Can you place a 'parent' textbox that links to all 'child' textboxes, like in Indesign?

[Jess96]

Hi folk,

I'm looking to move away from Adobe to Affinity, and I'm just trying to transfer my Indesign template design to Publisher.

I have many linked objects on pages, such as project title or company name, which I understand I could use the Fields tool to replicate across all pages.

However, where I am struggling, is having a title on a section divider page which is linked to a generic Master page. Below is how my pages look on Indesign:

• The 'parent objects' are the textboxes on the chapter divider pages 
• Each chapter divider has a different number and title written in these textboxes 
• When I place a master 'typical page' after a chapter divider, the 'child object' title updates to match the chapter divider (e.g. 01 Introduction) 
• If I place the same master typical page after a different chapter divider, it takes the text from that page instead (e.g. 02 Chapter Heading) 

Is there a way to do this in Affinity? I hope so! Thank you in advance for your help.

---

(master 'typical page')
 

(Chapter divider 01)

(typical page 01)

(chapter divider 02)

(typical page 02)

Edited January 7 by Jess96
unclear point

[MikeTO]

Hi @Jess96 and welcome to the forums. There are multiple ways to do this with Affinity. Features you should be aware of:

• You can create Sections with the Section Manager and use the section name field to name or number your sections. Then you can insert that name as a field into the master page so that the right name/number appears on all pages.
• You can apply multiple master pages to the same document page. You could have one master page for the layout and another for a chapter/section-specific information.
• You can apply a master page to a master page. You could have one master for the layout and another chapter/section-specific information.

I've included details on how to do what you're asking in my free Publisher manual. You can download it as a PDF from this forum using the link in my signature below.

Cheers

[Jess96]

Thank you @MikeTO I'll take a look at your manual now!

[tylerthehuman]

5 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Hi @Jess96 and welcome to the forums. There are multiple ways to do this with Affinity. Features you should be aware of:

• You can create Sections with the Section Manager and use the section name field to name or number your sections. Then you can insert that name as a field into the master page so that the right name/number appears on all pages.
• You can apply multiple master pages to the same document page. You could have one master page for the layout and another for a chapter/section-specific information.
• You can apply a master page to a master page. You could have one master for the layout and another chapter/section-specific information.

I've included details on how to do what you're asking in my free Publisher manual. You can download it as a PDF from this forum using the link in my signature below.

Cheers

hi. i'm trying to do something similar but not quite like what OP is doing. i'm trying to create a bunch of "tickets" that have an assigned number on the main body of the ticket and then a little stub with the same number. is there a way to make is so the second duplicated number is just copying the main number? i don't see settings or features that describe what you're explaining. 

with the said, do you think that once i have it set up, there is a way to quickly make the ticket's numbers go up in sequence other than manually changing each one from 1..2..3…etc?

 

example of the ticket:

[R C-R]

30 minutes ago, tylerthehuman said:

i'm trying to do something similar but not quite like what OP is doing.

Which Affinity app(s) do you have?

[tylerthehuman]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Which Affinity app(s) do you have?

using designer v2 on mac. 

sorry i found this thread from a google search, didnt even look to see what app this was for lol. 

[MikeTO]

There are two easy ways to do this but they both require Publisher.

The standard way is with the Data Merge feature. It's incredibly powerful and is intended for exactly these sorts of situations. There is a learning curve but once you've mastered it you'll love it. I haven't described this feature in my manual yet, maybe someday, but it's described well in the online help.

The other way is to cheat and use AutoFlow. Create a text file of the sequential numbers with two of each number and a linefeed between then with whatever tool you prefer - a spreadsheet would work very well for this and would take just a minute or two to create. Save that as plain text.

Create the page in Publisher with your tickets and link the text frame on the left with the rotated one on the right. If there's more than one per ticket per page, link them all together in sequence. Then place the text file into the first text frame. It will fill all the frames on the first page. Shift + click the Text Flow Out control on the last frame on the page and Publisher will created as many more pages as required.

Personally, while I know how to use data merge and it makes more sense to use it, I'd cheat and just use the text file method because it's so simple.

Good luck

[tylerthehuman]

4 hours ago, MikeTO said:

There are two easy ways to do this but they both require Publisher.

The standard way is with the Data Merge feature. It's incredibly powerful and is intended for exactly these sorts of situations. There is a learning curve but once you've mastered it you'll love it. I haven't described this feature in my manual yet, maybe someday, but it's described well in the online help.

The other way is to cheat and use AutoFlow. Create a text file of the sequential numbers with two of each number and a linefeed between then with whatever tool you prefer - a spreadsheet would work very well for this and would take just a minute or two to create. Save that as plain text.

Create the page in Publisher with your tickets and link the text frame on the left with the rotated one on the right. If there's more than one per ticket per page, link them all together in sequence. Then place the text file into the first text frame. It will fill all the frames on the first page. Shift + click the Text Flow Out control on the last frame on the page and Publisher will created as many more pages as required.

Personally, while I know how to use data merge and it makes more sense to use it, I'd cheat and just use the text file method because it's so simple.

Good luck

thank you, i will look into using publisher. 

[Alfred]

8 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Personally, while I know how to use data merge and it makes more sense to use it, I'd cheat and just use the text file method because it's so simple.

I don’t regard it as cheating to use the simpler of two methods if they yield the same result. I call it common sense!

[tylerthehuman]

16 hours ago, MikeTO said:

There are two easy ways to do this but they both require Publisher.

The standard way is with the Data Merge feature. It's incredibly powerful and is intended for exactly these sorts of situations. There is a learning curve but once you've mastered it you'll love it. I haven't described this feature in my manual yet, maybe someday, but it's described well in the online help.

The other way is to cheat and use AutoFlow. Create a text file of the sequential numbers with two of each number and a linefeed between then with whatever tool you prefer - a spreadsheet would work very well for this and would take just a minute or two to create. Save that as plain text.

Create the page in Publisher with your tickets and link the text frame on the left with the rotated one on the right. If there's more than one per ticket per page, link them all together in sequence. Then place the text file into the first text frame. It will fill all the frames on the first page. Shift + click the Text Flow Out control on the last frame on the page and Publisher will created as many more pages as required.

Personally, while I know how to use data merge and it makes more sense to use it, I'd cheat and just use the text file method because it's so simple.

Good luck

i tried data merge, got through some of the steps but ultimately failed lol.

the auto flow suggestion works, except my .txt file is formatted with commas and spaces that i have to delete when i drop the file into the first text field. i used apple numbers because i could drag '001' in a cell and auto fill sequential numbers keeping my format 001, 002, 003. any suggestions so make it easier to drag and drop without edits? 

[MikeTO]

Here's a text file of 001 to 999 with no spaces or commas, just a paragraph break after each number. This should work without any edits in Publisher.

numbers.txt