Text boxes shifting

[TracyKK]

I've got an easy one. All the main body text boxes in publisher are shifted to the right and slighter larger (so also not following the margins I set for the document), and longer than what I set in the Master Pages (they don't appear to be following the margins I set for the document). I manually adjusted and then saved the file and reopened it the next day, and ... I had to start all over again. I don't see anything out-of-wack in the paragraph/character panel. The header text boxes are following the rules I set in the Master Pages.

[Hangman]

Hi @TracyKK and welcome to the forums,

Could you either upload a screenshot showing what you're seeing, or better still, a sample document that demonstrates the issue so we can see what is going on...

Can you also confirm which version of Publisher you're using and on which platform?

[TracyKK]

Is it the new feature I was just reading about: aligning with spine or margins or pinning it? I imported the docx file. I just finished doing a different book about two weeks ago and didn't have this issue. If I adjust and then lock the page, it doesn't shift again. I haven't unlocked to see what will happen. I have another question, if you don't mind, when we finish this one. I am new to affinity, switched from adobe. So this could all be new user error; except I didn't have this issue with the other book I just finished and I changed margins repeatedly to get what I wanted. Thanks.

 

[Hangman]

Hi @TracyKK,

Thanks for the screengrabs...

Yes, this looks like the 'Anchor Towards Spine' option which you can simply disable if not required, though if you are using facing page spreads it shouldn't be an issue... Equally, adding the Text frames to the Master page would lock them automatically on the Publication pages...

[TracyKK]

The text frames are in the master pages. Yes, I am using facing pages.  I used the same template that I used for the previous book and I didn't have this issue for the previous book. Also, the text flow isn't automatically triggering. I have to click it for each page. I will find the how to adjust the anchor spine tutorial and see if that helps.

 

[Hangman]

Hi @TracyKK,

26 minutes ago, TracyKK said:

I will find the how to adjust the anchor spine tutorial and see if that helps.

On the Pages panel go to the hamburger menu, select Page Move Options and then deselect Anchor Towards Spine from the sub menu...

27 minutes ago, TracyKK said:

The text frames are in the master pages.

Your second and third screenshots indicate that you also have text frames on the Publication pages, possibly in addition to the Master page because the text frame resize handles are shown as circles rather than crosses...

 

Feel free to upload your file or a small subsection if that's an option... We can likely quickly resolve the issue for you once we can see how the file is set up...

[TracyKK]

Hey Hangman;

Finally getting back to this project. Today, I cleared the masters from all the pages and reapplied to see if that would fix the issue. Nope, but is that because I have an extra text box on each page (confusion as to how this could happen) I did add a text box on the chapter image pages, and today I am trying to adjust that and put an image text box on the master page. (not going well - grin) the other other thing I attempted today, which has really messed up the file, is set the file to justified left and added hyphenation. the result is a mess, as you can see. It added pages, did the page flow at random locations on the pages. A separate question: if I use the image box in the master pages is that what will force the images and corresponding pages to shift as necessary?

Thanks for helping, much appreciated.

(1-5) affinirty forum.afpub

[TracyKK]

Hangman,

So, ... I see the double text boxes on the pages; but if I delete the one that isn't part of the master page, I lose all the data/text/story. I didn't not put individual text boxes on each page, so how did this happen? Do I need to start all over again and copy past this file back in?

[Hangman]

Hey @TracyKK,

The main 'issue' is the additional text frames added to the Publication pages which are in addition to the Text frames on the respective Master pages, I'm unsure how they got there either unless you placed the text from a Word document or similar onto the Publication pages...

One of the Master Page text frames had also been scaled using the Scaling Handle in the lower bottom right of the text frame which caused scaling issues between left and right text frames...

Text Styles are your friend, I did notice that you'd set up a couple of Text Styles and you'll likely want to create a few more, both Paragraph and Character styles to apply in the appropriate places...

In the attached file, I've just done a very basic and cursory cleanup, removing the Publication page text frames so the text now flows using the Master Page text frames which you can hopefully use as your starting point for formatting the document using Text Styles, hyphenation and so on... The text flow won't be correct meaning you'll need to insert page breaks as appropriate for your chapters or alternatively create a new 'Story' for each chapter with unlinked left and right text frames rather than flowing all the text through every text frame in the book...

I would highly recommend @MikeTO's free unofficial Publisher guide which you can download here. It will provide an invaluable resource when formatting your document but equally, please don't hesitate to come back with any questions regarding the attached updated file if something doesn't make sense... There are plenty of users in the forums who are always more than happy to help and advise...

Let us know how you get on...

Stormflower.afpub

[TracyKK]

Hangman;

Thanks for the recommended unofficial guide. I will definitely use it. Yes, I did 'Place' the file from a word doc/libre office. The videos that I have been watching online said: import or place, and none of those videos seemed to have this problem or comment on it. Since, I just sent you a sample of the file, can you tell me how you removed the Publication page text frames, or is that also covered on Mike's unofficial guides?

