Text Thread Error

[RenWaller]

Often, when I thread text and resize one of the text boxes, the text threads either tiny or huge. Unfortunately, this has been an issue for me since the beginning of V1.

Please see the video.

[Old Bruce]

Do not use the little rescale dot outside of the lower right corner of the Text Frame. Use the one that is actually on the corner.

[BBG3]

5 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Do not use the little rescale dot outside of the lower right corner of the Text Frame. Use the one that is actually on the corner.

To me, it doesn't make sense to keep a feature (the dot) that causes problems for many users.

[RM f/g]

Does your file have any text styles imported from ms-word?

In the past I experienced this problem as well, but since I replaced all imported text styles with styles set up in Publisher it hasn't happened any more.

[GarryP]

11 hours ago, BBG3 said:

To me, it doesn't make sense to keep a feature (the dot) that causes problems for many users.

On the other hand, it does make sense for the software to retain a feature which some users need and don’t have a problem with.

Removing a feature simply because some users get a bit confused is not a good path to take.

Users just need to learn to how to use the software.

If the documentation and/or UI needs to make things clearer then that might be a good thing to do, but removing something because some users have trouble with it because they haven’t learned how to use it isn’t a good idea in my opinion.

[Hangman]

Hi @RenWaller,

You're seeing text scaling between the two text frames because the text frame on the left has been rescaled, denoted by the solid blue dot in the bottom right corner...

Text frames have eight resize handles at the corner and midpoints of the text frame bounding box and one rescale handle, offset from the text frame bounding box in the bottom right corner...

Both serve a different purpose:

• If you resize a text frame using any of the eight resize handles, its dimensions are changed, but the text inside maintains its size.
• If you rescale a text frame, the text is scaled in proportion to the changing dimensions of the text frame, so it will become larger or smaller accordingly

To rectify the issue, double-click the solid blue rescale handle at the bottom right of the first text frame. This will reset the text to its actual size rather than its rescaled size.

Then, reapply the appropriate text styles to reset the text to the correct size. This will then allow the text to flow between the two text frames without any scaling.

 

[RenWaller]

Thank you @Hangman, your explanation was super helpful. I don't think I ever used the handles to rescale the text (but the text was copied from a different document, so maybe that was), but your explanation and solution worked wonderfully. So I guess what I thought was a bug was "user error." Thanks for the explanation!

I never new the handle turned blue when in was rescaled, so that will be super helpful.

Thanks again!

[Hangman]

Hi @RenWaller,

That's no problem at all, I'm glad the explanation helped to resolve the issue for you...

[Alfred]

29 minutes ago, RenWaller said:

I never new the handle turned blue when in was rescaled, so that will be super helpful.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure that’s a recent improvement.

[BBG3]

my friend, @GarryP

As a user experience designer, we avoid confusion, make things very easy to learn and understand and save users' time, which results in a great experience.

After 20 years of working with many design applications, I faced the exact problem like RenWaller around a year ago, and people here helped me fix that. My point is, why should many users face these kinds of problems and spend 1 to 3 hours finding and fixing the issue?

I never needed that tool in Indesign or Publisher, but I use it frequently in Illustrator, Designer and Photoshop.

In this case, a tooltip or warning message after using the dot would be a great idea to remind users of what this tool does and causes, saving more than three million users' time.

[Oufti]

On 4/10/2025 at 8:45 PM, BBG3 said:

In this case, a tooltip or warning message after using the dot would be a great idea to remind users of what this tool does and causes

I admit this is not a blinking warning but, if you look at the status bar under the window before using the handle, you'll se that one handle will resize the selection (i.e. the frame) and the other the text. 

(The status bar is possibly hidden by the video player control bar. Setting  full screen can help…)

[BBG3]

Thanks @Oufti

Intresting! I didn't know that! I've never seen that! I only looked at the bottom to check the number of my selections.

I came from Adobe apps...

After 2 years, I found this "Double-click to reset" 🤪

Thanks for reading my message and sharing your information with a video. ❤️

[walt.farrell]

12 hours ago, BBG3 said:

After 2 years, I found this "Double-click to reset" 🤪

It's very new, and came with 2.5: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/whats-new/version-2-5/

Quote

Visual indication of text frame rescaling^* – When you have rescaled a text frame using the outer bottom-right scale handle, the handle changes from white to blue. This is an indicator that scaling has occurred and that any containing frame text is resized proportionately to the new text frame dimensions. You can double-click to reset the frame text (not the text frame) to its original font size.