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Text styles: bugs and comments


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We discussed in other threads about the way "Group styles" are done, so I spend some time trying to use it.

It's an interesting way, when used with "view hierarchical", to create styles and see which ones are related (children) to other ones, so we could see dependenties and how modifying the "parent" one can affect the others.
I can use this with a base group for body text, notes, edito and other parts using the same font. I would create another group for title, subtitle, everything using the second font in my document.

But what happen when I need to dupplicate styles to have color variants for different parts? They'll be children of one of their own.

Can I use hierarchical view for working? No, they are listed depending of their parents, not depending of their use.

I'll try again this time having more generic "groups" and using names to order styles so they're easier to find depending of the part they are related to (having them ordered by fonction isn't what I need, since it means searching in a list to find "body_part_x" or "title_part_x"… I can use "part_x_body" and "part_x_title", but it would be easier to have real groups  named "part_x" for working and hierarchical view when creating documents).

The only way I would find this usefull is for specific document with no parts/rubrics (in fact each file is a part with its own styles)  but 6 levels for each styles (title, information, standart, contact information…).

 

Bugs:

  1. Some values when editing a style revert to default values (leading…)
  2. Initial words revert to default values instead of displaying the ones previously saved (when editing a style)
  3. Initial words won't use the modified character style ((i.e. color) when we modify the character style
  4. Initial words end characters can't contain "\t" (tab)
  5. Applying a paragraph style when cursor in a paragraph only apply the paragraph style to the word (it's only usefull for character styles)
    > its seems to be the result of the option "apply xxx to characters", the paragraph style applying first to all the paragraph, but if we click on another paragraph style, part of the paragraph will keep the previous  characters attribute of the previous style (can be really messy, applying a paragraph style shouldn't behave like a character style!)
  6. When character styles are used (i.e. initials words), or some options are modified, the modification isn't used if we don't select another option in the list before reverting to the desired one
  7. As said in other thread, baseline should be used with paragraph style, instead of a "toggle button" it should be a "display button" or a "preview button" (who use this or how is this usefull?)
  8. Wrap: the few tests I did show wrap works with objects placed below or above text frame. That's a problem with complex items when only "above wrap" is the simplest solution
  9. I'm not fond of the position of the button "update paragraph/character styles", or the same option in the menu next "Apply xxx and next",
  10. I'd rather have some options to delete overrides (reset formatting do nothing when 2 paragraph styles are applied to a paragraph, cf. 4)
  11. "Apply xxx and next", that is an important option that should have a shortcut (and some other important ones should be added to the text shortcuts too)
  12. We can't use "ctrl+numpad" or other ctrl+shift+numpad as shortcuts
  13. The "eye icon" for over flow should be bolder and red (or really visible)
  14. Find and replace is buggy, and it would be nice to be able to write directly regular expressions (and have an indication if parts of the styles are searched or replaced too/being able to disable the style part)
  15. It would be nice to be able to use "Escap" key to switch to the move tool instead of using Escap + v
  16. Picture frame tool is interesting, but it would be nice if "lock children" would permit to resize the frame without resizing the picture
  17. I would expect Picture frame tool option "none" to do nothing more (or to revert the picture at the document PPI… no reason to get a picture at 72 PPI when the document is at 300 PPI, it would be usefull for people that undestand this, and avoid problems for the others)

 

I've commented in other threads for other bugs, but I forget to add that I'm impressed by the result and how much work you put in the applications. I'll keep on buying them to support you, and I would be happy one day if it can replace some other apps at work. I wouldn't mind using them at home for fun :)

 


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  • 3 weeks later...

HI Wosven.

As this post is a bit older now an number of these issues have already been addressed. Some of them are very much just feature requests and suggestions rather than bugs. May be  nice to see how many of these bugs are still affecting the app as there ia quite a list!

Cheers

Serif Europe Ltd - Check the latest news at www.affinity.serif.com

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Hi @Chris_K,

Some bugs are presents in .139 version too:

  1. Initial words end characters can't contain "\t" (tab) (it will stop at the first letter "t")
  2. Some values when editing a style revert to default values (Decorations: always enabled, always combine identical…) 
  3. Drops caps are too small, and setting a character style with different size doesn't apply the new size (and there's a strange behavior when moving the frame around: the drop cap size change).
  4. Drop caps option should be applied over Initial words option (for now it's reversed)
    > Due to Initial words option : Drop caps character style doesn't (re)apply when changing styles (after clicking on another text style, and re-clicking on the style with the drop caps and character style applied to this drop cap)
    > Humm… Des fois ça marche, des fois ça marche pas…  Sometimes it's working, sometimes not
  5. We can't use "ctrl+numpad",  "ctrl+shift+numpad" or other "ctrl+shift+alt+numpad" as shortcuts for text styles

