Chopping up a big auto text flow into smaller chunks of text

[Mark Pyman]

I'd welcome some help on this..

I'm a new-ish, amateur user of Affinity Publisher (who has already benefited from help on this forum!), who's moved a big WORD based document plus 400 images into Affinity Publisher 2.

I did an auto-flow to get all the text into Af Publisher. So, I now have a 300 page long text document. I assumed I'd be able to chop it into Chapter-sized-bits once imported, but now I cannot work out how. I want to cut the big text into sections at the end of each Chapter, so the next Chapter will start as a new text flow, til the end of that Chapter, and so on. There are about 30 chapters of 10pp each.

I've worked out from the help pages how to unlink text frames, but that's no help, because the text just overflows from the previous text frame. How do I cut the text itself? I can't see anything in the help pages that is relevant.

Advice greatly received!

I have a second difficulty relating to the images..I am inserting a lot of picture frames and images in amongst the text frames. Sometimes it's easy to modify it (clicking on the move tool), but other times this doesn't work..it's as if the photo has positioned itself behind the text frame. I can't work out how to get round this except by pulling the text frame away, moving my image, and then putting the text frame back where it was. Is there a neater way?

Finally..is there a register anywhere of people who are ready to spend an hour or two advising a newbie like me how to make his document look better than it currently does? I'm happy to pay, but don't know where to start looking. I'm in Devon, England, and occasionally in London.

Thanks, Mark Pyman

[Old Bruce]

4 minutes ago, Mark Pyman said:

I've worked out from the help pages how to unlink text frames, but that's no help, because the text just overflows from the previous text frame. How do I cut the text itself? I can't see anything in the help pages that is relevant.

This is for Mac OS, I assume there is a similar method for Windows. Place your text cursor at the beginning of Chapter Two and hold down the Shift key and the Command key  and hit the Down Arrow key. This will select all the text down to the end. Use Edit > Cut or Command + X to cut out the text and place it on the clip board. Now disconnect the text flow and you can Paste the text into the newly empty text frame.

Repeat at Chapter Three, Four etc.

1. Select the text.
2. Cut it (to the Clipboard).
3. Break the Text Flow.
4. Paste the text.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I assume there is a similar method for Windows

Ctrl+Shift+End, by default.

[thomaso]

You can't divide the complete text flow into several, individual text flows (– unless you cut and paste text as mentioned by Bruce).

But you can separate the entire document into "Sections" ("Section Manager" via the "Pages Panel"), and manually add frame breaks or page breaks if wanted to visually separate the chapters. Also, using saved "Text Styles" is recommended for such a document. The options "Based on" and "Next Style" and the Paragraph options "Spacing" and "Text Flow" can make the formatting process easier to handle and be worth to get setup properly for a document of this lengths.

For the images it sounds some of them got pinned while others did not – or some are pinned inline and other floating. Open the "Pinning Panel" and the "Text Wrap" options window and select an image to check how it is set up. If you use pinning you do not need "Text Wrap" additionally and get the advantage that the images auto-flow together with the text.

Edited July 5, 2023 by thomaso

[Mark Pyman]

7 hours ago, thomaso said:

You can't divide the complete text flow into several, individual text flows (– unless you cut and paste text as mentioned by Bruce).

But you can separate the entire document into "Sections" ("Section Manager" via the "Pages Panel"), and manually add frame breaks or page breaks if wanted to visually separate the chapters. Also, using saved "Text Styles" is recommended for such a document. The options "Based on" and "Next Style" and the Paragraph options "Spacing" and "Text Flow" can make the formatting process easier to handle and be worth to get setup properly for a document of this lengths.

For the images it sounds some of them got pinned while others did not – or some are pinned inline and other floating. Open the "Pinning Panel" and the "Text Wrap" options window and select an image to check how it is set up. If you use pinning you do not need "Text Wrap" additionally and get the advantage that the images auto-flow together with the text.

