Affinity Publisher: Chapter sub-section numbering

[Pyanepsion]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to adapt the formatting of a document using the numbering structure of the APA Style Guide manual itself to a document. I can't create level 4 correctly.

Here's the numbering structure I'm trying to reproduce:

• Level 1: Chapters, typically numbered from 1 to 12. We are in chapter 4.
• Level 2: Some chapters have groupings, such as "EFFECTIVE SCHOLARLY WRITING" in chapter 4.
• Level 3: Sub-groupings of Level 2, such as "Continuity and Flow", same chapter 4.
• Level 4: At this level, the numbering ignores the previous groupings and could, for example, extend from 4.1 to 4.30.

My main concern is the automatic configuration of Level 4 numbering in Affinity. If you have any recommendations or solutions for this layout, I'd be grateful if you'd share them.

Edit: Corrected. I don't know why, but the new style 4 didn't want to depend on style 3, and remained dependent on the Numbered List style from which I had originally removed it.

 

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Pyanepsion said:

My main concern is the automatic configuration of Level 4 numbering in Affinity.

What do you get? No numbering at all or "just" an issue with restart? I think you need to set the last entry in your screenshot for "Titre 4" to another entry than "[No change]", for instance to "Manual Only" or "Below Current Level".

53 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

I don't know why, but the new style 4 didn't want to depend on style 3, and remained dependent on the Numbered List style from which I had originally removed it.

If I understand your description correctly, style 4 is either the first that uses numbering (or perhaps the second style after Level 1 / Chapters), right? Since you have activated numbering for style 4 successfully, the "Base on" style gets overridden and might just need correction for the renumbering start. – What does "didn't want to" mean? How does the "Based on" / the "Next…" menus look like for "Titre 4"?

[Pyanepsion]

When I asked my original question, it was because of a strange behaviour of the style: it didn’t retain the top-level format when saving the style. Fortunately, this problem seems to have corrected itself.

My booklet currently has a general table of contents covering levels 1 to 3. I’d now like each chapter to open with a specific table of contents, detailing levels 2, 3 and 4 of that particular chapter.  As shown in the image of the table of contents book in chapter 4 in the first message.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

My booklet currently has a general table of contents covering levels 1 to 3. I’d now like each chapter to open with a specific table of contents, detailing levels 2, 3 and 4 of that particular chapter.

That should just be a matter of adding a new TOC to the chapter, using a new TOC name, and new TOC styles similar to (possibly based on) your main TOC styles, and selecting the Paragraph Text Styles you want to appear in that TOC.

You might be able to share this new TOC style/name among all the chapters. But it must be a different name than your main TOC uses.

[Pyanepsion]

I did consider the solution of duplicating each section style from one chapter to the next, but that's obviously far too cumbersome. With 12 chapters, that's already 48 styles instead of 4. There's got to be another way!

[walt.farrell]

42 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

I did consider the solution of duplicating each section style from one chapter to the next, but that's obviously far too cumbersome. With 12 chapters, that's already 48 styles instead of 4. There's got to be another way!

It's only the TOC styles, not the general paragraph styles. And as I said, you can probably just define one set for the new TOC name, and use for all the chapters.

[Pyanepsion]

As previously mentioned, the book featured an initial table of contents outlining levels 1, 2 and 3. In addition, each chapter began with a table of contents highlighting levels 2, 3 and 4.

During my work on a 52-page booklet divided into 4 chapters, I was faced with several challenges:

1. Section inconsistency: The software had difficulty handling changes in pagination, including the addition or deletion of pages within a given section.
2. The delimitation of content tables: I found it difficult to delimit content tables directly to a specific section, since the option referred to a table of contents afterwards, which didn’t yet exist, with the result that the entire book was listed each time, rather than just the section.
3. A technical anomaly: an error message kept prompting me to update the main table of contents, which seemed to be in order. However, this update caused the software to freeze. This bug disappeared as it came.
4. The section management interface: This still lacks ergonomics, particularly as regards the section title entry window, which is too small.
5. Layout manipulation: The software does not yet allow you to define a specific range (for example, from page 6 to page 49) to apply layouts for even or odd-numbered pages.

I’d like to highlight two positive aspects:

1. Version 2.1 has given me the ability to resize text and graphics with ease, enabling me to go from A4 to A5 format.
2. I was also able to produce the booklet much faster (a few hours instead of half a day) than with version 1.8.