     
  6. In French we use a lot of non-breaking spaces, and to check for them they should be distinguished from other spaces visually in the "show invisible characters mode"
  7. Need for a shorter non-breaking space, a  "Non-breaking en space"? (we use them before ";:!?")
  8. In text styles options: "update paragraph/character styles should be below the separator with "Edit…/Duplicate…/Create…", not with the "Apply…" options
  9. Character style: option for no-hyphenation (needed for emails, links, compound words, etc.). Sometimes hyphenation options aren't enough to properly set a text.
  10. Shortcut for: "Apply xxx and next", that is an important option that should have a shortcut
  11. Wrap below only option (no wrap for text frames above the object): when working with multicolumns text frames, it's easier to stack objects and only use "wrap below" option in a document, instead of using tricks and no-wrap option on text frames and tabs
  12. Picture frame tool is interesting, but it would be nice if "lock children" would permit to resize the frame without resizing the picture (I'm not sure what it's doing right now :) )
    > For now, using the tool and clicking Properties > None do the trick, but it's 2 clicks. A modifier key or clicking "lock children" (unless this option does something I'm not aware of) would be better.
  13. Group for style (as in "folder"): for now, the hierarchical option is usefull for creating/modifying styles, but for applying them, being able to store them depending other options than "parent/children" style is more usefull. When you've got 10 children for each style, and need to scroll around to find one, it's a pain :S

 

 

Drop caps sometimes they take more lines that allowed in the style, and are shorter than the number of lines they want to take

2018-10-07_164446.png.6d58fcd4f59aa38444203b0d624fec91.png

 

Example for the "wrap below only" option:

2018-10-07_163954v2.thumb.png.b83d014a8d329995c51aebcbd2be82ea.png

----

Bug in the site: sometimes, I can't enter anymore paragraph breaks and I need to restart Firefox (Desktop and phone)… it's nice the site is able to restore the message.

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1st we need to check missing font and replace them, or they'll cause a bug with inheritance from parent style in text styles: it seems modifications on a parent style doesn't apply to children, when it should compare and use same parameters when "[no change]" is selected and keep the modified ones.

The option [no change] doesn't apply the modification when modifying the Parent style (for example: modifying the font): we need to open the child style, select Font, select some other font in the menu, and select again [no change] for the font from Parent style to apply.

 

When importing from RTF file, a new style ("Normal") is created as base from the other ones. If fonts' names are different between applications (OpenOffice RTF & Affinity), paragraph styles will be applied but will use default Arial font. It would be important to highlight those or be able to replace the font in the styles with the fonts manager.

 

Shouldn't the [no style] options be available in the search menu?

 

 

Edited by Wosven
The bug doesn't appear in version .139, this one is due to imported styles with a missing font.
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39 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Big bug with inheritance from parent style in text styles: it seems modifications on a parent style doesn't apply to children, when it should compare and use same parameters when "[no change]" is selected and keep the modified ones.

Are you saying that if you create a new style that inherits from a parent style and then make modifications to that parent style that the modifications are not also applied to the child style?

If so, I think that more details (and possibly a sample) may be needed, as I have at least one example (changing the font of the parent) where the change does carry through to the child.

-- Walt
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You're right @walt.farrell

The bug with inheritance was in version .133, and it was in my mind while doing those tests. It occured while doing other tests (see below), but I just checked on another previous document with a lot of children styles, and the modifications apply to children in the .139 version (Yes!!!).
The bug I had right now was due to importing styles and problems with fonts.

What I was working on after reading another thread about importing RTF with styles:
Creating styles in LibreOffice, exporting as RTF, importing in a new APub document after deleting Base and other styles.
Searching for errors and correcting those styles.
Reimporting the RTF file.
Problem: styles a created again instead of using the ones of the APub document if they have different settings.
=> Need an option to add all new styles, or use existing ones and add differents ones when importing text (only based on styles' names).

=> Need an option "replace with: [styles]" when deleting a style
=> (?) Need to search for missing fonts in the search/replace panel

Problem with heritance:
It's a problem due to imported styles and the different way font are named in APub and other applications.

When modifying the Parent style, using the same erroneous name for font (for example a style using "Calibri light" in LibreOffice), when I replace the font in the parent style the children keep their wrong font.

Bug: Strangely, I'm able to select Calibri + Light in the Text styles, but I can't replace with Calibri + Light in the font manager.

 

For importing text from RTF files without adding new styles, they'l have to be exactly the same as in APub, or we'll need more options when importing or when deleting styles.

Time to go to bed now :)

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