Using Lulu.com template

[Robin G13]

Hi all

Starting over. I am using the Lulu.com template. I made a mess of everything and now need to start fresh. Lulu directs me to Affinity's tutorials but that's what I was following. MikeTO says I was creating frames and not using the master but I don't even know how I did that. I have searched for a tutorial on using Lulu's template without success. So could I please get some advice on how to start, without inflicting more mental anguish on myself?

Thanks!

Robin

 

[MikeTO]

I recommend using the Lulu IDML templates as a guide to the setting up of your document, but you should still create your own from scratch. Using Lulu's IDML templates will not result in a best practice document. This is why you have text frames on document pages rather than on master pages.

For Serif: Why does the spelling language in this IDML template come up as Unknown (en-US) rather than as English US?

https://assets.lulu.com/media/templates/book/lulu-book-template-all-pocket-book.zip

There have been a couple of recent reports of this although not with IDML, including the below one. Perhaps this isn't specific to IDML but some other glitch with the spelling language.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/225135-ad-25x-character-panel-unable-to-change-spelling-language/&do=findComment&comment=1316876

[Robin G13]

34 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

I recommend using the Lulu IDML templates as a guide to the setting up of your document, but you should still create your own from scratch. Using Lulu's IDML templates will not result in a best practice document. This is why you have text frames on document pages rather than on master pages.

For Serif: Why does the spelling language in this IDML template come up as Unknown (en-US) rather than as English US?

https://assets.lulu.com/media/templates/book/lulu-book-template-all-pocket-book.zip

There have been a couple of recent reports of this although not with IDML, including the below one. Perhaps this isn't specific to IDML but some other glitch with the spelling language.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/225135-ad-25x-character-panel-unable-to-change-spelling-language/&do=findComment&comment=1316876

I have no idea about the spelling language and didn't even notice it!

If I set up the master manually, and then import my Word doc, would that mess it up?

[MikeTO]

17 minutes ago, Robin G13 said:

If I set up the master manually, and then import my Word doc, would that mess it up?

You can do that in a new document or in the Lulu template. If you choose to do it in the Lulu template, start over with that template, add frames to the masters and link the left to the right side, and the delete the frames from the document pages. For the chapter start pages, you can either create a separate master page with a frame that isn't full height, but it's much easier just to define the paragraph style with the appropriate spacing so you can use the same master pages for all pages. You might not be able to do that for all design layouts. For example, in my history book, my chapters start with a single column at the top of the page for the intro text followed by two columns for the bottom of the page and all subsequent pages in the chapter. Publisher doesn't offer a "Span Columns" feature that would allow mixing one- and two-column formats in the same frame so I do have a unique master for the first page of each chapter.

Cheers

[Robin G13]

Seems to be almost there. But endnotes are still an issue. I have marked the start of each chapter as a new section. I have set the Notes I get this at the end of chapter 1, I have set the Notes option to Shared Section Frame. I get this at the end of Chapter 1: How do I get it to actually show the end notes for just this section. All the end notes are currently at the end of the book, and I still get extra pages added randomly when I click on the frame linking arrows (I think that is what is doing it).

 

Appreciate any insights.

 

[MikeTO]

I'd have to see the afpub and docx files to understand why those notes are importing as blank - I assume the problem is occurring import.

[Robin G13]

I tried to just copy and paste the endnotes into the right spot but it stripped the numbers.

 

Again, your help is much appreciated

 

[MikeTO]

For some reason, Publisher is not importing these endnotes from the docx file. But there's another option. Delete all the text from Publisher. Open the document in Word and copy and paste it into Publisher. The endnotes will import correctly this way.

There are a lot of page breaks in the docx file. Immediately after pasting it, the first thing I would do is use Find and Replace to find all page breaks (it's available from the menu on the left side of the Find field under Special Characters). Replace them with nothing and that will eliminate all of the blank pages.

Cheers

[Robin G13]

Hmm. Deleted all text. 110 pages. copied and pasted from the word doc with section breaks deleted as much as possible. Went to 182 pages. Followed directions to delete page breaks and it went to 182 pages.

