New to Affinity Publisher

[ellaryk]

I have started using Affinity Publisher after using Page Plus for years. There is some functionality I loved in PP that I'm not finding in AP. So I'm looking for some help.

1. Auto fill: PP had an auto-fill attribute that would apply to a text frame. Any text in the frame would be enlarged to fill the frame. How do I accomplish this in AP?

2. PP had color schemes. If you applied a color to an object from a scheme then changed schemes, those objects would take on the colors of the new scheme. I haven't yet finished the tutorial on colors (it's 2 hours) but from what I gather this can be done with custom pallets? I assume they would have to be application pallets so they would be applied to different documents. I publish a monthly newsletter using a different color scheme for each month. For a new month I would copy the previous month's newsletter and apply the new color scheme. Most of the colored objects are text objects that don't change from month to month like regular article titles. So do custom pallets work like PP color schemes? Or should I retain a copy of each months newsletter and use it for the new year. 

Thanks in advance for the help.

[loukash]

10 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

Any text in the frame would be enlarged to fill the frame. How do I accomplish this in AP?

I don't know the old Serif apps, but in Affinity you can go "backwards":

1. shrink the text frame to fit the text by double-clicking a center handle on the bounding box
2. drag the "extra" resize handle at bottom right

[ellaryk]

Yes, but that resizes the frame in both the length and width. I need to shrink it using the extra handle then expand it similarly to the original shape.

Thanks.

[Oufti]

You could also use the Artistic text tool (or convert your text frame to an artistic text frame): 

https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/pages/Text/artText.html 

[thomaso]

15 hours ago, ellaryk said:

2. PP had color schemes. If you applied a color to an object from a scheme then changed schemes, those objects would take on the colors of the new scheme. (…)

So do custom pallets work like PP color schemes?

No. Affinity doesn't know "colour schemes" and handles colours swatches individually per colour and/or object only, not for an entire page or document. While you can define "global" colours, they aren't application wide but work in certain documents only, even though we may export/import those palettes.

This recent thread (above and below the video in the linked post) may shed more light on available options + limitations of the Affinity Swatches Panel and Palettes:

As a limited workaround you could apply an adjustment, e.g. HSL adjustment, to influence more than 1 colour at a time. Apart from its rather vague options (e.g. no way to define a specific colour via numerical values) also note, on Export this will cause rasterization of every affected object.

[ellaryk]

I have another problem that has to do with page numbering. I created a master page with page numbers. On one page I had to remove the master page to enlarge a text box. Now the page numbers on the subsequent pages are messed up. So I created another master page, inserted a page number field  and applied that master, but I don't see the number. I don't see what to do to get it to appear.

[loukash]

12 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

On one page I had to remove the master page to enlarge a text box.

Why would you need to do that…?

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

On one page I had to remove the master page to enlarge a text box.

You should not have removed the Master page. Instead, right-click on its layer in the Layers panel and choose Edit Detached. That will let you change the items inherited from the Master Page. You then click on Finish when you're done with that change.

[ellaryk]

Sorry, I did not remove the master page. I detached it as you described. Couldn't remember the terminology when I wrote the post. Everything else was as I described.

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, ellaryk said:

Sorry, I did not remove the master page. I detached it as you described. Couldn't remember the terminology when I wrote the post. Everything else was as I described.

If you only used Edit Detached, it should not have affected the page numbering. Are you sure you didn't actually Clear the Master Page.

[ellaryk]

Yes, I detached it. But maybe the subsequent pages had no Master page applied? So I created a master B with page numbers and applied it to those pages. One page actually has two Masters applied.

So how do I fix this? 

[loukash]

11 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

One page actually has two Masters applied.

That's a feature, not a bug…  
You can apply as many master pages to a page as you want.
In fact, Master Pages are based on the same technology as Symbols in Designer and Linked Layers in Photo (as confirmed by staff a few years ago).

13 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

So how do I fix this? 

Delete the master page which you don't need on a given page in the Layers panel.

[ellaryk]

I did that. But now the page numbers are not continuous. and one page has no page number although the master has one.

