Publisher - Section Manager not allowing restart of page numbering

[Nicola Taylor]

I'm no longer able to create sections in Publisher that restart page numbering. I use this to skip page numbering on front covers and divider pages.

Here's a Loom to show it in action https://www.loom.com/share/1556cb6d07e9431d85ef499e5674268a?sid=e3de3695-abf1-4ee1-bb3b-8bfb9114370d

I can create one section that restarts pagination at page 1, but no other page numbers are accepted. When trying to create any additional sections, or to use any other page number, the radio button simply goes back to Continue Page Numbering. 

This is a newly created document. I have older documents that were created in previous versions of Affinity. The existing document sections persist in these docs, as do the reset page numbers, but any attempt to create new page sections results in the same issue. 

I'm aware of this post - however this poster says that page numbers are not working in older documents and that has not been my experience (although I can't create any new sections that reset page numbers)
 

 

[Nicola Taylor]

[walt.farrell]

Without a screenshot of your Section Manager it's hard to be sure what you have and what you've done.

But as a guess: Your first section must always start on page 1. So if you want an unnumbered page at the start, you have to start by having more than 1 page, and then adding a second section. That second section can start higher than page 1.

[Nicola Taylor]

@walt.farrell - There's no problem with creating the sections themselves. It's the restarting of the page numbering that's not working. Here's a screenshot of a previous document to show you what I mean. In previous versions of Publisher, I could set this restart page numbering to any value and so skip over some pages that I didn't want to include in the pagination (in my case, cover pages for each month in a planner)

Since the recent updates, this option isn't working in new documents. Although you can still create sections, this "Restart page numbering" option is reverting back to "Continue page numbering" if you enter anything other than 1 in the field. 

I'm pretty sure it's a bug because other people have reported similar (but not identical) issues.

In this older document, my existing choices for "Restart page numbering" are still there and still working, but any attempt to add a new section has the same issue as the new docs. 

 

[Lee D]

@Nicola Taylor We have this issue logged with the developers to investigate further.

I'll add this to the report.

[Nicola Taylor]

@Lee D - Thank you. Can you point me to official instructions on how to safely downgrade to a previous version? 
I'm having trouble finding anything from Affinity on this. 

[Lee D]

24 minutes ago, Nicola Taylor said:

Thank you. Can you point me to official instructions on how to safely downgrade to a previous version? 
I'm having trouble finding anything from Affinity on this. 

@Nicola Taylor You can use the following links to download the previous version on macOS. You just need to uninstall the existing versions first from your systems Application folder before installing the previous ones.

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/macos/publisher/2/

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/macos/designer/2/

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/macos/photo/2/

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "[macOS] Unable to set page number using 'Start/Restart Page Numbering At' in Section Manager" (REF: AF-3203) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.5.3.2514".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Cathy Lewis]

I decided to move to Publisher 2 from InDesign and purchased 2.5.2 today and are experiencing the same problem as Nicola Tayler described. I had planned to publish the book next week after moving all chapters manually to avoid import problems....

So WHEN will build 2.5.3.2514 be included in customer release? Or do I have to work with betas in Publisher 2 to have basic functionality?

Edited June 16, 2024 by Cathy Lewis

[Nicola Taylor]

@Cathy Lewis - I downloaded version 2.4 from the links Lee D provided and used it to finish my artwork file. Everything worked just as it should - including some other issues I had experienced with 2.5.

The beta wasn’t available in time for my deadline but I wouldn’t have used it anyway, given how buggy 2.5 has been - presumably even after beta testing. 

[MikeTO]

@Cathy Lewis Welcome to the forums. This bug only affects those who are creating standalone documents with starting page numbers > 1, or those who changed the starting page number and what to set it back to 1. Setting the starting page number with the Section Manager changes it to 0 regardless of what you enter.

If you've created a Publisher Book with separate Chapter documents you should be okay because you can't use the Section Manager to set the starting page number of chapters, that's done with the Books panel's Page Number Options feature.

What is your book project setup? The scenario which would be challenging is if you've divided your project up into separate chapter documents but did not create a Publisher Book and thus must set the starting page number manually. If so, for now you'll have to use the awkward workaround I shared earlier because there isn't a public beta available yet. I recommend making a backup copy of your document before trying this.

