Resizing and Rescaling Issue

[Sabz]

Hi, I believe I'm following the right steps for re-sizing and re-scaling my content from A4 to A5. But for some reason, either my spreads or the contents aren't scaling correctly. Can anyone advice if I'm doing anything wrong? Please see screenshots.

 

[thomaso]

In your screenshots it seems that the master pages did not change their size. Possibly you set them first, they might auto-adjust all their objects + related page sizes. You may get asked whether you want to adjust the document page sizes.

[Sabz]

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

In your screenshots it seems that the master pages did not change their size. Possibly you set them first, they might auto-adjust all their objects + related page sizes. You may get asked whether you want to adjust the document page sizes.

Unfortunately I don't get this prompt. I'm guessing I need to manually change the master page sizes? I have several master pages throughout the document. Would I need to change them each separately?

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Sabz said:

Unfortunately I don't get this prompt. I'm guessing I need to manually change the master page sizes? I have several master pages throughout the document. Would I need to change them each separately?

I agree this dialog appears unclear or misleading and the app would not need this prompt in documents where all master + master pages have the same size (= because they do not differ). It appears to be coded (implemented) as a general dialog if the feature gets used for master pages. (and it points to / is related to the optional fact that a master spread size may differ from a document spread size but deliver the master's content only without its spread size).

You don't have to scale the master pages "manually" but can use the same dialog you used to scale document pages ("spread setup") but apply this rather for Master Pages by having a master page selected when opening + setting this dialog. Also you don't have to change master pages/spreads individually/separately but can choose "All Spreads" to change the size + content of all pages in 1 step (shown above in my screenshot for V1). Then just confirm the prompt with "Yes".

Note, if executed you can Undo this procedure with the Undo command or via History Panel, so you can try and see what it changes you got and possibly restart the procedure with adjusted settings.

[Sabz]

Thank you so much. I've managed to do this and it's now resized to A5. The only issue is that I can see at least one page that didn't resize with the rest of the document:

Do you have any suggestions for fixing this? I tried deleting the faulty page and instead adding a page at the end of the text block, which essentially pushed everything forward one page and fixed the table of contents. But this created a new issue. I'm not sure if I've got a bug in my document. Because this made all the contents on a specific master page disappear throughout the whole document, and I couldn't figure out how to fix that issue.

I just checked and the issue of disappearing contents on that specific master page didn't exist before I resized the document. It seems to only be created by the resize. I'm hoping someone could help me fix this potential bug as it means I can't make any changes to the document now. If any pages are added or deleted, contents on that master page disappear.

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, Sabz said:

Do you have any suggestions for fixing this? I tried deleting the faulty page and instead adding a page at the end of the text block, which essentially pushed everything forward one page and fixed the table of contents. But this created a new issue. I'm not sure if I've got a bug in my document. Because this made all the contents on a specific master page disappear throughout the whole document, and I couldn't figure out how to fix that issue.

I would try to scale the content on this page manually. I would not delete single pages but 2-page-spreads only to avoid confusion of left vs. right pages.

I have no idea what is going on and how the content of a document page can affect the content of a master page. Possibly the temporary page shift (left/right) caused confusion for hidden, invisible parts of master spread content? (compare: the invisible master page content left of page 1). Was .IDML involved for the document creation, or possibly AD's "Symbols"?

It may need to inspect the Layers Panel (with all layers unfolded) of the related spread and master to detect a possible confusion or culprit. Can you upload your .afpub to the forum?
 

 

[Sabz]

Thanks @thomaso I should have probably explained that I've tried deleting 1 or 2 page spreads. And I tested deleting or adding any pages anywhere in the document, and suddenly all the contents anywhere in the file on that particular master page goes missing. So there's definitely something strange going on. I'm not comfortable posting the .afpub publicly because it is a copyrighted content.

I'm not quite sure about your question about .IDML - I tried to read up on what that is but I can't quite get my head around it. It shouldn't be anything to do with hidden/invisible parts. The behaviour is definitely strange. One moment all the parts are there. Next moment I can't even see the text or image boxes that are supposed to be on that masterpage.

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, Sabz said:

One moment all the parts are there. Next moment I can't even see the text or image boxes that are supposed to be on that masterpage.

Do you mean the issue appears and disappears? If yes, could this be a redraw issue (not displaying existing text)? Or do the objects (text frames) in fact disappear in the Layers Panel of the affected master pages?

Assuming not the text content is causing the issue of disappearing content on master pages but rather the layers/objects you possibly can replace the sensible content of the main story text flow with filler text and upload the modified document. Alternatively you might show a video demonstrating the issue resulting from a spread deletion + unfolded all possibly collapsed layers on the affected master page.

