Span Columns

[Seneca]

3 hours ago, MikeW said:

It's always worked in Q since the feature was available.

Well try this. Create a 2 columns layout. Create a heading style with a rule above or below or both. The heading is still on the left column. Then redefine the heading style to span the columns. The rules are gone.

[MikeW]

1 hour ago, Seneca said:

Well try this. Create a 2 columns layout. Create a heading style with a rule above or below or both. The heading is still on the left column. Then redefine the heading style to span the columns. The rules are gone.

I did and showed the result. 

[Seneca]

8 hours ago, MikeW said:

I did and showed the result. 

In that case I I'm not doing it right. I always though this was a bug. Need to investing that further. Thanks.

[MikeW]

8 hours ago, Seneca said:

In that case I I'm not doing it right. I always though this was a bug. Need to investing that further. Thanks.

Which version of Q?

[Seneca]

3 hours ago, MikeW said:

Which version of Q?

The latest one. 

[MikeW]

May I PM you a link to a Q2018 file?

[Seneca]

12 hours ago, MikeW said:

May I PM you a link to a Q2018 file?

That would be awesome. Thanks

[Mike W077]

We are launching a new newsmagazine-style pub in March and having a big debate on using inDesign or AP.  We would like to standardize on Affinity. However, this is a “must have” feature for our type of publication. Even the old Ventura Publisher, circa 2000,  had this feature. Surprised it’s missing so far.

[fde101]

7 hours ago, whitewolf7070 said:

in March and having a big debate on using inDesign or AP

You shouldn't standardize on a product that is still in beta.  We don't know when Publisher will be released yet.

[Adriandw]

8 hours ago, fde101 said:

You shouldn't standardize on a product that is still in beta.  We don't know when Publisher will be released yet.

Agreed, but it's a reasonable contribution to this thread to say that absence of the "Span Columns" capability would prevent @whitewolf7070 standardising on AfPub.

In the recent Affinity Publisher Update email I saw this 

Quote

We were originally planning to launch Publisher before the end of this year, but we have decided to take a little more time over it with the hope we can get a few more of the features you are asking for in for our initial launch.

I support that delay - let's hope that Span Columns is one of those "few more features"

[Mike W077]

Thanks Adriandw. 

[Yaya]

+1, agree that this is an important feature. 

[ffca]

Really need this! Please include it!

[evtonic3]

+1

[Alex White]

I hate to post just to say "me too" but I would love to see this feature (paragraph style span columns). I use it a lot in InDesign and workarounds with additional text frames for headings can leave me with a lot of text frames to move around at odd times, and breaks the flow of the text. 

So +1 for this feature please!

[garrettm30]

This is a feature that I also hope to see in Publisher at some point. I use it perhaps in about 20% of my documents. Maybe it can’t be added right away (they can’t do everything at once), but it would be good to know it's on the roadmap.

[Mike W077]

With every beta, I hope for this feature. Still not there. With newspaper/magazine publication, this is a MUST. 

[mac_heibu]

It is really helpful, but never a „Must“.

I produced newspapers and magazines for decades without this „Must“.

No need to wait for this feature in the first release of „Publisher“. It won‘t be there.

[MikeW]

13 hours ago, mac_heibu said:

It is really helpful, but never a „Must“.

I produced newspapers and magazines for decades without this „Must“.

No need to wait for this feature in the first release of „Publisher“. It won‘t be there.

It's true that it is not a must, as in I wouldn't ever be able to work without span columns. But with new capabilities can come quicker, more assured work-flows. Which in the end saves money.

Edited...

[Fixx]

4 hours ago, MikeW said:

Without span columns, one would use tables in APub.

Um, I believe that case is something else than span columns. In this case I would set "Start next column" to a para style and let text jump from text box to next according that.

I did a lot of magazines before Span Columns was introduced in ID. It was awful amount of copy-paste-position work for headlines and lead texts. Span Columns helped a lot.

[MikeW]

7 hours ago, Fixx said:

Um, I believe that case is something else than span columns. In this case I would set "Start next column" to a para style and let text jump from text box to next according that.

I did a lot of magazines before Span Columns was introduced in ID. It was awful amount of copy-paste-position work for headlines and lead texts. Span Columns helped a lot.

Oops. Sorry Fixx.

I was getting interrupted and pasted the wrong text and uploaded the wrong images. My post was going to extol the virtues of both span and split columns (which is what the images were of).

Maybe I'll revisit it. Or not.

[dominik]

Span columns seems to be possible with the newly introduced Pinning feature. I would love to hear from the experts (and the other, too) if is what you've been asking for.

1. Create a document with a text frame that has multiple columns ... and some text in it.
2. Create another text frame that spans across at least two columns.
3. Set text wrap to 'Jump'.
4. Set pinning to 'Float'. Anchor the text frame to where you want it to be placed.
5. Add some text and style it in the way of a quote or header.

If you now add (or remove) some text above this floating text frame it spans across two columns. Maybe it needs some fine tuning but this looks promising to me. What do you think?

d.

[Mike W077]

35 minutes ago, dominik said:

Span columns seems to be possible with the newly introduced Pinning feature. I would love to hear from the experts (and the other, too) if is what you've been asking for.

1. Create a document with a text frame that has multiple columns ... and some text in it.
2. Create another text frame that spans across at least two columns.
3. Set text wrap to 'Jump'.
4. Set pinning to 'Float'. Anchor the text frame to where you want it to be placed.
5. Add some text and style it in the way of a quote or header.

If you now add (or remove) some text above this floating text frame it spans across two columns. Maybe it needs some fine tuning but this looks promising to me. What do you think?

d.

Sorry, no. The Span Columns feature is very simple: Just add the optional paragraph attribute "Span Columns" and a variable of how many columns you want a particular paragraph, such as a title or heading, to span. That's it. When this feature is invoked, the paragraph with this attribute will go across the number of column specified, but only that paragraph. It will have all the formatting assigned to it, but just span across columns.  It is vital for making headlines where you need the title or headline to span the entire text box while the rest of the text flows into the columns in the text box. It is very handy and essential when resizing text boxes. If the headline is in a separate text box. you have to resize and reformat TWO text boxes and make sure they are correctly aligned every time you change something. What a pain! This "Span columns" is really elementary stuff. As I have said before, Quark, ID, and even the old Ventura Publisher have had this basic, essential feature since the 1990s. I am not criticizing, just observing and making the point that for me as a newspaper, magazine publisher for more than a quarter century, it is an essential feature. I would LOVE to switch to AP, but really can't as long as this feature is missing. I am probably not the only one. 

[dominik]

1 minute ago, whitewolf7070 said:

It is vital for making headlines where you need the title or headline to span the entire text box while the rest of the text flows into the columns in the text box. It is very handy and essential when resizing text boxes. If the headline is in a separate text box. you have to resize and reformat TWO text boxes

Hi @whitewolf7070,

thank you for this explanation. In this regard the current workflow is inferior or maybe something more like a workaround.

Cheers,
d.

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, whitewolf7070 said:

If the headline is in a separate text box. you have to resize and reformat TWO text boxes and make sure they are correctly aligned every time you change something. What a pain! 

You can avoid some (most? all?) of that hassle by simply grouping the two Text Frames. Then if you need to resize or move them as a unit, just select the Group (rather than one of the individual frames) and they move or resize together.

spanning-sample.afpub