Textbox Style in Publisher

[chrisbears]

Hi,
I just switched from InDesign to Publisher and a few things are hard to find 😊

I created a textbox (see screenshot). Can I somehow make an editable style from it?
And is there a way to shape the corners?

Thanks!

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @chrisbears

Styles (and I’m not talking about text Styles such as Character Styles and Paragraph Styles), like those in the Styles Panel, are not editable, so the Style formatting of a layer cannot be ‘linked’ to something which can be edited to change everything that has been given the same Style.

However, you can use the Style Picker Tool to copy the Style from one layer to one or more other layers.

You cannot add corners to a Frame Text Layer, as far as I know.

However, you can create a Rounded Rectangle shape with the same size as the original, give it the corners you want via the Context Toolbar, then convert that layer to a Frame Text Layer (menu “Layer → Convert to Text Frame”), and then copy the text from one to the other.

[chrisbears]

Thanks @GarryP that was very helpful.
The idea of editing the type of layer is new to me, I have to get used to it

Anyway, the "New Style from Selection" does not pick up the rounded corners, nor does the Style Picker. So it seems that I can't edit these green boxes globally. Too bad, that would have been a useful feature. 

 

[GarryP]

I don’t know where the “New Style From Selection” functionality which you mention is (maybe it’s the “Add Style From Selection” functionality in the Styles Panel), but the Style of a layer refers to the formatting of a layer rather than its shape.

You might be able to use Paragraph Decorations to get something close to your 'globally-editable “green boxes” background' but whether that would be effective would depend on exactly what you want to do with them, and they won’t work nicely with rounded corners.

[chrisbears]

Quote

I don’t know where the “New Style From Selection” functionality which you mention is (maybe it’s the “Add Style From Selection” functionality in the Styles Panel

"Stil aus Auswahl hinzufügen" is the German translation. There was a fair chance to meet your translation. I missed it

 

[thomaso]

13 minutes ago, chrisbears said:

So it seems that I can't edit these green boxes globally.

Depending on what attributes you want to edit globally there maybe workarounds, for instance:

• Create the Rounded Rectangle as separate object (not as Text Frame) -> save it as separate Affinity file -> place this as linked resource behind text frames. Each of its attributes will be edited globally, including colour, corner radius, aspect ratio.

• If you have AD installed you can use Symbols. They are linked to one parent object and may require separate handling for deviating/differing attributes.

[GarryP]

5 minutes ago, chrisbears said:

"Stil aus Auswahl hinzufügen" is the German translation. There was a fair chance to meet your translation.

Ah, okay, just a translation thing, that’s all fine; I just didn’t know if there was another similarly-named functionality for a slightly different, but related, thing.

You could use Assets to get multiple layers that have the same look but you would have to make sure everything was right before creating the Asset as they can’t be linked back to a ‘base asset’.

As mentioned by thomaso above, there’s also Symbols (if you also have Designer) but you would need to ‘unlink’ each instance before putting the text in, so that’s probably not ideal either.

[chrisbears]

Thanks, @GarryP, @thomaso,
I already thought of a solution like you suggested. Separating the box from it's content is not very elegant but if there is a will, there is a solution. For these boxes have different heights I think I'll end up drawing them manually over the green shape, move them to background and make the green box transparent again.
Well, in the end one could think of sticking to rectangle boxes as well...

[Komatös]

Ich mache es hier mal auf die schnellle in deutsch.

Wenn Du auch Affinity Designer installiert hast, wechsel zur Designer Persona.

Erstelle dir ein abgerundedtes Rechteck. Wähle die Fülllfarbe. Wechsel zurück zur Publisher Persona.

Klicke mit aktiviertem Rahmentext Werkzeug auf das abgerundete Rechteck. Du hast nun eine größenveränderbare Textbox mit Füllung; die Du zur Wiederverwendung als Asset speichern könntest. Das abgerundete Recheck lässt sich im Nachhinein ändern; dazu muss nur wieder die Designer Persona angewählt werden. 

 

If you also have Affinity Designer installed, switch to Designer Persona.

Create a rounded rectangle. Select the fill colou and the corner radius to your needs. Switch back to the Publisher persona.

Click on the rounded rectangle with the frame text tool activated. You now have a resizable text box with fill colour. You could save this as an asset for reuse. The rounded rectangle can be changed afterwards; to do this, simply select the Designer persona again. 

[chrisbears]

18 hours ago, Komatös said:

If you also have Affinity Designer installed, switch to Designer Persona.

Create a rounded rectangle. Select the fill colou and the corner radius to your needs. Switch back to the Publisher persona.

Click on the rounded rectangle with the frame text tool activated. You now have a resizable text box with fill colour. You could save this as an asset for reuse. The rounded rectangle can be changed afterwards; to do this, simply select the Designer persona again. 

@Komatös: Danke!

That somehow works. But.
The rounded corners seem to have an influence on the inner distances from the text to the edge of the box. See screenshot. Unless there is that one important tick I haven't checked I'll stick to the pragmatic solutions from above.
But these tips are very helpful nevertheless. Thanks, guys!

Edited January 8 by chrisbears
typo

[Brian_J]

@chrisbears Here’s an APub file containing text frames made using a different approach, in case you’re interested.

There are four different text frames, each made using text styles exclusively. The text box styles are:

• Square corners
• Square corners and border
• Rounded corners
• Rounded corners and border*

One advantage of using text styles is that the text boxes can be inline with other paragraphs/text in a text frame, which makes it easier to keep vertical spacing consistent and helps prevent the layout from becoming overly complex.

*The rounded corners/border are created using a hack (2 decorations and wide strokes) — the text style with rounded corners and border may not display well in exported PDFs (border widths may not appear consistent on all sides, depending on the zoom level the PDF is viewed at). If you plan on exporting the file as a PDF, the rounded corners and border style may or may not be a suitable option (I’m not sure how it looks when printed).

There are some notes about the text styles on the second page of the APub file. If you have any questions, let me know.

Text Boxes.afpub

[chrisbears]

@Brian_J What is this new devilry? 😄
Thanks, I just downloaded it, maybe I'll find out what you did there...

[Brian_J]

1 hour ago, chrisbears said:

@Brian_J What is this new devilry? 😄
Thanks, I just downloaded it, maybe I'll find out what you did there...

Just a little text styles sorcery. 🙂 I use text boxes often, so I got acquainted with configuring them in APub quickly.

Creating text boxes with Text Styles isn’t complicated. There’s a bit to get familiar with in the Text Styles paragraph spacing and decorations sections, but it’s pretty straightforward. I hope Serif adds the ability to create text frames with rounded corners (without hacks); it’s a feature I’d really appreciate.