(.IDML is the exchange file format to use InDesign documents in APub, "Symbol" is a feature to link instances of objects in AD)

[Sabz]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Do you mean the issue appears and disappears? If yes, could this be a redraw issue (not displaying existing text)? Or do the objects (text frames) in fact disappear in the Layers Panel of the affected master pages?

No, what I meant was that the issue didn't exist before the resizing. But as soon as it's converted from A4 to A5, suddenly by adding or deleting any pages, all objects disappear from those specific pages. Once the issue appears I can't seem to fix it and it doesn't disappear.

 

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Assuming not the text content is causing the issue of disappearing content on master pages but rather the layers/objects you possibly can replace the sensible content of the main story text flow with filler text and upload the modified document.

I'm not sure if this answers your question, but the master pages that go blank don't contain any text flow continuation. They are the new chapter pages that include a chapter title and an image. And I don't think the issue is with the content, because I can't even see the text box or image box that are a fixed part of the master page.

[thomaso]

21 minutes ago, Sabz said:

And I don't think the issue is with the content, because I can't even see the text box or image box that are a fixed part of the master page.

That's why I think an inspection of your document with filler text (instead of copyright text) may be worth a look.

Currently you still describe symptoms only … without a chance to inspect/detect a culprit in the Layer Panel's layer structure of master + document pages (i.e. via uploaded screenshots, video or document).

[Sabz]

Thanks thomaso, I think I just figured it out. The master pages in question were only one page but the resize/rescale was changing them into a spread/2 pages. That was causing the whole issue!

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Sabz said:

Thanks thomaso, I think I just figured it out. The master pages in question were only one page but the resize/rescale was changing them into a spread/2 pages. That was causing the whole issue!

That seems very unlikely, so it would help if you could attach a file showing this issue with filler text like @thomaso suggested.

[Sabz]

10 hours ago, R C-R said:

That seems very unlikely, so it would help if you could attach a file showing this issue with filler text like @thomaso suggested.

I'll post screenshots here to display the issue. I've basically managed to fix it by manually changing the master page in question to single sheet after I've done the resize:

Before the resize/rescale:

After the resize/rescale:

However, the resize has created another strange behavior that I'm not sure how to fix! After the resize, my text-styles are no longer reactive to any change. Firstly the text style below shows Leading to be 14, when in reality the resize/rescale has changed it to 11. It was 14 before the resize/rescale. And as you can see from the second screenshot, changing the leading size makes no difference to the document.

I would really appreciate it if someone could provide a dropbox link so that they could privately take a look at my file. Or show me if it is possible to quickly replace all the text with filler text, since it's a large and sensitive document with lots of text boxes and graphics.

[thomaso]

13 hours ago, Sabz said:

I think I just figured it out. The master pages in question were only one page but the resize/rescale was changing them into a spread/2 pages. That was causing the whole issue!

45 minutes ago, Sabz said:

I'll post screenshots here to display the issue. I've basically managed to fix it by manually changing the master page in question to single sheet after I've done the resize:

If you have master page spreads of different sizes then you would need to care for the settings of "Single/Facing" and "Page/Spread", otherwise all master spreads may get get changed to the size you currently have defined for the change and may let to confusion for the app and the user.

To me this two settings worked, note that a certain master spread is currently selected and influences the required setting for "Single/Facing".

In my various tests I also got unwanted results with page sizes that appeared unchanged or the 2-page-spread turned to 2 landscape pages or to a single portrait master page instead of a spread (leading to a blank right document page 5). Unfortunately in some of these resulting changes neither "Undo" nor the "History Panel" worked to fully undo the procedure but created more confusion. At least in this undoable results there seems to be a buggy app behaviour (which a V2 user might want to test for a possible Bug Report).

Nevertheless it does not explain your experience that deleting a document page/spread causes the deletion of content on a master page (and thus in the entire document on pages that have this master applied). This would require a document page working as "master" for a master page, which can't be created in APub as far I know*. Even master pages applied to other master pages would not cause your result of changing a master page when deleting a document page but might cause interruption or confusion with text flow only.
(*that is why I asked you before whether AD "Symbols" were used, since a "Symbol" object can create dependency between a 'master' symbol and its further instances anywhere in a document.)

In your situation I would go back to the initial document (before scaling) and start the procedure again to make sure all scaling gets done as wanted without causing local issues. This might help to avoid possible confusion that may occur at any later time of the layout process when editing or moving items.

59 minutes ago, Sabz said:

After the resize, my text-styles are no longer reactive to any change. Firstly the text style below shows Leading to be 14, when in reality the resize/rescale has changed it to 11. It was 14 before the resize/rescale.

This is not unusual: Scaling text objects doesn't change the attributes of saved text styles but causes 'local overrides' which are indicated by a + symbol next to the style name at various spots of the interface. To change the style attributes to the new size you can use the "Update" option (<- right click on a style's burger menu).