1. Create a Publisher Book
2. Add the document to the Book
3. Choose Page Number Options from the Books panel menu and set the starting page number as desired
4. Save and close the document
5. Close the Book without saving
6. Re-open the document - it will have the correct starting page number. You still won't be able to change that with the Section Manager, but at least it will start on the page you want now.

[MikeTO]

@Lee D I just noticed something else with this issue, perhaps you could check if it's fixed in the next beta, too.

1. Start Publisher Mac and create a document
2. Using Section Manager, set starting page number to 2 and do not press Tab or Return, click Close instead to keep focus in the field - Publisher changes the section to "Continue" with a starting number of 0
3. Close the document and create a new one
4. Open Section Manager - even though the starting page number is really 1, it shows as 2 in the dialog. If you give focus to the field then it will change to 1.

[Cathy Lewis]

17 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

@Cathy Lewis Welcome to the forums. This bug only affects those who are creating standalone documents with starting page numbers > 1, or those who changed the starting page number and what to set it back to 1. Setting the starting page number with the Section Manager changes it to 0 regardless of what you enter.

If you've created a Publisher Book with separate Chapter documents you should be okay because you can't use the Section Manager to set the starting page number of chapters, that's done with the Books panel's Page Number Options feature.

What is your book project setup? The scenario which would be challenging is if you've divided your project up into separate chapter documents but did not create a Publisher Book and thus must set the starting page number manually. If so, for now you'll have to use the awkward workaround I shared earlier because there isn't a public beta available yet. I recommend making a backup copy of your document before trying this.

1. Create a Publisher Book
2. Add the document to the Book
3. Choose Page Number Options from the Books panel menu and set the starting page number as desired
4. Save and close the document
5. Close the Book without saving
6. Re-open the document - it will have the correct starting page number. You still won't be able to change that with the Section Manager, but at least it will start on the page you want now.

Thanks, it worked up to point 4 and showed page 1, but after closing the book without saving and opening it again and adding chapters into the book the page number changed back to page number 8 again.... See screenshots.

[MikeTO]

My instructions were for those not using the Books feature, it's just a way to fix a standalone document's starting page number.

If you're using a Book, do not close it without saving it and always keep it open while editing a Chapter document. Try it again but this time save the Book.

Good luck

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

@Lee D I just noticed something else with this issue, perhaps you could check if it's fixed in the next beta, too.

1. Start Publisher Mac and create a document
2. Using Section Manager, set starting page number to 2 and do not press Tab or Return, click Close instead to keep focus in the field - Publisher changes the section to "Continue" with a starting number of 0
3. Close the document and create a new one
4. Open Section Manager - even though the starting page number is really 1, it shows as 2 in the dialog. If you give focus to the field then it will change to 1.

@Lee D I checked and this issue is still present in today's 2.5.3 beta.

[MikeTO]

8 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

@Lee D I checked and this issue is still present in today's 2.5.3 beta.

The section manager dialog has more issues in 2.5.3 so I filed a new beta report.

 

[Cathy Lewis]

28 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

My instructions were for those not using the Books feature, it's just a way to fix a standalone document's starting page number.

If you're using a Book, do not close it without saving it and always keep it open while editing a Chapter document. Try it again but this time save the Book.

Good luck

Thank you. It works now. One day I will be a master on Publisher, but the first day was a challenge😉

[WAZZAJ]

I'm having problems with this as well.

I have a book with 11 chapters. Each chapter is in its own file and I used Section Manager to start the page numbers appropriate for that chapter. However the editor has removed two pages from Chapter 8 so now I need Chapter 9 to start at page 143 (it was page 145). No matter what I do it reverts to page 145!

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, WAZZAJ said:

I have a book with 11 chapters. Each chapter is in its own file and I used Section Manager to start the page numbers appropriate for that chapter.

As mentioned above, you must use the Book panel to set the starting page number for each chapter when you use separate files, not the Section Manager. 

[WAZZAJ]

Since discovered if I turn off "Include on export" it allows me to change the page number. But then it gives the message "Nothing to export" when trying to save a PDF.

Is this a bug and hw doI get around it???

[WAZZAJ]

Thanks Walt

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.