KTDN Posted January 23 Posted January 23 Today I have had two documents fail to load in Publisher. The first was a document I duplicated and tried to turn into a coloring book for my daughter. I then tried to create a document from scratch, and the same issue occurred. There are several things that happened while laying out the book that seemed unusual to me. 1. I was unable to place images into picture frames by selecting the frame and importing via the image icon. I had to drag and drop from Photos. 2. The cover includes some text and a border. I tried to copy this and paste it to the last page, then remove the text and keep only the border, then replace original the image with another. But after I was done, I found that not only the copied and changed-back page had been altered but also the cover. 3. After closing the document and trying to re-open it, I received the error message in both cases. I have never had anything like this happen before in Publisher, and I do these kinds of edits to documents all the time. It is critical that this bug be resolved as being able to reliably access documents in Publisher is paramount. Sincerely, Kent ScreenRecording_01-23-2025 16-12-34_1.mov Quote
carl123 Posted January 23 Posted January 23 I can't believe I decided to first get a coffee and then settle down to watch that video in depth Anyway, can you upload that document the forum? Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.
KTDN Posted January 23 Author Posted January 23 Sorry about the poor cinematic quality of the video 😅 next time I’ll pull it into Final Cut and add some explosions or something 🤣 Unfortunately, I can’t share the file but I hope that what I have shared is of some use Quote
Staff NathanC Posted January 23 Staff Posted January 23 Hi @KTDN, 'Failed to open document' can be indication of a corrupted document in the iPad 'Live Docs' sandbox. If you haven't been already I would strongly advise to save your documents out of 'Live docs' onto your iPad storage so there is an external .afpub file available moving forward. As for the issue itself for us to investigate further can you confirm if this issue can be replicated by performing the same set of actions on an entirely new document? If the issue is reproducible could you provide any relevant file(s) used and perhaps provide a screen recording of the steps taken? Thanks Quote
KTDN Posted January 24 Author Posted January 24 Hi @NathanC, Thank you for your response and the suggestion to save documents externally as .afpub files. I’ll make sure to do this moving forward. Regarding the issue: Yesterday, I encountered the “Failed to open document” error twice, but today, I was unable to replicate this error despite following the same steps. And, I was eventually able to recover the affected document by saving it to my iPad storage and importing it into Publisher via Open/Import Document in Live Docs. While the loading error didn’t reoccur, I was able to replicate another issue related to layout alterations: 1. I copied a cover (containing text and a border) and pasted it onto the last page of the document. After removing the text, keeping only the border, and replacing the image, I noticed that the original cover had also been altered. 2. When I re-edited the cover to restore its original state, the back cover was unexpectedly altered as well. I recorded a video to demonstrate this issue, speeding up the layout process to highlight the steps and results. Today, I used the Import from Files method to add images instead of Place from Photos, which might have impacted the outcome. I’ve attached a video demonstrating the layout alteration issue. It includes the steps I followed, with the layout process sped up in parts that were less important. Please let me know if any further details or files are required. My project.mp4 Quote
Staff NathanC Posted January 24 Staff Posted January 24 5 hours ago, KTDN said: I’ve attached a video demonstrating the layout alteration issue. It includes the steps I followed, with the layout process sped up in parts that were less important. Please let me know if any further details or files are required. Just watched through the recording a few times. From what I'm observing you've: Copied and pasted the picture frame (and it's embedded resource) from page 1 and pasted it onto the last page Edited the Embedded resource on the last page Swapped out the picture frame contents and positioned as required Returned to the host document Checked the first and last page and observed that the resource is the same Updating an embedded resource's contents will reflect those changes on all instances of that same resource throughout the document, which is expected. I think you'd need to make a copy of the external document, and place that copy in on the last page before making a change to it's contents rather than duplicating the same resource from page 1. -- Just with regards to avoiding 'Failed to open document' moving forward I would recommend clearing the 'Live Docs' sandbox of all open documents you're not actively working on, just be sure to save any documents out to external .afpub you wish to keep so they're not lost first. Quote
KTDN Posted January 25 Author Posted January 25 18 hours ago, NathanC said: I think you'd need to make a copy of the external document, and place that copy in on the last page before making a change to it's contents rather than duplicating the same resource from page 1 Hi NathanC, I am pretty sure that in the past I have done this without the changes being reflected in both instances. I often copy Text frames and delete the duplicated content without the original content being delete and I’m certain I have done the same with Picture frames too. Why would changes in a pasted frame need to be reflected in the copied instance? Unless linked in some way like in the case of a layout for multiple canvases where a branding or something of that nature needs to be consistently updated. Is there a way to copy a frame and edit it independently without affecting the original? And without leaving the document, which is far less convenient than us using what one already has in front of them? Quote
Staff NathanC Posted January 27 Staff Posted January 27 On 1/25/2025 at 6:25 AM, KTDN said: Why would changes in a pasted frame need to be reflected in the copied instance? In this scenario, you're editing and updating the object contents of an embedded resource, which is dynamically linked with all other copies of that same embedded resource layer throughout the document, for reference this isn't functionality that has changed recently and has been in place since V1, but there isn't a way to prevent this behaviour I'm afraid. On 1/25/2025 at 6:25 AM, KTDN said: I’m certain I have done the same with Picture frames too. The Picture frame tool has a 'replace' option, but this is essentially swapping out one Resource/Image layer for another entirely different resource within that frame and therefore isn't the same as editing and updating the original resource's contents, which would update all other instances. On 1/25/2025 at 6:25 AM, KTDN said: Is there a way to copy a frame and edit it independently without affecting the original? You could copy the layer contents of the embedded resource, remove it from the host document and then paste and use the individual layers instead. Quote
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