Thomas,

 

7 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

This is for Mac OS, I assume there is a similar method for Windows. Place your text cursor at the beginning of Chapter Two and hold down the Shift key and the Command key  and hit the Down Arrow key. This will select all the text down to the end. Use Edit > Cut or Command + X to cut out the text and place it on the clip board. Now disconnect the text flow and you can Paste the text into the newly empty text frame.

Repeat at Chapter Three, Four etc.

1. Select the text.
2. Cut it (to the Clipboard).
3. Break the Text Flow.
4. Paste the text.

 

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Ctrl+Shift+End, by default.

 

7 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

This is for Mac OS, I assume there is a similar method for Windows. Place your text cursor at the beginning of Chapter Two and hold down the Shift key and the Command key  and hit the Down Arrow key. This will select all the text down to the end. Use Edit > Cut or Command + X to cut out the text and place it on the clip board. Now disconnect the text flow and you can Paste the text into the newly empty text frame.

Repeat at Chapter Three, Four etc.

1. Select the text.
2. Cut it (to the Clipboard).
3. Break the Text Flow.
4. Paste the text.

Thanks, I've done exactly this!

[Oufti]

9 hours ago, thomaso said:

Also, using saved "Text Styles" is recommended for such a document.

I don't understand "saved"…
Do you mean: saving the Text styles settings somewhere outside the document?

(I fully agree with all your other excellent advices — but this one, I'm not sure to understand it.)

[thomaso]

56 minutes ago, Oufti said:

I don't understand "saved"…
Do you mean: saving the Text styles settings somewhere outside the document?

Nothing special, to me it just sounds unclear to say "use text styles". When I talk about elements in the Text Style panel (which resist in the panel even if all text gets deleted), I sometimes add "saved" to avoid possible confusion with other formatting methods, because actually every text has a text style, and there is no text without a style.

I am aware of a residual ambiguity, because accordingly, any text that has been saved has its style saved with the document. (The only text that might be saved without a specific style might be a plain text document (.txt)). – Alternative adjectives such as "global" or "replicable" also seem ambiguous or even more misleading to me.

[Oufti]

@thomaso Thank you for taking the time to explain. I get it.

Indeed, defining "Text styles" (not just styled text) is indispensable for long, structured texts (in fact, I should rather say for every document). 

[Forgive my pedantry, I'm not an English speaker either but it seems to me that "named styles" might be a suitable alternative?]

 

@Mark Pyman In this recent post, you can find an example of how styles could be useful for a new chapter page: 

 

[anto]

16 hours ago, Mark Pyman said:

I have a second difficulty relating to the images..I am inserting a lot of picture frames and images in amongst the text frames. Sometimes it's easy to modify it (clicking on the move tool), but other times this doesn't work..it's as if the photo has positioned itself behind the text frame. I can't work out how to get round this except by pulling the text frame away, moving my image, and then putting the text frame back where it was. Is there a neater way?

Select an image with the Move tool while holding down the ALT key

[firstdefence]

5 hours ago, Oufti said:

[Forgive my pedantry, I'm not an English speaker either but it seems to me that "named styles" might be a suitable alternative?]

Trouble is where do you stop with the description, one could use "user named text styles" or "custom preset text styles" but I think "text styles" silently implies you are going to be creating custom text styles and name them for legibility, association and understanding.

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, firstdefence said:

I think "text styles" silently implies you are going to be creating custom text styles

Initially a new text frame gets the style assigned which is currently saved in the app Defaults / the style named "[No Style]" in the Text Style panel (e.g. Arial 12pt). IMHO, as soon I modify the look (= style) of such a text I "create a custom text style" – regardless whether I use the Text Style panel or just the Context Toolbar or the Char/Par panels.

How would you call a text formatting that does not have a custom entry in the Text Style panel? It is not a text without a text style, right?

[Oufti]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

How would you call a text formatting that does not have a custom entry in the Text Style panel? It is not a text without a text style, right?

I would simply call it a "formatted text" or, if needed, "locally formatted text" (without any text style). 

It is a text with No style. Or a text without a defined/named/(saved) style.