text in shape backwards?

[kat]

1. I created a balloon the using a handle dragged it so the shape reversed. I then added text, but the text is reversed. What do I do?

2. How do I control the text in the not reversed Balloon?

[thomaso]

Apparently you flipped the object. Re-flip, then select a Shape Tool and move the red dots to adjust the tail.

[KarinC]

I prefer to put the text above the shape, not inside it. I have more control over the text or maybe because that's how I have always done it in the past. Then I group the text and the object.

[Ldina]

@kat If you place your text inside the bubble as a child layer, when you flip horizontal (or move the handles to reverse the orientation), both bubble and text will be reversed. 

You can do at least one of two things. Keep the text as a separate layer (not as a child layer) so that when you reverse the bubble, you don't reverse the text.

Or, if text is already reversed, highlight just the text with the Move tool and flip just the text horizontal. 

[kat]

22 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Apparently you flipped the object. Re-flip, then select a Shape Tool and move the red dots to adjust the tail.

This worked! I'm using the text frame insets to place text!.

My Apub 2 is crashing a lot. Images & balloons take up 1  of 8 pages. Better to take them out, put them in AD and link the image/balloons AD to Apub?

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, kat said:

Better to take them out, put them in AD and link the image/balloons AD to Apub?

Why use AD? You can do all of that in Publisher, directly in the Publisher Persona.

 

41 minutes ago, kat said:

I created a balloon the using a handle dragged it so the shape reversed.

With speech balloons, there's a red control on the tail that will let you move the tail without reversing the object itself. That should be easier than flipping the whole object.

[thomaso]

7 minutes ago, kat said:

My Apub 2 is crashing a lot. Images & balloons take up 1  of 8 pages. Better to take them out, put them in AD and link the image/balloons AD to Apub?

Do you know whether the speech bubbles cause the crashes? As far I know placed Affinity documents don't avoid crashes but possibly cause other issues.

Personally I avoid using the bubble shapes directly as text frames because of their limitations regarding the target / tail and text alignment vs. frame size. As shown in your second screenshot it may require too much extras like inset/indent and fail with the tail. I prefer two separate objects instead. (and possibly even turn the bubble shape into a curve object + move the nodes manually)

[kat]

@KarinC @Ldina @thomaso
You we all right.

I ended up putting text on top of the balloon callout most of the time. Much easier to position than inside the shape.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, kat said:

Much easier to position than inside the shape.

But if you move the bubble, you have to move its text in exactly the same way.
You also cannot use the centering (vertical and horizontal) of the text on the bubble, so when you change its size, you have to reformat the text as well - otherwise you will get what you have with the second/bottom bubble on your screenshot, where the text is placed incorrectly/strangely.

[KarinC]

19 hours ago, Pšenda said:

But if you move the bubble, you have to move its text in exactly the same way.
You also cannot use the centering (vertical and horizontal) of the text on the bubble, so when you change its size, you have to reformat the text as well - otherwise you will get what you have with the second/bottom bubble on your screenshot, where the text is placed incorrectly/strangely.

If you group them you just move the group.

[kat]

Sometimes text works inside the group, but most of the time I'm doing text on top grouped with shape. I tried having text as a shape child layer but text disappeared. 

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, kat said:

I tried having text as a shape child layer but text disappeared. 

Not any character left visible? It should not fully disappear but remain visible inside the bubble.

22 hours ago, Pšenda said:

You also cannot use the centering (vertical and horizontal) of the text on the bubble,

Especially this feature of the bubble shape feels like a limitation to me because it takes the full bounding box height in account (incl. tail) which may led to unexpected results and require additional workarounds like baseline shift or text frame insets. Rather cumbersome to setup if required – and to remove if not required. Thus I prefer a separated handling of bubble and text. – Additionally the bubble shape is limited with the tail to one edge only, which may need another workaround if you want to switch the tail from bottom to left, right or top.

From the four workflows below using a separate Text Frame layer appears to me as the "best" compromise between comfort + workarounds + flexibility, which, of course, also depend on the specific layout complexity, wanted goals or preferred user habits.

[kat]

Looks about like what I was dealing with. Ah well....