Art Text Tool suddenly not working in Publisher 2

[KarinC]

I'm 30 pages into a project and suddenly the art text tool will not activate on the page. When I click on the page with it nothing happens on the page but the layer shows up. I can type and it shows up in the layer but not on the page. I opened a new document and it works it just won't on my current document. I must have changed some setting. I can use the frame text tool but for these hundreds of one lines or words I would like to use the art text tool. It was working one minute then it wasn't.

 

[carl123]

Is the opacity in the colour panel at 100% when you are typing Art text?

[thomaso]

... or, with typed but invisible text, select the object with the Move Tool + press the "Revert defaults" button in the Toolbar.

[KarinC]

The tool won't even activate on the art board. It only shows up that I am typing in the layer panel. I can't select it. If I select the layer nothing is selected. I can select a previous art text box and edit it. And I can make frame text. 

Normally if you use the art text tool then click on the artboard you will get a blue box with circles. Now I get nothing in this current document. I can only use it in a new document.

I have tons of equations to create which will be really hard with the frame text tool.

[thomaso]

What if you copy/paste an existing, visible Art Text frame from this or another document into this affected document?
Or try with closing + reopening APub?

[KarinC]

It works in new document. I can edit an existing one in this document or copy one then edit it. I can create one in a new document then paste it in my current document (which is what I may have to do). I just cannot make a new one in the current document. I wonder if there is a limit on how many artistic text tool boxes you can have in one document. 

Here is a screen shot. You can see the artistic text tool layer where I typed "I can type" but there is nothing in that blank space. The layer is selected but there is no text on the art board. The screen shot won't pick up the cursor. But it looks like a big "A" with the crosshair. If I click on the artboard it will not activate. If I click I get a new layer for art text but nothing on the artboard. I've spent about an hour trying to figure this out.

edit: this happened at the end of the day yesterday. I closed it down and opened it back up this morning. So, restarting Apub didn't work.

 

[walt.farrell]

I see that your "hidden" art text layer is above the Layer1 Layer in your Layers panel. That should not make it invisible, but is that really where you want it? Does it become visible if you drag it down into Layer1?

[thomaso]

With the "I can type" layer selected what does the Context Toolbar show? What if you use "Cycle Selection Box" or "Convert to Curves"?.

And what if you copy the "I can type" layer into a new document? If the issue persists there, can you save and upload the .afpub to get it inspected by other V2 users? (what V2 version are you using?)

[KarinC]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I see that your "hidden" art text layer is above the Layer1 Layer in your Layers panel. That should not make it invisible, but is that really where you want it? Does it become visible if you drag it down into Layer1?

It doesn't make any difference. Again, the artistic text tool will not activate when I click on the art board on any page. It is very strange.

Because I need to work on this I am creating the art text in a new document then pasting it in. Which is not ideal but it is the only solution I can come up with.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, KarinC said:

I must have changed some setting.

You could have changed the colour for the text to be clear or to have zero opacity. You may have a text size that is minuscule or gigantic.

I am assuming you are clicking somewhere in the green area. Take a look at the Character Panel to see what font and colour and size you have selected.

 

[KarinC]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

With the "I can type" layer selected what does the Context Toolbar show? What if you use "Cycle Selection Box" or "Convert to Curves"?.

And what if you copy the "I can type" layer into a new document? If the issue persists there, can you save and upload the .afpub to get it inspected by other V2 users? (what V2 version are you using?)

I am using the current version 2.1.1

the context tool bar shows the correct font and size

If I copy the "I can type" layer into a new document the text shows up.

 

[thomaso]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

You could have changed the colour for the text to be clear or to have zero opacity. You may have a text size that is minuscule or gigantic.

It's hardly a style issue: It should show at least the bounding box since the "I can type" layer is obviously selected in @KarinC's screenshot above.

[KarinC]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You could have changed the colour for the text to be clear or to have zero opacity. You may have a text size that is minuscule or gigantic.

I am assuming you are clicking somewhere in the green area. Take a look at the Character Panel to see what font and colour and size you have selected.

 

Yes, I clicked in the green area. The cursor remains as a "A" with the crosshairs. The tool does not create a box to type in.

[KarinC]

I made a duplicate of the document and deleted all but one page. The problem persists. Can I upload this to someone to see what the problem is? 

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, KarinC said:

I'm 30 pages into a project and suddenly the art text tool will not activate on the page. When I click on the page with it nothing happens on the page but the layer shows up. I can type and it shows up in the layer but not on the page.

Is it a particular page or any page in this document? What sort of Master Page(s), if any, do you have applied to the Actual Page you are trying to type on?

1 minute ago, KarinC said:

I made a duplicate of the document and deleted all but one page. The problem persists. Can I upload this to someone to see what the problem is? 

You can upload it here. 

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, KarinC said:

when I click on the art board on any page

By the way, I don't think "art board" is the term you want. You probably just want "page".

 

[KarinC]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

By the way, I don't think "art board" is the term you want. You probably just want "page".

 

Yes, page is correct. It happens in the whole document. There are two types of master pages (one with page numbering and one without) It happens on both types of master pages.

The file is attached.

 

testbug.afpub

[carl123]

The X,Y coordinates for the Art text shows it is way off the page but it is there

Change the X, Y to 1inch and you will see them

 

[KarinC]

7 minutes ago, carl123 said:

The X,Y coordinates for the Art text shows it is way off the page but it is there

Change the X, Y to 1inch and you will see them

 

Oh, thank you, thank you! The first line and left indent was set to way off into the next country.

 

[Old Bruce]

52 minutes ago, KarinC said:

The first line and left indent was set to way off into the next country.

Weirdly the offset varies according to the font size as set by Click + Drag vertically for size.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, KarinC said:

The first line and left indent was set

Wow, I hadn't noticed before that Art Text sets an indent outside of its bounding box & gets handled as an offset in the Transform panel, – different to a tab.

… whereas a right indent doesn't seem to influence this way and rather appears to be ignored here:

[KarinC]

I have no idea how the indents got set to something like 54 thousand inches.

 

[Old Bruce]

40 minutes ago, KarinC said:

I have no idea how the indents got set to something like 54 thousand inches.

There are some number fields which accept values if you use the scroll wheel whilst the mouse cursor is hovering over the field. Some will allow adjustments if you click and drag on the area to the left of them.