Made a copy of the file (do-over pt 2) and used that to" delete all text and copy and paste one chapter at a time. First one pasted pretty well but took a little finagling. Second chapter did the same thing and it reset the endnote numbers but i can live with that. Third chapter, I lost the recipe because I was trying to go back to figure out why the first effort failed and now, back to the (today's do-over pt 2)copy, I can  paste endnotes but they are not numbered and I can't remember what I did to paste them so that they are numbered.  

[Robin G13]

I am at my wit's end. I an THIS close to finishing this manuscript but Publisher keeps doing squirrelly things. It suddenly adds more pages and the links which I have checked out over and over suddenly change and link to somewhere near the end of the document. I've removed all the masters and reapplied. I have double checked that the masters have linked pages to create a spread.

If I click on a squirrelly frame arrow (some point to a page near the end, some skip the next page and point to the one under), then the program adds more pages.

I very much appreciate any help so I can put this thing to bed!

[MikeTO]

When you Shift + click the Text Flow Out control, Publisher AutoFlows the story to new frames. There have been improvements made to it for version 2.6 but that's only in beta at this time.

The problem is the endnote frames are created on the document pages and AutoFlow pays no attention to what master page is used and merrily creates more text frames on top of the master page's text frames. Strange things will happen if you AutoFlow an endnotes frame and there are pages with frames after the endnote frame. Sometimes it's better not to use AutoFlow and manually link frames to avoid issues.

[Robin G13]

Been using the Shift + click as you noted earlier. Everything looked goo this morning and then it didn't. Does it have anything to do with adding a photo on a page (not as page but in the middle).  This is what the links looks like now and when I do a shift click to remove any, it adds pages and makes some disappaer (with no red eye to click to open)

[Robin G13]

End of chapter 1 has all the right lines but with red circles( see graphic). Click on one of those and it takes you to the last page in the manuscript (just before endnotes). Click on that last page and all the lines and arrows are in the right place, inking back to the previous page with no red. And then more pages appear.

Endnotes are set to plain template master which has no formatting). They seem to be behaving today.

 

Edited December 18, 2024 by Robin G13
adding detail

[MikeTO]

The red circles indicate that the last frame in the story (the linked series of frames) is overflowing. Navigate to the last page of the story to fix the issue there.

If AutoFlow (Shift+click) results in a bad linking of frames for whatever reason, undo it. Create a new spread with frames and link them manually to avoid the issue.

Good luck

[Robin G13]

OK, I'll take a look. But between chapters 1 and 2 I have two blank pages that I delete and they reappear immediately. The arrows all look fine there, no red circles, not weirdness. What causes that and how do I correct it? I've looked in the layers, tried to set the mast for those two to template or none. And they refuse to budge. Every so often, I get the red circles there (no text is on them or should be) and it jumps to the Epilogue/last page. Where all the arrows etc are blue.

Probably going to run out of available posts for the day. I clicked on the red circles that sometimes appear at  the last page of chapter 1 and it takes me to the Epilogue. No red circles there, no reason those two should be linked.. Then I go back to the last page of Chapter 1 and the red circles are now red arrows and when I click, the frame for chapter 2 disappears.

 

Is this related to laying in the photo?

 

Edited December 18, 2024 by Robin G13

[MikeTO]

You are likely deleting pages with text frames linked from the page before and to the page after, so the blank pages aren't really blank. You likely have page, column, or frame breaks in the frames on these pages so deleting the pages won't delete the blank frames. Deleting the pages will just remove frames from the story (the series of linked frames) and result in the story overflowing the last frame in the series.

[Robin G13]

But nothing is overflowing. I can scroll through and all the pages look fine, except that there are two too many in two places.

[MikeTO]

18 minutes ago, Robin G13 said:

But nothing is overflowing. I can scroll through and all the pages look fine, except that there are two too many in two places.

Turn on Text > Show Special Characters and look for page, column, or frame breaks in the text frames on those pages. If there are no breaks, check the Paragraph > Flow Settings for the paragraph following the empty frames. If you can't figure it out, you'll need to share it here so we can review it.

Cheers

[Robin G13]

Thank you! I THINK we have "special characters" for the win. But not everywhere. So I will keep working on that. I'm sooo close.