Text frame drawn on document page has become non-editable

[Kate H]

I have encountered this issue several times and have not been able to understand what I did to cause it, or how to reverse it. Sometimes, a frame I draw on a document page suddenly becomes non-editable, as if it is on a master page (with x's instead of handles, for example). Looking in the layers panel, I see that it has become associated with the master page in a way I did not intend, and I can no longer move or delete it from the document page.

It seems something I am doing has caused it to get "locked".

In the attached pages, both the small empty picture frames in the margins are non-editable. In Layers, I see they are "children" of the master pages, but lack a green bar. I have no idea what I did to cause this behaviour. When I right click on these frames in the Layers panel, I do not get the option to "release".

[MikeTO]

It's easy to inadvertently create objects on a master page when you intended to create them on the document page. I do it all the time and have to use Undo to create it in the right place. Here's one way it happens:

1. Draw a text frame on the master
2. On the document page, click in the text frame to place the text cursor in it
3. Draw a shape on the page - it will be drawn on the document page as you would expect
4. Now cut that shape to the clipboard, click back in the text frame, and paste the shape so it's pinned inline
5. Choose the Move tool and select the shape - you have selected a child layer of the text frame on the master page
6. Draw a shape on the page - it will be drawn as a child layer of the master layer. It's as if you edited the master detached without asking to do so.

IMO this is either a design flaw or bug. I think it would be better if objects were not drawn in the master layer when you're not editing detached. I do this all the time but I'm used to it now.

[MikeTO]

FYI I noticed a small cosmetic bug while replying and reported it here:

 

[Kate H]

Thanks for the explanation Mike, that does indeed seem like a bug, here's hoping it is fixed soon.

 

By "use undo" do you mean cntrl Z to back out of the problem? In my case, I'd gone too far with other things before I realised i had caused this issue, I guess I'll have to be more careful in future. The most recent version of the problem was when I used the shape tool, converted the shape into a frame, and used text wrapping to force text inside the shape, for artistic effect. The shape is where I want it on the page so I guess I could just leave it.

BTW, another issue with the same shape into picture frame: I would like to pin the shape (which has a light-coloured fill) to float with text, but when I do that, it moves up the layer stack and can no longer display the text inside the frame as I want. Is there something else I could try to keep the shape with the text (in this case, the chapter title)? Without anchoring the shapes, I'm going to have to be super precise in order of operations so that the shapes with text inside remain where I want them (on the opening page of each chapter). I have thought to use a Book document so that spacing alterations to each chapter do not cause later pages to shift in unpredictable ways -- is this my best option?

I have downloaded your manual and plan to spend hours with it refining my ability to use Affinity in awesome ways. Many thanks!

[MikeTO]

7 hours ago, Kate H said:

By "use undo" do you mean cntrl Z to back out of the problem? In my case, I'd gone too far with other things before I realised i had caused this issue, I guess I'll have to be more careful in future. The most recent version of the problem was when I used the shape tool, converted the shape into a frame, and used text wrapping to force text inside the shape, for artistic effect. The shape is where I want it on the page so I guess I could just leave it.

BTW, another issue with the same shape into picture frame: I would like to pin the shape (which has a light-coloured fill) to float with text, but when I do that, it moves up the layer stack and can no longer display the text inside the frame as I want. Is there something else I could try to keep the shape with the text (in this case, the chapter title)? Without anchoring the shapes, I'm going to have to be super precise in order of operations so that the shapes with text inside remain where I want them (on the opening page of each chapter). I have thought to use a Book document so that spacing alterations to each chapter do not cause later pages to shift in unpredictable ways -- is this my best option?

Yes, I meant pressing Ctrl+Z to go back. If you've gone too far, you can fix the problem by choosing Layer > Master Page > Edit Detached. Then using the Layers panel, drag the layer out of the master page layer which acts like a group. Click Finish to complete the operation.

Pinning question: I'm not entirely sure what you mean, could you show me? Or is it something in your screenshot above that I'm not seeing? But no, don't use the Books feature for this. The Books feature should be used only when you need to split up a document because it's too large to work on at once. Those are rare projects and I have three big book projects on the go and for none of them do I need to use the Books feature.

Once I understand what you mean we can sort out the issue but in the meantime, there are two ways to avoid having one chapter impact the starting point of the next chapter. First, split each chapter into separate stories. Don't link the last page of chapter 1 to the first page of chapter 2. This is the way I prefer to set up all my books because all of my books have lots of images and Publisher slows down as you add more pinned images to a story. Doing this will ensure that each chapter starts at the top of a page and changes to chapter 1 will have no impact on chapter 2.

For those whose books don't include a lot of images, such as novels, this approach is unnecessary and it's easier to create a book as a single story. There are two ways to "isolate" a chapter from the one that precedes it. You could insert a manual page break before the chapter heading - you can do this with the Text > Insert > Breaks > Page Break command. But an even easier way is to use a unique paragraph style for your chapter headings and in that style set Paragraph > Flow > Start to On Next Page. That will cause each chapter to automatically start on the next page, avoiding any spacing issues.

Good luck!

[Kate H]

Thanks for your further reply, I've never had to edit detached before, but I think I understand from your manual how it works and will try it.

 

 

Here is what I mean with the pinning -- in the first image the shape is not pinned, and could be moved down the layer stack so it doesn't obscure the text that is wrapped inside it.

In the image below, I have placed a "float with text" pin and although now the shape is still apparently below the text layer in the stack, it obscures the text and cannot be shifted down as needed. Removing the pin allows the shape to shifted back again. In fact, placing a pin greys out the controls at the top of the screen that allow one to shift items back or forwards (without using the layers panel). Maybe this is always an effect of pinning a shape that I have never noticed before?

 

I also avoid using Book documents for any except huge books that make Affinity too laggy, which I don't experience often as my computer is able to cope with most size documents. Keeping all text in one Story and using the Flow controls in the text style is also my preferred way of placing chapter starts. In this case, I wanted to keep the shapes together with the chapter titles so that if chapter one (for instance) got longer or shorter, the shapes on each subsequent chapter opening (there are 12 chapters) would not be stranded apart from the relevant text but would mover along with it. The shape on each chapter is different, so rather than make 12 different masters, I thought to place the shapes on the document pages instead. Maybe 12 masters would be simpler after all?

[MikeTO]

Pinned objects are always above the text frame so they will obscure the text.

This might be one of those cases where you have to position them manually. I hope you don't have too many of these shapes!

 

[Kate H]

Editing detached worked, obviously, to remove the object from the master layer and I think we (the design is someone else's) have a strategy for keeping the shape text in the right places. Many thanks again for your help and interest.

[thomaso]

19 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Pinned objects are always above the text frame so they will obscure the text.

9 hours ago, Kate H said:

have a strategy for keeping the shape text in the right places.

@Kate H , as consequence/workaround of Mike's info you could use the blend mode "Multiply" for the pinned object, without a need for manual repositioning in case of a text flow change. (and it won't cause rasterization on PDF export).

 

[Kate H]

Hi thomaso

 

Thanks for the perfect workaround! I really do not understand blend modes yet, but, hey, it works so I don't have to understand why.

[Oufti]

11 minutes ago, Kate H said:

I really do not understand blend modes yet

This recent tuto could possibly help: