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I'm having a problem with text frames. Say I have ONE text box that already exists that I want to have a border around it (it now has none). So I select that box and open the Text Frame tool and set the stroke to 1 point, black, and also some space between the border and the text. Works great. BUT, from that point on any new text box I create has these characteristics, instead of what I want - the default box (no borders, etc).

With PagePlus, you could modify the characteristics of an INDIVIDUAL text frame and it had no impact on the default settings. Surely there is a way in AP? It is really cumbersome to reset a tools characteristics EVERY time I make a change to one individual item of that type (it seems to be true with other tools too). I guess I would call this "persistence" and would like to stop it, if possible. I can find no item for it in preferences, unfortunately.

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I cannot find it by searching. 

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I think a neat idea would be text frame styles and probably a stick on/off button.

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12 hours ago, rah1861 said:

Works great. BUT, from that point on any new text box I create has these characteristics, instead of what I want - the default box (no borders, etc).

I did not test this extensively, but for me the Object defaults feature worked as expected with Text Frames, so it was easy to revert to the original defaults by clicking the Revert Defaults button on the toolbar, to sync the defaults to a selected text frame using the Synchronize defaults to current selection  button, etc.

If the Defaults buttons are not on your toolbar you can customize it to include them, or use the Edit > Defaults menu for that. You can even set custom keyboard shortcuts for any of the 4 Edit > Defaults menu items if you want.

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Yes, that works nicely, so thanks! I will have to look more closely at the Revert and Synchronize buttons to figure out exactly how they work. 

I can understand when I look at the AP interface that when you select an object and make some changes to it using the settings of the tool that works on it (like the Text Frame tool), you are making a change to that tool's settings as well as the object you have selected.

However, just generally speaking, I think it is EXTREMELY odd that AP does not seem to allow you to change the characteristics of one particular object. This is often enabled in programs via clicking the selected object with the right mouse button and picking something like "Properties". In PagePlus, for example, if you right-click a selected text box, a menu comes up, which includes Format, Frame properties, etc. I can change those settings and only affect THAT box and it has no effect on the settings of the Text box TOOL itself.

But AP seems to only have the Tools and their settings, and once you have used that tool's settings to change a particular object, you are stuck with those settings in the tool unless you use those Sync and Revert buttons. 

Is this just a difference in the way AP works philosophically, or am I just not seeing a way to modify the properties of a selected object without affecting the tools used to create it?
 

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41 minutes ago, rah1861 said:

However, just generally speaking, I think it is EXTREMELY odd that AP does not seem to allow you to change the characteristics of one particular object.

How so? I have no problems changing (for example) the attributes of any text frame I have created, without it affecting the attributes of any others I have created. And for creating new objects like text frames, unless I have synced the tool to an existing text frame, it continues to use the original defaults for that.

So for example, if I have not synced anything or saved a sync option as a custom app default (via Edit > Defaults > Save), it continues to use the factory defaults. And if it gets too confusing, I can return to the factory defaults at any time (via Edit > Defaults > Factory Reset).

It is easily customizable on a per document or app-wide basis, & quite flexible because object defaults are stored separately for stroke and fill attributes, artistic text attributes, table format and frame text attributes.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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On about every 100th occurrence on my screen I feel the need to go into writing;)

Throughout the UI of all three applications, I find that the logic applied by Serif is "different" from that I have come to use after decades of learning IBM and then Microsoft. Sometimes the Serif "How To" is staring me in the face - if I position my face where my backside would normally reside. I just have to learn a new way of thinking. Sometimes the way things happen are in my (IBM) "Nobody would ever do it that way" bucket. rah1861's text frame management issue falls into that category. I so understand where he is coming from!

In these cases I retreat to PagePlus and CorelDraw and PhotoShop for a couple of weeks:/

But it would help if the development teams could put themselves in the position of Mere Microsoft Mortals and maybe even add an alternative ways of doing things based on that logic. Yes - there are a huge number of alternative ways in Affinity, but they are seem to be based on Serif logic. It's simple stuff - Serif put "IT" on the side bar - MS put it on the Menu: serif put "IT" in <Edit>, I'm used to finding it in <File>. And on YouTube, the vocals of "Just click command here" has moved the mouse off the "Here" spot before my rheumy eyes have found it. O.o

Keep up the good work Serif People, all three Apps are amazing and go places I have never seen before: and if I explore these dark places I may find the answers I need. The number of gaping holes (currently I am gawping over the lack of "Footnotes" and "Fit Text to Frame" capabilities)  gets smaller & smaller and I am increasingly thinking that maybe the hole doesn't exist, I simply haven't delved sufficiently deeply. 

........ I would be more than happy if Publisher could cover the content of that magnificent package - PagePlusX9.

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Yup, I can get used to anything, no matter how arcane. I am just trying to relate AP to PagePlus and trying to do the same things for the same tasks. Eventually I'll pick it up. I have viewed the tutorials on Text frames and they do help some, although they seem to mainly deal with altering already existing text and how to do wholesale alterations to it. Very nice and powerful. But creating new text boxes bit me in the ass while trying to do a simple newsletter, when I was getting changes I had made to earlier boxes in my new boxes (i.e. a changed default). But it's just a learning curve. I used to bitch OUT LOUD about some of PagePlus's mysteries, so no biggie. :)

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