Text scrambled in Publisher pdfs

[Kevyn53]

I've never used ANY publishing program, and I found out that an author I've worked with 30 years ago thought I was assembling a book we worked on 30 years ago to become an ebook. So I'm trying to use the trial version of Publisher 2 to see if I'm sharp enough to put together a 200 page book with 120 B&W illustrations and voluminous text to look sort of like the print book that came out 20 years ago. AND when I import the PDF version of the book, most of the text is not only not formatted, all the letters are stacked one on top of the other. If I use spacing to fix it, they're scrambled. And I don't want to have to rewrite the whole damn book. HELP!

Edited August 25 by Kevyn53

[Hangman]

Hi @Kevyn53 and welcome to the forums,

Are you in a position to upload the PDF file so we can take a look? If not can you perhaps extract a single page where you see the issue with the text and upload that instead?

[Kevyn53]

1-Final Version 8-23-2024-B2.afpubHere's the mess

[Kevyn53]

1-Final Version 8-23-2024-B.pdf  Here's what it looks like as a straight PDF. Thanks.

Edited August 25 by Kevyn53

[walt.farrell]

Note: Kevyn has posted another topic about this. @Kevyn53: It's best to just stick in one topic until the problem is resolved.

 

[walt.farrell]

39 minutes ago, Kevyn53 said:

NOW, I thought Maybe, I could import the pdfs (or rtfs, or docs, or odt) files, and just tweak things a little and drop in scans of the original art and be done with the whole thing. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Not only does Publisher NOT take most of those file formats (why?) when I import the pdf version, most of the text is stacked one letter on top of the other, to a point where most of the text is solid black cubes in spots. What do I do to fix this mess? Photo 1 is what I get. Photo 2 what it's supposed to be. Same section of the book.

For this part of the question from the other topic:

Quote

Not only does Publisher NOT take most of those file formats (why?)

In part, because there are some file formats that it simply doesn't support, by the programmers' choice (such as .odt and .doc).

In part, because you may not be doing it correctly. Both .rtf and .docx (but not .doc) are supported, but only via File > Place, not File > Open.

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

[Hangman]

Hi @Kevyn53,

I've attached a version that is far from perfect but hopefully at least a better starting point...

The file will still require work and proper formatting. I'd suggest setting up some text styles and Master Pages and then working your way through the file making adjustments as required...

You'll note that Publisher doesn't always manage to interpret every page using a single text frame and that some of the text is still interpreted with negative tracking so I think the application of a Master page along with text styles and some copying and pasting is going to be required...

I've avoided using Carlito because this failed to interpret the “fi”, “fl”, “ff”, “ffi” and “ffl” ligatures successfully resulting in lots of missing 'i''s and 'l''s throughout the text so I've substituted Carlito with Helvetica Neue though you could easily replace this with Carlito if required by using a text style...

1-Final Version 8-23-2024-B v2.afpub

[Kevyn53]

Quote

Thank you, thank you thank you.

 

[Hangman]

Like I say, it's going to need work but I hope it at least gives you a better starting point...