[Oufti]

On 8/15/2023 at 1:13 AM, Pyanepsion said:

As previously mentioned, the book featured an initial table of contents outlining levels 1, 2 and 3. In addition, each chapter began with a table of contents highlighting levels 2, 3 and 4.

During my work on a 52-page booklet divided into 4 chapters, I was faced with several challenges:

1. Section inconsistency: The software had difficulty handling changes in pagination, including the addition or deletion of pages within a given section.
2. The delimitation of content tables: I found it difficult to delimit content tables directly to a specific section, since the option referred to a table of contents afterwards, which didn’t yet exist, with the result that the entire book was listed each time, rather than just the section.
3.  

[Je me permets cette fois de répondre en français, ce sera plus commode pour moi…]

J'ai rencontré les mêmes difficultés et suis finalement arrivé à une solution satisfaisante grâce à l'aide de ces forums où j'ai appris un peu à maîtriser les innombrables réglages de ce logiciel, et leurs interactions parfois inattendues…

Je tente un résumé !

Dans mon cas, j'ai un livre de recettes avec Entrées, Plats et Desserts, avec une table partielle en tête de chaque chapitre + un sommaire au début et une table très détaillée à la fin. 

Ça fait donc 5 TDM de 3 sortes différentes. 

1) J'ai créé une section pour chaque chapitre (+ quelques autres pour la titraille et autres appendices) et les zones de texte ne sont pas liées entre les sections. — De cette manière, les sections restent correctement définies même si j'ajoute ou retire du texte.

(Et si quelque chose tourne mal, d'une manière ou d'une autre, je peux supprimer toutes les pages d'une section sauf la (les) première(s) et clic-majuscule sur le triangle de liaison des zones de texte va recréer les pages nécessaires, toutes dans la section. Ne reste alors qu'à régénérer les TDM et (presque) tout est en ordre…)

2) Pour la délimitation des tables, voici les réglages que j'utilise : 

• D'une part, les tables intermédiaires (TDM 2, 3 et 4) : 

Les 3 tables partielles (TDM 2,3,4) placées en tête de chapitre partagent un même "style de TDM" (en rouge), que j'ai nommé "TDM base" dans le panneau TDM.

Elles reprennent chacune le contenu de leur section (en rouge) – section qui correspond toujours à un chapitre, grâce à l'arrêt des liaisons… – et partagent entre elles le même choix de niveaux de titre inclus (en jaune).

Résultent aussi de ce style de TDM des styles de paragraphe et de caractère associés (à droite) pour chaque niveau de titre inclus.
Ces styles de formatage sont générés automatiquement et ne peuvent être supprimés. On peut les modifier et les appliquer comme les autres. Prudence quand même, si on doit modifier ces styles de mise en forme, il faut être prudent : 

Modifier de préférence le style parent le plus élevé possible ; bien vérifier sur quoi les styles sont basés ; passer de préférence par l'éditeur de style plutôt que les boutons rapides Mettre à jour (du moins, bien vérifier alors ce qui est sélectionné – le numéro de page a un style de caractère différent p.ex. – et ce qu'indique le champ de description des styles de texte avant de cliquer dessus…)

Si on a mis le bazar, régénérer la TDM puis réappliquer les styles permet souvent d'y voir clair à nouveau, plutôt que de tenter de rectifier au coup par coup…

 

• D'autre part, pour la table récapitulative de tout le document, ici placée à la fin, je crée un nouveau "style de TDM" (ici nommé "TDM1" de manière un peu inconséquente), ce qui permet d'avoir une autre hiérarchie de titres inclus (p.ex. j'ajoute Titre 4).

Je modifie aussi l'étendue et les zones à considérer : 

 

• Enfin, je procède de même pour le sommaire en tête d'ouvrage :

 

Si j'ajoute le conseil de garder chaque TDM et index dans des zones de texte séparées du reste du contenu (chose qui me reste à faire…), je crois que je n'ai rien oublié d'essentiel… 

 

 

[Oufti]

All what I wrote here was already said above in a much simpler way… 👍 😄

On 8/14/2023 at 1:55 PM, walt.farrell said:

That should just be a matter of adding a new TOC to the chapter, using a new TOC name, and new TOC styles similar to (possibly based on) your main TOC styles, and selecting the Paragraph Text Styles you want to appear in that TOC.

You might be able to share this new TOC style/name among all the chapters. But it must be a different name than your main TOC uses.