Text misaligned in frames on some pages

[RainbowsC]

Hi all
I am typesetting a novel. I have set up a master page and activated 'Align to Baseline', ensuring that no text frames have 'Ignore Baseline' or "Use Independent Baseline" checked. Baseline grid is set to the same spacing as the body text leading.
I placed text on the pages by importing a plain text file and placing the first 3 pages, then using Autorlow to place the rest
Up to page 50, all the text is correctly placed in the frame, starting on the second line (when Show Baseline Grid is active) and ends perfectly on the baseline (one line on the grid above the end of the text frame).
Suddenly, when I get to page 50, the text decides to start one grid line higher. Still ends on the baseline.
Text on page 51 is correctly positioned,
Pages from 52 to 59 - some are correct and others, randomly, are incorrect.
From page 60 onward, all pages seem to be correct up to page 91, where suddenly the misalignment problem reappears.

The only thing I can see that is different about the incorrect pages is their position in the Layers Panel. I have attached screen shots to show the difference. It appears as though the correct pages are 'child pages' - with their layer indicator indented. The ones that are wrong appear to be a higher level in the Layers Panel. The first two attached screen shot show the layers for the spread pages 52 and 53. Both pages are incorrect. Page 52 is the top layer on the first screen shot. Page 53 is the top layer on the second (no layers shown indented).. 

The third screen shot is the layers for pages 56 (which is correct - 4th layer down from top, indented) and 57 (which is incorrect - top layer, not indented)

Any clues what caused this and how I might fix it please?

Sincere thanks to all the patient forum members who are helping me get this sorted.

[RainbowsC]

I think I have fixed this issue, though I wish I knew what caused it.
I noted that when viewing the correctly aligned pages, the little Transform square at the bottom right of the screen was grey. When viewing pages that with misaligned text, that square was white with blue markings.
On further inspection, I realised that the X, Y, W, and H co-ordinates were slightly different on incorrectly aligned pages. I wrote down the co-ordinates on a correctly aligned left page and a right page and then entered those co-ordinates on the pages that were misaligned and it seems to have fixed the problem.
It would be great to understand how the problem arose so I could avoid it in future.

Cheers
 

[MikeTO]

If the Transform square at the bottom right is grey that means the frame is locked and can't be transformed, likely because it was on a master page. Perhaps the frames that were in the wrong spot were on the document page while the correct ones were on the master page.

The size handles will be round for frames on the actual document page and X-shaped for frames on the master page.

Good luck

[RainbowsC]

Hi again MikeTO
Thank you so much for offering to look at my files. 
I have attached Parts 1 and 3 of the book. I did manage to get all the text flow correct eventually, but some pages are still misaligned. Most are now aligned well even though the Transform square is not grey on many of the pages. 

In Part 1, page 53 is not correctly aligned and nothing I do seems to fix it. Its co-ordinates appear to be identical to the other pages. 

It concerns me also that although the pages in Part 3 look to be aligned, the alignment does not match the alignment of Part 1, even though I copied the master pages from Part 1.  The same is true of Part 2 (which I won't upload because it's a very large file and overall it looks fine except that the alignment matches Part 3). The text starts higher on the page and ends lower. 

Thank you for any advice you can offer that might help me fix this. It's so close to ready for publication, and I'd love to get it finalised and off to the printer soon.

(Another thing you will notice is lots of spelling 'errors' in Part 1.  I went through and marked 'Ignore' on all of them but they reappeared. That happens over and over again.)

Happy Easter!

Cheers

WillofDeceit_Part1_194.afpub AWillofDeceipt_Part3_194.afpub

[MikeTO]

Look at part 1:

1. Go to spread 48-49, the start of chapter 5
2. First, there is a tiny text frame below the left page - delete that
3. Click the left page frame - note that it's a document page frame, not from the master. Note in Transform that it's rotated by -0.4 degrees. Oops.
4. Click the right page frame - note that it's a document page frame, not from the master. It's also a different width and height than the empty master frame underneath it.
5. Mouse over various spreads in the Pages panel and wait for the tooltips to appear stating which masters are applied. The tooltips can be a little finicky and you may have to mouse around to get them to show. But you'll note that for many pages, you have Main Pages - Left and Main Pages - Right applied instead of just Main Pages. This means that you've applied a master separately to both halves of the spread. This is not advisable and it's likely the result of inserting, moving, or deleting single pages. You can fix the problem by re-applying the master pages.

