Publisher V2.2 Crashing When I Change the Font Size

[DianeF]

I just tried to change the font size of text within a text box in a Publsher file, and when I did, the program crashed. I tried doing this 4 different times with the same result. Any suggestions for how to remedy this? Thank you.

[MikeTO]

Hi Diane, I don't think this is a very common problem, at least not since I've been using Publisher. So the first thing I'd suggest if you haven't already done this is to turn off Metal. Go to Affinity Publisher 2 > Settings and click Performance on the left. Turn off Hardware Acceleration Enable Metal and then change Display to OpenGL. You'll have to restart the app when you do that. Does it make any difference?

Good luck

[DianeF]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I did what you suggested though I have no idea what metal means or what OpenGL Display means. But doing this made no difference. The program still crashed when I tried to change the font size. So, I'm still looking for a solution. Should I change these preferences back to what they were?

This does seem to be a bug.

[DianeF]

Now, in addition to the program crashing when I change the font size, it is crashing when I try to link two pages. I have left the Performance preferences with Metal turned off and OpenGL display.

I had none of these problems when using Publisher V1 or V2.0. The program is now not usable since almost everything I do is causing it to crash.

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, DianeF said:

I did what you suggested though I have no idea what metal means or what OpenGL Display means. But doing this made no difference. The program still crashed when I tried to change the font size. So, I'm still looking for a solution. Should I change these preferences back to what they were?

If you have an Apple M1 or M2 chip then don't change them back, leaving it this way will prevent another crash issue. If you're on Intel you could change them back unless advised by Serif.

I searched the forums just now and couldn't find any other recent reports of crashing when changing font size, except for one report when Sonoma was still in beta before Affinity was compatible with Sonoma, but you're on Monterey so it's irrelevant. I really don't know what's going on so I think Serif will need to look into this with you.

In the meantime, Serif will also need to see a crash report. Open the Console app from Applications > Utilities. In the left panel, click Crash Reports. Find the relevant one in the list on the right, its name will include the Affinity app name and have an appropriate timestamp. Right-click and choose Reveal in Finder. Copy and paste the .crash file into your reply here. 

Good luck

[Oufti]

You could also restart the Mac (after repeated crashes, it is not bad to do) and ensure your macOS is up to date: your signature indicates a very old Monterey 12.1, it is actually v.12.7. 

[DianeF]

Thank you Mike and Oufti

I have just upgraded my OS to V12.7 and have restarted my computer. I then restarted Publisher 2.2. I had exactly the same problem when I tried to link two text blocks. The program immediately crashed. This time, however, it did not crash when I changed the font size.

I'm attaching the latest crash report here and hope that a Serif staff member can take a look at it and then make suggestions for what, if anything, I can do to continue to use the program.

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2023-09-25-111250.ips

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble @DianeF,

I concur that the issue you're reporting doesn't seem to be consistent across other users at this time, so it may be specific to your file or Affinity app setup.

Are these crashes occurring only in one specific file, or within any document?

The crash report you've provided seems to indicate an issue with 'symbol' objects, which usually relates to Master Page objects in Publisher, so if these crashes are only occurring in one particular document, it may indicate an issue with your current Master Page setup or linked layers.

Are you able to provide a copy of your .afpub file where these crashes occur please? If you'd like a private upload link for this file, please don't hesitate to ask

[DianeF]

Hi Dan,

In order to test your hypothesis that the crashes have to do with my current Master Page setup or linked layers, I created another file. The problem doesn't seem to be happening in the new file. I was able to link text boxes and change the font size without any problems.

I would like to upload the problematic file so you could take a look at it and tell me what I'm doing wrong in setting up my pages. But I would like a private upload link since this document contains some family history. If you provide that link, I'll upload the file.

Thank you for your help

 

 

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that for me!

Please upload your file to the below link:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/qWjE24BdkQ19NWK3ZcXw

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know. Many thanks in advance

[DianeF]

HI Dan,

 

I have uploaded my file to the Dropbox link that you sent me. I'll be interested to learn if I've done something incorrect in creating this file. Thank you in advance for your help.

Diane

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing that for me!

I can confirm I'm seeing the same crashing behaviour in your file here on Windows, so I concur this appears to be an issue with the specific file itself, rather than the application in general.

Your Master Page B, in the text frame on the right hand side has an Inline PDF file, with no text in the frame. (note I have removed the name of the PDF file in the screenshot for privacy) -

Linking to this frame is causing this crash (and I suspect was a cause for the font size crash also), as I don't believe the app is expecting an inline, overflowing file to be present here.

If you delete this Inline PDF file from the frame on the Master Page, you should find you're then able to link text throughout the file as required!

I'll also be investigating this further in a new file and logging it with our development team, as although unexpected this shouldn't cause the application to crash in the manner seen.

I hope this helps

[DianeF]

Thanks very much for explaining the problem. But I don't know what an inline PDF file is. My intention was to set up empty text frame on the master so I don't know how an inline PDF file--whatever that is--got into the frame. But I will delete it

I'll let you know if I have any further problems after I do so.

