Master frame text style glitch

[MikeTO]

This is minor and I think I understand what it's doing but it feels glitchy and will confuse users.

1. Create a facing pages doc
2. On Master A, draw a small frame on the left, click Text Flow Out, and draw a linked frame on the right
3. Select the Body paragraph style
4. Click a blank area of the page and select No Style
5. Draw another small frame on the left
6. Select the Body paragraph style
7. Click Text Flow Out, and draw a linked frame on the right
   Both sets of linked frames will appear identical, and clicking in them will show they are Body
8. Go to page 1 and click in the first frame - it will be No Style but click in the second frame, it will be Body
9. Add a spread - both sets of frames will be Body

[MikeTO]

The same underlying bug also causes a problem with filler text, but really any text:

1. Create a facing pages doc
2. On Master A, draw a small frame on the left, click Text Flow Out, and draw a linked frame on the right
3. Choose Insert Filler Text (as a field, not expanded)
4. Go to page 1 - the text frame will not have any filler text
5. Check the off canvas left side frame and you will find it does not have filler text either.

Filler text just makes this obvious but it happens with regular text, too.

The bug is that if a left side frame is linked to a right side frame, Publisher will delete its story text on page 1 when breaking the links between left and right sides.

There is a twist to this but it's a scenario no user would ever do but it demonstrates the bug in more detail.

1. Open the attached test document - there are six linked frames. 1 and 2 on the left linked to 3 and 4 on the right linked to 5 and 6 on the left.
2. Go to page 1 and there's no visible story text.
3. Edit detached and drag all the off canvas frames onto page 1: You will find that:
   1. Publisher broke the link between 1 and 2 - I'm unsure why this was necessary since they're both off canvas but it doesn't matter
   2. Publisher broke the link between 2 (left) and 3 (right) because it was necessary
   3. Publisher retained the link between 3 and 4 which makes sense
   4. Publisher broke the link between 4 (right) and 5 (left) because it was necessary
   5. Publisher retained the link between 5 and 6, both on the left - this seems inconsistent with what happened to 1 and 2 but it doesn't matter. However, the story text survived in frame 5
4. Undo that or re-open the document. Delete frames 5 and 6 from the master. Go to page 1 and now the story text will be lost. The only way it's retained is if the right side page is linked to a left side page, which of course nobody would ever do.

Uploading attachments is currently failing for me, I'll try again later to attach the test file. I did try restarting my browser.

[MikeTO]

test2.afpub

Here's the test file

[MikeTO]

Just FYI, I reported another issue with linked master frames on page 1 today. These three issues are all somewhat related.

 

[Old Bruce]

I am wondering if the problem is because you are using a field [Filler Text] instead of actual text. With your file you use "a digit + a column break". I wonder if that would also be part of the problem. 

I find that if I replace your number coumn break stuff with real text then clear and reapply the master page I see the text from the left page being on the first page even though it is on the left of the Master page.

test2 bruce.afpub

[MikeTO]

That's interesting, thanks Bruce!

The real issue I was trying to report was with filler text, that test doc was just to demonstrate it. Users should be able to insert filler text on linked facing-page master frames and have that filler text show up on page 1 but it doesn't work.

[Hangman]

On 8/26/2024 at 10:18 PM, MikeTO said:

This is minor and I think I understand what it's doing but it feels glitchy and will confuse users.

1. Create a facing pages doc
2. On Master A, draw a small frame on the left, click Text Flow Out, and draw a linked frame on the right
3. Select the Body paragraph style
4. Click a blank area of the page and select No Style
5. Draw another small frame on the left
6. Select the Body paragraph style
7. Click Text Flow Out, and draw a linked frame on the right
   Both sets of linked frames will appear identical, and clicking in them will show they are Body
8. Go to page 1 and click in the first frame - it will be No Style but click in the second frame, it will be Body
9. Add a spread - both sets of frames will be Body

Isn't this effectively already logged under APL-1608?

If you repeat the steps with a right-hand facing page document starting with two pages you'll see the same issue on Pages 1 and 2, i.e., the top frame has No Style but if you then add a third page based on the same Master, the top frame on Page 2 will now show the Body Text Style since it's now linked to the text frame on Page 3...

Dragging Master A onto the Page 1 thumbnail won't correct the text frame showing No Style but right-clicking the Page 1 thumbnail selecting Apply Master and choosing Clear Content will...

[MikeTO]

24 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Isn't this effectively already logged under APL-1608?

I think you're right, I forgot that you'd reported that issue last year. All of these issues are due to the way facing-page masters are applied to single pages.

I'm crossing my fingers that all of this will be overcome by events when multi-page spreads are implemented.