[Brian_J]

7 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

But now the page numbers are not continuous. and one page has no page number although the master has one.

I’d suggest that you upload your file. A forum member can take a look and identify the issue you’re having with the page numbers.

[ellaryk]

File has been uploaded. I apologize for this. I created objects like they were in PagePlus but they don't behave in Affinity like they did in Page Plus.

So, I have a page number problem that needs to be resolved.

Does a document have to have a master page with text boxes or can it just have the page number field? I also tried to change a master page to delete the text boxes and lost the text on one page. Couldn't find it in layers.

Thanks again for your help.

April Newsletter.afpub

[Brian_J]

@ellaryk A number of the pages do not have Master Pages applied to them (page 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12). These pages have Layers named "Master" but they are not coming from the Master Pages — I'm not sure what was done to make this happen. Page 1 doesn't have a Master Page applied, but I'm assuming that's intentional.

Layers applied by Master Pages have a green vertical line to the left of the page thumbnail (in the Layers panel). Also, hovering over the page thumbnails in the Pages panel will display a tooltip showing which master page(s) are applied.

I would suggest doing the following — in the Layers panel, delete all "Master" layers that aren't from actual Master Pages (some pages have unused Layers, which can be deleted as well to clean things up). Then apply the appropriate Master Page to each page — right-click the page in the Pages panel, select Apply Master.

Master Pages don't have to have text frames in them. It's often beneficial to add text frames to Master Pages, but it just depends on how you want things set up. If a document has pages with several different layouts, you can create a Master Page with text frames for each layout.

Edit: After applying the Master Pages, if you want the text content on the page to be in the Master Page text frame, you will need to copy/paste the text into the Master Page text frame, then delete the original text layer. It's also a good idea to name each layer in Master Pages, so that you can migrate page content when switching between Master Pages.

[ellaryk]

When I tried to remove the text boxes from Master A I lost the text on one of the pages. Is it because I used the text box from the master rather than adding a separate one?

[Brian_J]

4 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

When I tried to remove the text boxes from Master A I lost the text on one of the pages. Is it because I used the text box from the master rather than adding a separate one?

Yes. Deleting the text frame on a Master Page will delete the text on any pages where the text was entered into the text frame populated from the Master Page.

[ellaryk]

So why is there no page number on the second page of the Illinois District Spring Rally Ride-In? It has master B similar to the previous page. Does it have something to do with the fact that the page number goes to 2 digits? If so, how do I fix that?

[Oufti]

9 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

If so, how do I fix that?

On the Master page, enlarge the frame containing the page number, or reduce the size of the page number. 

[ellaryk]

That didn't fix it. The text frame was wide enough. changing its size had no affect.

[Oufti]

25 minutes ago, ellaryk said:

That didn't fix it. The text frame was wide enough. changing its size had no affect.

Sorry, I just downloaded your file and I see what happens: 

Layers are stacked from bottom to top, as presented in the Layers panel.
In your case, the placed PDF is above the Master page layers, which means it covers it. 

In the Layers panel, drag the Master page layer above the PDF layer, so the page number will appear above the PDF.

You could also use the buttons on the contextual toolbar: 

[ellaryk]

I fixed it. I moved the frame to the back.

Thanks for all you help.

[ellaryk]

One last question. I frequently used the auto-fill function of PagePlus. How best is that accomplished in AP?

I have been selecting all the text then selecting different font sizes. I've also tried pulling on the frame handle, making it smaller then larger.  Is there a better way?

[Brian_J]

I’m not familiar with PagePlus. Does the auto-fill feature resize a block of text to fill the container it’s in? If not, can you explain what auto-fill does?

In Affinity Publisher, there isn’t a way to scale the font size based on the container size (as far as I know).

Using Text Styles would be helpful, though. You can create a number of text styles based on your needs. Text Styles make it quick and easy to style text, and it will keep things looking consistent throughout the document. I apply text styles to all text in Affinity documents.

I’ll create an example document that demonstrates the use of text styles and how I might approach using Master Pages for your newsletter. I should have time to put it together tomorrow night.