Publisher (at least 2.x): Disappearing mouse cursor (I-beam) when in a table or in a text frame if "pointer trails" are enabled

[Felix Kasza]

Hi!

The text cursor (I-beam) is mostly invisible when moving around in a text frame.

Repro steps (for me):

1. Using any Publisher 2.x version (up to and including 2.2.0), create a new document.
   In my case: A4 portrait, 400 dpi, vanilla margins.
   You now have one master page and one regular page, the latter being displayed.
2. Select the Frame Text tool and draw a text frame or a table on the page.
   If you draw a table, every table cell will act like a small text frame, but the end result is the same.
3. Move the mouse so the mouse cursor is in the text frame (table cell). Move around a little.
4. The cursor disappears from sight.
   That makes navigation somewhat difficult (but the mouse position indicators in the rulers are still there).
5. Fill the text frame with text. Observe that the mouse cursor (I-beam) still is invisible.
   Clicking into the text to set the insertion point works, except that it is hard to predict where you will be clicking.

Expected result: A visible mouse cursor.

This happens on:

• my previous laptop (HP Envy 17, Win10, fully updated) and my current one (Dell Inspiron 5760, Win11 Pro, fully updated)
• with Publisher 2.0, 2.0.3, 2.1.1, 2.2 (cannot say about 1.x, as I need footnotes etc.)
• using the Intel 530 or the Nvidia ATX 2000 GPU
• with or without "Enable pointer support" checked in Settings (what does it do, anyway?)
• with or without "Hide pointer while typing" in Windows mouse settings (old-style).

If, in the Windows mouse settings, you enable "Show location when …", tapping the Ctrl key will correctly indicate where the mouse cursor should be. As a work-around, it's a pain.

DANG. OK, let me do my Emily Litella impression here: "Oh. Never mind!"

The cause of the weirdness is the "Display pointer trails" setting. I use it because my vision is not what it was in my younger days (and even then it was nothing to write home about), but as soon as I disable it, the I-beam remains visible. That said, IMHO it is still a bug in Publisher or whatever underlying library it uses for mouse pointer control, as all my non-Affinity apps are perfectly fine with this setting. 

Could you please consider this a bug report? Or should I send the information elsewhere, open a ticket, or whatever?

Thanks,
Felix.

 

[Callum]

Hi Felix,

I've just  tested this here and it seems to be working fine please could you tell me if you have open CL enabled in the apps performance preferences? If you do does disabling it have any effect on this issue?

Thanks
C

[Felix Kasza]

8 minutes ago, Callum said:

[…] if you have open CL enabled in the apps performance preferences?

Hi, @Callum,

I did have it enabled. Disabling OpenCL (and restarting Pub, of course) seems to have no effect. I also tried setting the renderer explicitly to the Intel 530 and the Nvidia ATX 2000, and in both cases I tried with and without OpenCL. No change: The only setting that seems to influence this still is the pointer-trails setting in Windows’ mouse control panel.

Thanks for looking into this!

Cheers,
Felix.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Felix Kasza
Forgot to tag Callum

[Callum]

Hi Felix,

Would you be able to provide a screen recording showcasing this issue? If you are unsure of how to do this the following guide should help.

Thanks
C

[Felix Kasza]

24 minutes ago, Callum said:

Would you be able to provide a screen recording showcasing this issue?

Hi @Callum,

I am terribly embarrassed to admit that I had to mount a portable vise to my desk and record the video on my cell phone. I tried both the snipping tool (neat! I didn’t know it could do video!) and OBS which I normally use for such things, and as soon as a screen recorder is active, the cursor *always* disappears. Very annoying!

So, with my apologies, here is my embarrassment in full colour.

Cheers & thanks,
Felix.

[undercovergypsy]

This only happens in Affinity. I didn't find any relief doing anything different in the system mouse settings. Help — it is really making Publisher unusable.

[undercovergypsy]

I thought the following worked, but it didn't when editing data merge. Darn!

On 9/19/2023 at 5:55 AM, Felix Kasza said:

Hi, @Callum,

I did have it enabled. Disabling OpenCL (and restarting Pub, of course) seems to have no effect. I also tried setting the renderer explicitly to the Intel 530 and the Nvidia ATX 2000, and in both cases I tried with and without OpenCL. No change: The only setting that seems to influence this still is the pointer-trails setting in Windows’ mouse control panel.

Thanks for looking into this!

Cheers,
Felix.

 

Edited January 6, 2024 by undercovergypsy
It didn't actually work in the end

[MikeTO]

@undercovergypsy I replied in the other thread you posted about this to.

 

[TanadAa]

Hi

@Felix Kasza and @MikeTO the same issue is happening for me too. The T tool (I-Beam) disappears whenever it is over a text box but appears outside it.

 

Any help would be much appreciated, I've migrated from Mac to Windows and the problem was there on both. I have fully updated and use a USB mouse. Bluetoth mouse on current PC and track pad on previous. Have tried to enable trails and it doesn't change.

Edit: I can actually see the I-Beam when it is hovering over text and it seems it is there but has changed colour to white - it is visible against an image or text.

Love the program otherwise but very frustrating for editing larger docs

 

Ta

Edited January 13, 2024 by TanadAa
Found new parameters for problem

[Felix Kasza]

3 hours ago, TanadAa said:

Have tried to enable trails and it doesn't change.

For me, it was disabling pointer trails that made the cursor appear normally. Regrettably, I know absolutely nothing beyond that, not even if @Callum managed to reproduce the problem at the office.

 

Sorry,

Felix.

[mynnzer]

I am having the same problem. The cursor has disappeared and Publisher is unusable like this. I've had to go back to InDesign until I can find a fix. Any help would be appreciated.

Affinity Publisher 2.6.0 / Windows 11

[walt.farrell]

22 hours ago, mynnzer said:

The cursor has disappeared and Publisher is unusable like this.

Are you also on Windows, and do you have Enable Pointer Trails active in your system Settings? If so, disabling that setting may be preferable to switching back to InDesign.