[Hangman]

Hi @TracyKK,

10 hours ago, TracyKK said:

Yes, I did 'Place' the file from a word doc/libre office. The videos that I have been watching online said: import or place, and none of those videos seemed to have this problem or comment on it.

When placing a Word/Libre Office document, if you click and drag to create the area to place the text, this will create a new publication text box on top of the Master page text box. I'm unsure if that's what happened with your file but to avoid that happening you need to either click once inside the Master text frame on the publication page or ensure the text caret is already active inside the first text frame before you place the Word file. This then places the text inside the Master page text frames rather than creating new publication page text frames...

10 hours ago, TracyKK said:

Since, I just sent you a sample of the file, can you tell me how you removed the Publication page text frames

I selected all the text from the linked publication page text frames, cut it and then manually deleted all the publication page text frames. Tidied up and linked the Master page text frames, pasted the text back into the first Publication page after the front matter and relinked the text frames between spreads...

Normally you'd create your first page based on the appropriate Master, place your Word document into the Master page text frame on the Publication page and then Shift-click the red text-overflow icon in the bottom right corner to autoflow the text over the required number of pages and format as appropriate either based on imported text styles from the Word document or text styles you've created in Publisher...

Mike's guide is pretty comprehensive but you can dip in and out of the sections relevant for what you're trying to do.

I hope that helps but feel free to ask questions should they arise...

[TracyKK]

I started Mike's guide today, and have lots of questions on the using multiple masters - layered masters. When creating a chapter master (with an image box, title text box, and then the body text), would I make that a single page (like the title page) or a facing page where the other page would be the body text master? On the chapter page, I don't want any page numbers or other running headers. Will over-laying this chapter master over the text-body master hide the running header so they don't appear on the chapter page?

When I started working on this file again, I of course made a separate new file (file save as). I saw the new file title in the menu bar and began working. Today I opened the original file and had a panic attack because it was now the messed up file. How?  I then opened the newer file that I created before messing around and it appears to not have any changes. When creating a new file, does Affinity not naturally switch to file? Adobe does.  I even thought I closed the original file. Can you make sense out of this?

[Old Bruce]

34 minutes ago, TracyKK said:

I started Mike's guide today, and have lots of questions on the using multiple masters - layered masters. When creating a chapter master (with an image box, title text box, and then the body text), would I make that a single page (like the title page) or a facing page where the other page would be the body text master?

Myself I always use Spreads, not single pages. One thing I see a lot of is people do not name the objects/layers on their Master Pages. Do so, it will save you a  lot of grief. In your case you would have text frames named Left Page Header, Left Page Number, Left Text, Right Page Header, Right Page Number, Right Text, Right Title, and Right Picture. On your 'regular' Master Page you would have Left Page Header, Left Page Number, Left Text, Right Page Header, Right Page Number, and Right Text. This makes flowing text from an Actual Spread with the 'regular' Master Page applied less likely to go to a wrong text frame when you apply the 'Chapter' Master Page to it.

I would have a Master Page containing the Header and Page Numbers. I would apply that to the Page containing the Bulk of the text Text Frames and I would apply the Page Numbers Master Page to the Chapter Start Page as well. The text frames would be copied and pasted from the Bulk Page and pasted into the Chapter start page then adjusted as necessary. Then have the title and picture bits added. Just turn off the page numbers on the Master you don't want them on. Right click and Edit Detached.

36 minutes ago, TracyKK said:

When I started working on this file again, I of course made a separate new file (file save as). I saw the new file title in the menu bar and began working. Today I opened the original file and had a panic attack because it was now the messed up file. How?  I then opened the newer file that I created before messing around and it appears to not have any changes. When creating a new file, does Affinity not naturally switch to file? Adobe does.  I even thought I closed the original file. Can you make sense out of this?

I don't quite follow what you are doing and experiencing here.

[MikeTO]

My basic setup for a book with chapters starting on the right side is:

1. Create a master spread for normal pages - the left and right frames are linked together
2. Create a master spread for the first page in a chapter - the left frame is not linked to the right frame because the left frame could be the last page in the previous chapter and the right frame is for the next chapter
3. Create a master spread just for the footer and apply this master to any other masters that need it. If I didn't want the footer on the first page of a chapter, I would apply this master only to the left side of the chapter start master.

[TracyKK]

This is what I currently have (even titled) as you suggested.  On your 'regular' Master Page you would have Left Page Header, Left Page Number, Left Text, Right Page Header, Right Page Number, and Right Text.   For clarity, because I can read what you are suggesting two ways. Next, I am going to duplicate the current master page (which I have titled master A) and create a Master chapter right and a Master chapter left. On those masters I am going to add an image text box and the chapter title text box. If I do it this way, then I won't be layering the Masters just using different layers? I currently incorporated the layering method, which works well. I added the Master Chapter (which I didn't include and headers) on top of the Master A. The headers/page numbers are no longer visible.

