Affinity Publisher: Index, labels and separators

[Pyanepsion]

v 2.2.0.1986

Dear developers,

😀 I’d like to start by thanking you for the recent improvements to the management of tags and separators in the index. It’s a very useful and well thought-out feature.

However, here are a few remaining anomalies:

1. The ‘Zero Width Space’ character does not behave correctly when used in fields when there is also an ‘En space’ between elements.
2. The ‘After Topics’ sequence does not appear in the settings options once it has been entered.

If necessary, I can send the complete file from which this screen shot was taken as a confidential file.

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

1. The ‘Zero Width Space’ character does not behave correctly when used in fields when there is also an ‘En space’ between elements.

I don't think that's the issue, I think it's that en space is non-breaking so Publisher is breaking at the first zero width space which is a discretionary line break.

En space, em space, hair space, sixth space, all of those spaces are non-breaking in Publisher (and InDesign) so by using comma+en space in Between Items, you're gluing everything together and Publisher is breaking at the zero width space in that first range.

So just change your Between Items and add a zero width space before the en space to solve the issue.

3 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

1. The ‘After Topics’ sequence does not appear in the settings options once it has been entered.

After Topics does not appear blank in the panel after changing the value on macOS so this must be a Windows specific issue.

[MikeTO]

Here's a little test file for the zero width space / en space issue that shows the same thing as you described. If you add a zero width space before the en space in Between Items the index entry will break better. The text frame above that shows how an en space is non-breaking and glues words together.

index test.afpub

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

After Topics does not appear blank in the panel after changing the value on macOS so this must be a Windows specific issue.

It doesn't appear blank on Windows either, for me, on 2.2.0.1986.

@Pyanepsion: What values did you try to put in the After Topics field? Can you prepare a sample document that you can share publicly that demonstrates the problem?

[Pyanepsion]

I've used the default values in Affinity Publisher. Here is their conversion to UNICODE : Clic, Ctrl a, Ctrl c, Clic, Ctrl v, Alt U.

After Topic: U+00A0U+003AU+0020U+0070U+002EU+0020
Between Items: U+002CU+2002U+2029
Between Ranges: U+2013U+200B
Before References: U+002EU+0020U+2029
See: U+0056U+006FU+0069U+0072U+2029
See Also: U+0056U+006FU+0069U+0072U+0020U+0061U+0075U+0073U+0073U+0069U+2029
After See (Also): U+0020U+2029
After Refernces: U+0020

There is a caesura between U+200B and the next digit, or between U+2013 and U+200B (I don't know). In any case, it doesn't seem right that there should be a hyphenation because of the existence of U+200B.

[MikeTO]

After Topic defaults to comma + en space. You have non-breaking space + colon + space + "p." + space. That doesn't make much sense. The U+2029 symbols are paragraph breaks so I don't think you have those in the fields and if you do you should fix them.

I don't think you're using the default values unless the French ones are different and not correct. It's really easy to change the defaults, IMO too easy, so you probably changed your defaults by accident when trying the new features. The defaults, at least for English, are:

After Topic: comma + en space
Between Items: comma + space
Between Ranges: en dash
Before References: period + space
See: "See"
See Also: "See Also"
After See (Also): space
After References: space
 

[Oufti]

For French typography, this is how I should twist the defaults seen above : 

After Topic: U+00A0 (unbreakable space) U+003A (colon) U+0020 (normal space) U+0070 (p) U+002E (.) U+00A0 (unbreakable space) — not a normal space, because you don't want to have the page (p.) left alone with the first page number (260) on a new line, if there's ever a very long topic entry. In that case, a line ending with a colon and the next line beginning with the whole first page number (p. 260) will be preferable, won't it? 
Between Items: U+002C (comma) U+2002 (en space) — why not? instead of the normal space commonly used… (I understand s.o. likes the broader white space it leaves, as it helps for clarity, but as this space should be breakable, it would be the place worth joining a zero width space to it, that will make it seen by the program as a potential line break) U+200B (zero width space)
Between Ranges: U+2013, that's all. — No zero width space here, as 1º it is unneeded: en dash is already a potential line break point, and 2º even if I can live with that, I'd personally prefer not to have a cut in the middle of a range, and since we add the possibility to cut between items, that would help. 

The rest of the settings seems to be OK.

 

P.S. Pardon pour l'incongruité de l'illustration : j'ai composé comme en français, mais j'ai écrit en anglais… 

P.P.S. I see I have naturally added a period at the end of each topic. It's logical, as each is a grammatical proposition, but you may as well be willing to spare a sign. 

[Pyanepsion]

I also think that the U+2029 probably comes from the end-of-paragraph symbol in the text box. However, I’ve left it in case it’s important.

All the sequences shown are those discovered just after installing version 2.2.0.1986. I was working on a large index of several thousand references.

I had resolved the unwanted line break before reporting it by modifying the sequence containing the semi-cadratine space.

Whatever the After Topics sequence, it no longer appears in the form once it has been entered. It’s as if there’s a line break that doesn’t exist, but as you can see in the video, there’s still something selected.