Pv1: Text flow of 'facing' master page textboxes gets messed up when adding new pages

[Louisk]

Hi folks,

Publisher v1.10.6.1665

I have a facing pages master page that has two text frames for double column text, with flow between the 4 boxes of the spread. When I  new pages, the flow between the two frames works correctly in those new pages, as does my manual flowing between pages. See the 'Before' image.

However, if I add a single (or odd number) of new pages before any of these, the flowing gets completely messed up, with the right hand column now flowing into the left hand column, as shown in 'After' image attached.

Am I doing something wrong in the setup of the flow? Or is this a bug? Or an unavoidable 'feature' of the way flow is handled?

Thanks

 

Before

After

 

[NathanC]

Hey @Louisk,

Adding a single page to a facing page document can be quite confusing and unusual at first glance, but when it's broken down this will (hopefully) become a bit clearer as to what's happening and what logic is being followed by Publisher. When adding a single page to a facing page document, the method in which the page content flows is dependant on the following logic:

• Objects on the page not from a master will move with the page maintaining their page origin relative position.

• Objects on a page which come from a master and have been modified will move with the page maintaining their spine relative position.

• Objects on a page which come from a master and haven't been modified will reset to the spread relative location from the master.

In your document's situation, it's very likely that Rule 2 is being followed, as your text frame columns originate from a two page spread master page which have been linked between spreads. The reason it's rule 2 and not rule 3 is because the text frames will have been linked between separate spreads which counts as an object modification on the spreads. You can tell which objects that belong to master page are denoted as modified/detached objects by expanding the master page layer on a page/spread and observing the green dotted line instead of the straight line.

As a result of rule 2 being followed, your two column text frames are being mirrored relative to the spine position when a new single page is added, causing the frame flow to be right to left.

Once your new single page has been added, you should be able to correct the flow order by re-applying the master page to the affected two column spreads. With the spreads highlighted in the pages panel, right click > apply master and make sure that 'replace existing' is ticked and Content is set to 'Migrate'. This should then reset the object's location relative to the applied master (text column flow left to right). For additional reference, dependant on the content/objects Publisher follows certain attributes in order to determine how content is ordered when re-applying a master to one which had an existing master which the help guide details below, in this case it would likely be 'the frame that is closest in size and position':

https://affinity.help/publisher2ipad/English.lproj/contents.xml#:~:text=Migrating edited master,new master page.

I hope this somewhat clears things up!

[Old Bruce]

5 hours ago, Louisk said:

I have a facing pages master page that has two text frames for double column text, with flow between the 4 boxes of the spread. When I  new pages, the flow between the two frames works correctly in those new pages, as does my manual flowing between pages. See the 'Before' image.

However, if I add a single (or odd number) of new pages before any of these, the flowing gets completely messed up, with the right hand column now flowing into the left hand column, as shown in 'After' image attached.

One thing I keep stressing is the necessity of naming absolutely everything with sensible, appropriate names on the Master pages. I would go with Outside Text Left, inside Text Left, Inside Text Right, and Outside Text Right. Or A and B for the Inside and Outside. I will wager you have the layers with the default no name generic Frame Text so when you add the single or odd number of pages there is going to be a  fallback on layer order or however it works with unnamed/same-named text layers. Leading to the mess you show.

[MikeTO]

@NathanC Even if I understand it, the results aren't what I'd want because the master is applied separately to both sides of the spread, presumably because I could have inserted a page based on a different master. As you pointed out, we can solve this by re-applying the master but perhaps this could be done automatically? Maybe modify the Add Pages dialog with an additional checkbox below Master Page named "Apply to entire spread" that would default to selected? For a facing-pages document only of course.

Here's a test document that I made to remind myself of how it works. As Bruce pointed out, it's good to label master objects to keep things straight.

 

facing test.afpub

Not counting the labels, the spreads 2-3 and 4-5 have 3 art text objects per page. The top ones are on the document page and work fine. The middle and bottom ones are on the master, but just the bottom ones are modified on the document page. Master A is applied to both sides so there are 4 objects on the master layer.

 

After I insert a single page after page 1, Master A is applied separately to the left and right sides of spread 2-3 so now there are 8 objects. While the overlapping modified Left Bottom and Right Bottom objects on Master A - Right are a big problem, even the unmodified objects are doubled up.

 

Spread 4-5 is okay but page 6 is similarly messed up with Master A - Left applied on it own but with 4 objects and the left and right ones are similarly overlapping.

[NathanC]

17 hours ago, MikeTO said:

@NathanC Even if I understand it, the results aren't what I'd want because the master is applied separately to both sides of the spread, presumably because I could have inserted a page based on a different master. As you pointed out, we can solve this by re-applying the master but perhaps this could be done automatically? Maybe modify the Add Pages dialog with an additional checkbox below Master Page named "Apply to entire spread" that would default to selected? For a facing-pages document only of course.

In these scenarios APub would certainly benefit from some automation on the app's part for the masters to optionally re-apply automatically on facing page documents and prevent some of the confusion caused, like in this scenario. Feel free to make a post for this on the feature requests section 🙂

[MikeTO]

2 hours ago, NathanC said:

In these scenarios APub would certainly benefit from some automation on the app's part for the masters to optionally re-apply automatically on facing page documents and prevent some of the confusion caused, like in this scenario. Feel free to make a post for this on the feature requests section 🙂

Thanks, I've done that now.