text/page flow

[MaxineD]

I have multiple issues suddenly popped up. 

I shifted some text from one part of the document to another and now the page numbers have been corrupted - I can't update the Table of contents - all the page numbers are wrong, started from what should be page one. Maybe I'll do a different topic for that. 

Trying to fix that, the text flow between pages has got all bamboozled - the flow goes ahead a couple of pages... 

How do I undo and re-do the text flow? You can see form the picture that somehow the Master text box seems to have shifted as well.

 

[MaxineD]

here's another picture

[anto]

Could you please see if the text flow on the master pages is set up correctly? Check out the video in this post. There was a similar problem here.

And here also

 

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

6 hours ago, MaxineD said:

now the page numbers have been corrupted - I can't update the Table of contents - all the page numbers are wrong, started from what should be page one

Please check your Section Manager under the Window menu, as this can control the page numbers displayed throughout your document and may be in an unexpected order since changing your page order.

6 hours ago, MaxineD said:

Trying to fix that, the text flow between pages has got all bamboozled - the flow goes ahead a couple of pages... 

How do I undo and re-do the text flow?

This depends on if you are able to 'undo' within the app to before the text flow changed, to try and determine the cause of this in the History Studio, though if you have since closed and reopened your file without Save With History enabled then you would no longer be able to 'undo' the past few steps.

You can however 'break' your text flow and reflow it manually, as shown below -

6 hours ago, MaxineD said:

You can see form the picture that somehow the Master text box seems to have shifted as well

 Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how this has occurred - but I would recommend ensuring that the document page size matches the size of the master applied to it. Do you see the frame is offset on the Master, as well as on the document page?

[MaxineD]

Many thanks for the help to 'break' the text flow and re-do. That worked, mostly, but every time I inserted a page break, it disrupted everything again. I seem to have fixed it, but don't know how! And then there are more downstream issues. is there a tutorial about how to get my head around 'layers'? Even the master LH header jumps across to the RH page. Is it 'edit detached' that's creating issues?  

[MikeTO]

10 hours ago, MaxineD said:

Many thanks for the help to 'break' the text flow and re-do. That worked, mostly, but every time I inserted a page break, it disrupted everything again. I seem to have fixed it, but don't know how! And then there are more downstream issues. is there a tutorial about how to get my head around 'layers'? Even the master LH header jumps across to the RH page. Is it 'edit detached' that's creating issues?  

If objects from the left master are appearing on the right master, you likely inserted a single page into a facing pages document. While that works in most cases it's not generally advisable because there are circumstances where it can get messed up.

Inserting a page break should not disrupt anything, it should simply break at that point and start the next paragraph at the top of the next linked frame. What is happening when you insert a page break?

There are good reasons to edit detached but it's complicated and there are other solutions. Why are you needing to edit detached?

[MikeTO]

10 hours ago, MaxineD said:

Many thanks for the help to 'break' the text flow and re-do. That worked, mostly, but every time I inserted a page break, it disrupted everything again. I seem to have fixed it, but don't know how! And then there are more downstream issues. is there a tutorial about how to get my head around 'layers'? Even the master LH header jumps across to the RH page. Is it 'edit detached' that's creating issues?  

Oh, I just saw your original screenshots showing issues with the text flow. Has that all been fixed now? Unless you're laying out a magazine, newspaper, or newsletter in which an article from one page might be continued on another page that isn't the next page, you should never link a text frame to any page but the next one. In your screenshots the text frame on the right page before the TOC is linked to the left side page after the TOC.

Some best practices:

• Link the text frames before the TOC
• Don't link the TOC text frames to any other frames, and for safety, don't include the TOC title in the same frame as the TOC
• Link the frames in the body of the book together - you can make them all one flow of linked frames or have a separate flow for each chapter
• Don't link the Index text frames to any other frames, and for safety, don't include the Index title in the same frame as the TOC

Good luck

[MaxineD]

thank you for picking up this issue - I'm just really over Affinity at the moment - SO many issues. And yes, probably my fault for trying to fix things the wrong way. 

I haven't had problems with text frame linking when I've done it in the original master pages - until I started trying to fix issues with TOC and Index, or shift text around (which sometimes results in extra pages magically appearing and then not deletable), etc. The index has been doing crazy things - and that may be because I've linked them...  will check that out. Had to delete and start again. 

Editing detached: I've used it quite a lot to try and unlock picture frames or text boxes that have become completely inaccessible and un-editable for some weird reason. Sometimes it's around me trying to pin them in place with a text-box caption - especially unsuccessfully if at the top of a page, or on its own page. I really really need a good tutorial on the whole 'layers' thing. Even when a picture is pinned, it still jumps several pages if I have to edit something earlier on in the document. (I've just lost a couple of captions completely - don't know where they've disappeared to). Wish I could 'group' picture & caption together as in Word. 

Hope you can help - thanks again

[MikeTO]

8 minutes ago, MaxineD said:

thank you for picking up this issue - I'm just really over Affinity at the moment - SO many issues. And yes, probably my fault for trying to fix things the wrong way. 

I haven't had problems with text frame linking when I've done it in the original master pages - until I started trying to fix issues with TOC and Index, or shift text around (which sometimes results in extra pages magically appearing and then not deletable), etc. The index has been doing crazy things - and that may be because I've linked them...  will check that out. Had to delete and start again. 

Editing detached: I've used it quite a lot to try and unlock picture frames or text boxes that have become completely inaccessible and un-editable for some weird reason. Sometimes it's around me trying to pin them in place with a text-box caption - especially unsuccessfully if at the top of a page, or on its own page. I really really need a good tutorial on the whole 'layers' thing. Even when a picture is pinned, it still jumps several pages if I have to edit something earlier on in the document. (I've just lost a couple of captions completely - don't know where they've disappeared to). Wish I could 'group' picture & caption together as in Word. 

Hope you can help - thanks again

It's best to avoid edit detached if you can.

It can sometimes be tricky to select the right layer when an object is pinned into a text frame that is from a master page. If you find yourself unable to select that object, in your case a picture frame, for me typically a small text frame used as a caption, use the Layers panel instead of editing detached. Just expand the master page layer (e.g., Master A) and then expand the text frame layer and inside there you'll see the pinned objects. Select the one you want to modify.

Good luck

[MaxineD]

Just haven't had any luck being able to open those locked items any other way than edit detached...  The layers panel just hasn't let me in. Sometimes the objects aren't pinned, sometimes they're even the text frame of the Master.... But I think I've probably tried so many things, it's just too corrupted. A lesson to not even go near publisher till the document is ready to go - editing in Affinity Publisher is just too fraught with difficulty. None of the tutorials I've looked at have been about books with mostly text and some images throughout. 

will try again with expanding master....  but don't know what that means at this point!!

Thank you so much for your help. I will get back when I've tried some of your suggestions

[MikeTO]

21 minutes ago, MaxineD said:

will try again with expanding master....  but don't know what that means at this point!!

Just click the carets (>) to the left of the Master name to expand it and to the left of the text frame layer to expand it. Inside the text frame layer you'll find the inline pictures.