[MikeTO]

12 minutes ago, DianeF said:

Thanks very much for explaining the problem. But I don't know what an inline PDF file is. My intention was to set up empty text frame on the master so I don't know how an inline PDF file--whatever that is--got into the frame. But I will delete it

Hi Diane. An inline PDF is a PDF document that has been placed into Publisher and pinned inside of a text frame. Pinning an image, shape, PDF, or anything into a text frame can be done in two ways - inline or floating. Inline means it's treated like a character, although a really big character. Floating means it can be positioned anywhere on the page relative to the pin which is like an anchor.

Since you didn't intend to create this inline PDF, what probably happened is that you had copied it, either from within Publisher or from Finder, your computer, and then when the text cursor was in the text frame you chose paste. You might not have realized what was on the clipboard when you chose Paste but that's an easy way to create an inline object.

Cheers

[DianeF]

Thank you, Mike, for explaining what an inline PDF is.  (And, thanks for your comprehensive Publisher manual.) After you did, I went to my document and looked at the master that Dan said crashed the file. The only thing I saw in that master was what look like a text frame. I didn't see any PDF document or anything else in the text frame, but I decide to delete the text frame, hoping that if anything was inside it, it would also be deleted. As soon as I did that, Publisher crashed. I reopened it, got the message asking if I wanted to restore the file, and said yes. At that point, it crashed immediately on reopening. Every time I tried to reopen the file, the program just crashed. I'm attaching the crash reports.

At this point, I think I may need to start from scratch and just create a new document.

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2023-09-26-145138.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2023-09-26-145126.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2023-09-26-145115.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2023-09-26-145058.ips

[DianeF]

I am still trying to fix my file so that I can continue working in it.

Dan, can you tell me how I can see an inline file? When I look at my master B I can not see anything inside of it.

Also, as I mentioned in my previous comment, when I tried to delete the text frame in Master B so that I could recreate it without anything inside it, the program crashed. Now, every time I open it, if I make a change to a page based on that master, the program crashes. I have another Master C that looks the same as Master B. I tried to unattach some pages from Master B so that I could reattach them to Master C, but that also crashed the program.

So, what can I do to continue working on this file, short of starting over, recreating the masters (hopefully with nothing inside them) and then copying text from the previous file?

Thanks

 

[walt.farrell]

7 hours ago, DianeF said:

When I look at my master B I can not see anything inside of it.

Are you looking on the page, or at the layers panel?

The PDF should be visible in the Layers panel, as it is in Dan's screenshot above. Just delete that layer in the Layers panel, while editing Master B.

[DianeF]

After reading Walt's comment, I looked at the master in the Layers panel and saw what looked like an empty layer. As soon as I deleted it, the program crashed. The same thing happened multiple times. Still not sure what to do to be able to use this file. It seems like almost any action I make to it causes the program to crash.

[Dan C]

I'm sorry to hear this is continuing to crash for you on macOS - I must admit that I performed my tests on Windows, though as I was seeing the same initial error, I had assumed the same resolution would be compatible on macOS.

I've manually deleted the Inline PDF from the Layers Studio for the Master B page and saved this document as a new file.

Using Dropbox, I'll send a copy of this file for you now, which will hopefully stop the crashing on your mac - please do let me know

[DianeF]

That would be wonderful. Thank you! I'll test it and let you know if it works okay.

[DianeF]

Hi Dan,

I opened your file, tried to change the font size on one page, and the program crashed just like it did before. I tried it several times with the same result.

I also noticed in the layers panel that on the master B there were 2 frame text layers in exactly the same place. They are the first and the sixth layer. I wonder if that could be causing the problem?

[Hangman]

Hi @Dan C,

This may be totally unrelated but based on your screengrab above I recreated Master B including the duplicate text frame mentioned by @DianeF and the very first time I attempted to link to it Publisher crashed, however, since that point I've not been able to get it to crash hence why this may be a pure coincidence but I've attached the crash report just in case it is related and points towards anything.

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2023-09-29-094758.ips

[Hangman]

22 hours ago, DianeF said:

Still not sure what to do to be able to use this file. It seems like almost any action I make to it causes the program to crash.

Hi @DianeF,

One thing you could try if you are happy to do so would be the following, assuming you are able to open your file without it crashing.

Steps

1. Create a duplicate of your Publisher file in the Finder, give it a slightly different name (e.g., add a v2 suffix) and then open the duplicate file
2. Delete Master B from the Master Pages panel, Save and Close the file
3. Create a new single facing page Letter document using the same settings as your original document using the Default Master
4. From the Document menu select 'Add Pages from File...' and select your newly saved duplicate file
5. Select the following settings and then click OK... This should add all pages and Master Pages from your new file
6. You will likely have to reapply what was your Master C page which should now be renamed Master B because you deleted the original Master B to the relevant pages
7. Save the file

 

See whether that makes any difference at all or whether in doing the above you still experience the same crash when changing the font size or in any other situations where you were experiencing the crash.

Note: This may make no difference at all but equally if there is an element of corruption in your original file it may work.

Let us know how you get on or if anything above doesn't make sense.

[DianeF]

Hi Hangman,

Thanks for the suggestion. I did as you suggested and things worked out pretty well. i ended up having the copy the text from the previous file into the new file, but I didn't get any crashes when I made changes. So I now have a file that appears to work--fingers crossed!

Thanks to everyone for the help with this.

[Hangman]

Hi Diane,

That’s really good to hear, I’m glad you now have a working file that no longer crashes, hopefully it will stay that way…🤞