Today going to read more from the book. I need to understand how to use the images better: anchoring/non anchoring. 

@MikeTOSince I am having chapters start on both left and right, I will need to make to separate chapter masters: correct?  Mike it sounds like your method is different than Old Bruce, which isn't surprising. There are a lot of ways to get a job done. This book has chapter images and the other has images throughout, so whatever method I choose I need to ensure the images flow correctly, and with the previous method they didn't.

I have tried to create a new style from the placed formatted text and I can't get it to work. Is it not possible? (I will be reading that section in the book when I finish this response.)

Thanks. Very grateful, very.

[MikeTO]

If you have chapters starting on the right and left, you could consider making a chapter start master as a spread that you would never apply as a spread. Apply this master to just one side of your document page spread. That should work just as well.

One other thing to consider - for a lot of books such as fiction, there isn't a need for a chapter title master, you can achieve the desired layout through paragraph spacing options. If you're able to share a picture of what you want it to look like, there are probably a few of us here who could give you specific tips for the easiest way to create it. But I think you said you didn't want page numbers on the title page so that would require a separate master. There are always workarounds even for that, you could edit the chapter title pages using edit detached and hide the page numbers. Affinity gives us lots of ways to achieve the same goal.

[TracyKK]

Mike, I did lots of reading today and ... Can't figure out how to anchor image to text or paragraph. I can see anchor to center of page, but that's not what I want, obviously. I can't find the 'basic' style, I also can't figure out how to set the Header to center justification. I am uploading a few chapters. The masters aren't working as well as I would like, and there is some funky stuff going on. Yesterday what I had set up was working but not today (well, sort of). I created - as you will see- a left & right master chapter, but boy that messes some s*** up. I have better luck with just using a single chapter page, except when it needs to be modified. So, look at chapter two, you can tell it's messed up and not following the master rules. I tried to 'reset' it via replace with master A, and that combined a lot of pages so I had text over-write. Just confusing to me. Chapter has a pretty good set-up of what I am trying to do. It's really pretty simple. It does seem that I have to be able to anchor the image to chapter page. Whenever I do any adjusting with font size or justification, it screws up the entire document. The image boxes are no longer on the chapter pages. The plan was set everything up with the Master A, and then layer the chapter master on that. It worked yesterday, not today. I felt the only thing left I really needed to figure out was anchoring so the image move as I adjusted the paragraph spacing etc, window, orphans, etc.

learning.afpub

[TracyKK]

Mike;

I figured out the problem with chapter two, it had a rogue text box. They seem to come in during the copy and past and importing. Does that make sense to you? I don't know how else they keep showing up. So I am still trying to fiugre out how anchor the image to the first chapter page. It can't, can it. I can't do that final master until everything else is all done. Except, how do you do that? That image will effect the finalizing of widows and orphans, which I do by hand. As I adjust that it adjust everything further down. So it really. has to be done piece by piece. I hope you are understanding this.

[MikeTO]

17 hours ago, TracyKK said:

Can't figure out how to anchor image to text or paragraph.

There are a few ways to do it, but click in the text where you want the image to appear. Then click the image to select it - if the image is already on top of the text frame you'll have to switch to the Move tool first but if it's outside the text frame you don't even need to switch tools. Then click the "Inline in Text"  icon in the main toolbar to pin the image at the text cursor position. The Float icon is next to it if you wanted to float it instead of making it inline.

17 hours ago, TracyKK said:

I can't find the 'basic' style, I also can't figure out how to set the Header to center justification

Open the Text Styles panel and click the menu icon to the right of the style name. Choose Edit <style name>. Select Paragraph on the left side. Set Alignment to Centred. Click OK.

16 hours ago, TracyKK said:

I figured out the problem with chapter two, it had a rogue text box. They seem to come in during the copy and past and importing. Does that make sense to you? I don't know how else they keep showing up.

You didn't have your chapter master applied to the first page of chapter 2.

Applying a master to a page with the Migrate option can "promote" a text frame from the master layer to the document layer. I bet this is what is happening to you.

I took a look at page 5, the first page of chapter 1. There's a much easier way to do this and then you wouldn't need the chapter title master pages. Just paste the image inline above the chapter title and adjust the spacing accordingly. The page could be based on master A.

[TracyKK]

Left side, first line on all of them, is starting one line lower. I've checked all the usual suspects: don't see extra paragraph return, don't see anything in any of the spacing adjustment areas in the paragraph settings. @MikeTO Are suggesting just add an image box to each chapter page and then use return to align it? Can it be anchored to the title of the chapter?  I am curious what are you guys using for justification settings?

[MikeTO]

You didn't have baseline grid on in your document but I'd suspect the issue is your frames aren't aligned. I took a look at the older document you uploaded and for Master A, the left frame is Y=1.081in while the right frame is Y=1.071in. These frames need to be aligned to the margins a bit more accurately.