.

To check if you have any insets or indents applied take a look in the Text Frame panel respectively in the Paragraph panel > Spacing and/or select some characters and check the Text Frame Ruler markers.

Another option could be Text Wrap (inside) applied to the background object, like so:

[Return]

You had the rectangle selected when entering the textframetool and this converted the rectangle into an Shape Text Object.
Which will always use its boundaries to adjust the text itself.
You will need to create a solo textframe above the rectangle.

 

[[gawr-juhs]]

20 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Without any interface item (e.g. selection, bounding box, panels) your screenshot doesn't tell what we look at exactly and we can guess only. It seems you have the green object used as text frame. To keep text and background separate make sure they are two separate objects / layers in the Layers panel.

To check if you have any insets or indents applied take a look in the Text Frame panel respectively in the Paragraph panel > Spacing and/or select some characters and check the Text Frame Ruler markers.

Another option could be Text Wrap (inside) applied to the background object, like so:

Thanks for this. I checked the Paragraph Panel, the Text Frame Panel and the Text Wrap panel, but nothing resolved the issue. I guess I'm trying to do basic things in Affinity Publisher that I've grown up doing in PageMaker, QuarkXPress, InDesign etc. 

[[gawr-juhs]]

12 minutes ago, Return said:

You had the rectangle selected when entering the textframetool and this converted the rectangle into an Shape Text Object.
Which will always use its boundaries to adjust the text itself.
You will need to create a solo textframe above the rectangle.

 

Good grief. I have to create two shapes for one piece of text! That's bordering on the slightly bonkers side of things. But thanks for pointing me in the right direction. 

[GarryP]

I think this issue happens because the text horizontal position is calculated according to the shape of the Frame first, and then the Inset is added.

However, if this is true, I don’t know if this is a good thing or not.
Some workflows may rely on it but others may need to use a ‘workaround’ (as shown above) because of it.

At the moment my thinking is that the calculation should be the other way round – e.g. first apply the inset and then offset if necessary because of the shape – but I could be persuaded otherwise by some good reasoning.

P.S. See this thread for more: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/70827-rounded-corners-on-text-frame/

Edited May 31, 2023 by GarryP
Added note.

[MickRose]

This is a single object converted to a text frame, then given a 1mm inset. The afpub file is attached. If You are still having problems i would suggest uploading a file for people to look at.

example.afpub

[thomaso]

27 minutes ago, [gawr-juhs] said:

I guess I'm trying to do basic things in Affinity Publisher that I've grown up doing in PageMaker, QuarkXPress, InDesign etc. 

25 minutes ago, [gawr-juhs] said:

Good grief. I have to create two shapes for one piece of text! Thanks bordering on the slightly bonkers side of things.

To me it appears also ID behaves this way with indent if a not-fully-rectangular shape gets used as a text frame.

[GarryP]

6 minutes ago, MickRose said:

This is a single object converted to a text frame, then given a 1mm inset.

I think the issue being discussed here is what happens when you set the inset to something larger, in your example make it 10mm instead of 1mm.
See the linked discussion in my previous post.

[joe_l]

A rather weird solution, not recommendable.

 

[Return]

I like the way it is because it will follow the curve only when converted to a text shape.
Otherwise it would mean one has to adjust every aspect of the text in the textframe to accommodate it's curvature.
You now have the choice.
Besides to have it behave as one object, simply group it. 
Also the nondestructive/creative nature of the affinities makes it to be not only textframe properties editing but being able to edit it outside of DTP options.

[GarryP]

12 minutes ago, joe_l said:

A rather weird solution, not recommendable.

I tried that and managed to get myself into a real mess – see attached video (watch the right-hand side of the black Text Frame) and document (black frame and blue rectangle are the same width).

example-but-weird.afpub

[joe_l]

12 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I tried that and managed to get myself into a real mess

I experienced the same and blamed my lame PC. Edit: V1 has no problems with this setup.

[GarryP]

Did you try opening the document I uploaded to my previous post and getting the same thing?
If you get the same problem with it then I think it’s probably a problem that needs reporting.

[MickRose]

Hi @GarryP Yes - I misunderstood the original question. A hidden rectangle with text wrap will do the job but it's not pretty. I'm pretty sure InDesign CS6 has the same problem with curved frames.

[joe_l]

48 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Did you try opening the document I uploaded to my previous post and getting the same thing?
If you get the same problem with it then I think it’s probably a problem that needs reporting.

Yes, I am getting the same.

[GarryP]

27 minutes ago, joe_l said:

Yes, I am getting the same.

Thanks for confirming.

Bug report filed: 

 

[Rick G]

I can confirm too, but it seems to be an issue with screen refreshing. Once you have made the mess by moving the object around, all you need to do is refresh and it's gone. (zoom in and out quickly with the mouse wheel will do it)

This behavior is found in the Affinity line; white lines on the edges in Photo etc Many have reported issues like this