Here's what I would do:

1. This book is simple enough that I would not create it as a Book but as a single document. This will make your life much easier later on.
2. I'd go to the Chapter Start master page and clean it up - there's an empty text frame to the right of the master. Then I'd review the position and size of the text frame relative to the master's margins and the margins relative to the baseline grid. Normally, the text frame should exactly match the margins but it's ever so slightly off. And it's unusual to start the text frame slightly off from the baseline grid.
3. Then I'd do the same for the Main Pages master - the frames are ever so slightly off from the margins and baseline grid, too. I'd also review whether the page numbers should be aligned to the header text - you could probably combine those into one text frame for the entire header.
4. Very important, the left frame on the Main Pages master has been content scaled. Click in it and you'll see the outer bottom-right handle is solid blue which indicates its content has been scaled. Don't use this handle for your frames, use the normal inner one. To fix this, double-click the outer handle which will reset scaling to 100%.
5. Very important, you haven't linked the left Main Pages frame to the right frame. You need to do this for AutoFlow to work. This is probably the source of all of your frame linking issues.
6. I'd then make a back up copy of part 1 and delete all the pages after spread 10-11 which is the start of chapter 1. 
7. On page 11, the start of the chapter, I'd click the text frame, choose Select All, and then choose Cut. Then I'd delete the text frame since it's on the document page and there's an empty master frame below. Then I'd paste the cut text into the master frame.
8. Now use Add Pages to add 2 pages after page 11 based on the Main Pages master. You want to do this because if you AutoFlow from your Chapter Start master, that's what you'll get. You want to AutoFlow from a page based on the master you want the new pages to use.
9. Once you've added the new spread, click the Text Flow Out control on page 11 and click anywhere on the frame on page 12 to link them together. The text will flow into pages 12-13.
10. Now Shift + click the Text Flow Out control on page 13 to AutoFlow the remaining pages.
11. To set up chapter 2, given that you want to use a special master without a header on the start page of a chapter, cut all the text from chapter 2 to the end and then break the text frame link at the end of chapter 1, between pages 16 and 17. Apply the chapter start master to the right side of spread 16-17 and then paste the cut text back in. Repeat this procedure for the other chapters.

Tip: The chapter start master doesn't need to have its frame start lower on the page where you want the chapter # to appear. You could use a standard height text frame and simply enter a large value into Paragraph > Spacing > Space Before.

Good luck!

[RainbowsC]

Well, I've just learned enough to make a job that was taking 6 to 8 hours doable in 20 minutes, and without a lot of frustrating errors.
Everything is easy the moment after you learn how!  Thank you so very much. 

I fixed Part 1 this evening, and it was so easy!  Tomorrow I'll tackle parts 2 and 3. I will keep it as a book because this novel is what is referred to as a Frame Narrative (i.e. it's a story within a story) and I want to set Part 2 in different fonts and styles so that it looks distinctively different and readers know when they are reading the inner story and when they have returned to the outer story.  But I'm confident it will be simple enough now to fix all the parts and reassemble the book so it all looks as I want it to.

Thank you for mentioning the image pin. I wasn't aware of that feature and it sure makes things a lot easier when you don't have to adjust the position of the image every time there is a minor change to the text like moving an orphan word onto the previous line. 

Thank you also for the tip. I should have thought of that myself. It makes far more sense. 

I'm going to like Affinity Publisher now!  I was starting to hate it and wondering if there were alternatives other than the hideously expensive Adobe InDesign that I used for years. But I really do not want to ever use an Adobe product again. And now it seems I don't need to.

Thank you again  Your generosity with your time and knowledge is greatly appreciated.