Baseline grid bug?

[John T]

There seems to be a glitch in baseline grid in my copy of. Publisher version 1. 7. 1. 404 Windows 8  64 bit.

In the attached file the grid is only showing on pages 1 and 2, this is the same throughout a 44 page publication. which this example is extracted from.

If I create a new publication using default settings it seems to be ok.

Also on page 4 it will not show filler text as expected.

4 pages Vol 34 1 Aug 2019.afpub

[GarryP]

My first suggestion would be to remove the Grid. Not the Baseline Grid, just the ‘normal’ Grid. You should only need to use a Grid under certain circumstances and it normally just gets in the way of making layouts. Just keep the Grid switched off visually and make sure you’re not snapping to it unless you really need it. Use Column Guides and Guides for layout, use a Grid for drawings.

My second suggestion is to not have different heights of letters when you’re using the Baseline Grid. The Baseline Grid is best used to align text between frames when the texts are using fonts of the same height. On your page 3 the height of the text is much larger than that on page 2 so you are getting a ‘double-baseline’ gap between the lines.

My third suggestion would be to not display special characters. They’re best used only for problem solving rather than you needing them on all of the time. (Unless you like having them on, then by all means keep them on.)

On page 4 you have a massive Left Indent on your paragraph. Also, you’re not using the Publisher Filler Text so you only have a couple of dozen or so characters.

As for why the Baseline Grid is not showing on pages 3 and 4, I’m not sure yet. Which version of Publisher was the document first created in? Was it a Beta?

Ah, found it, you’ve got your Baseline Grid colour set to 0% Opacity. But now I can’t figure out where the weird black ‘baseline grid’ on page 1 and the similarly-odd cyan ‘baseline grid’ on page 2 are coming from. You actually have separate baseline grids for the different text frames. You can switch them off in the Text Frame panels and just use the one for the whole document (which is more usual).

I've attached the 'fixed' document for reference.

4 pages Vol 34 1 Aug 2019-fixed.afpub

Edited July 29, 2019 by GarryP
Edited a few times as I found different issues.

[John T]

@GarryP

Thank you for your help again.

I will remove the Grid as I don't think I will ever use it.

Your second suggestion regarding the use of the Baseline Grid,

As you saw I use 14 pt for my headings and 12 pt for the text; Going to pick your brains here:

If I have my heading in its own text frame and the body text in another frame hard up to the heading frame (grouped?) will this work?.

If so when I have a new article starting say in the middle of a page and I do the same thing again – title frame then body text frame all grouped will this still work.

I will not select display special characters as it will only be used for the copyright symbol.

The page 4 indent, no idea how that got there, I just added the text frame in and pasted filler text, don't ask me why but I thought I would use Lorem Ipsum.

Did not realise the opacity for the Baseline Grid was set to 0%

An answer to the deleted question regarding the version, it is 1.7.1.404. I did not dare use anything from the Beta versions.

Once again many thanks for your help and the fixed version.

Regards.

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

You probably don’t need to put your heading in a separate frame as long as you get your paragraph formatting right. This can sometimes take quite a lot of experimentation but once you have something that works the way you want it to work in all situations you don’t need to think about it again and can concentrate on the text.

Consider the attached document where I have used the Space Below Paragraph, Baseline Offset and Baseline Start Position to get the man heading lined up inside the margins, with the sub-heading centred in the vertical gap, while also allowing the text frame to start anywhere on the page while keeping the same relative positions between headings and body text.  (This is a crude example and more care needs to be taken in a real document.)

It’s very much worth making sure you have your font and font height settings as you want them from the start. That way you can create your styles to get the text the way you want it without more hassle later on. Changing font/size later in the project can sometimes make a real mess of your document.

Note: As for special characters, the Copyright symbol is not a special character. Special characters are the things Publisher uses to show where spaces, tabs, paragraph endings, etc. are. You should only need to show these if your text looks like it’s doing something odd.

headings.afpub

[John T]

GarryP

I have to thank you again for your valuable help.

Also giving me working examples has been a real bonus.

Coming from OpenOffice Writer where every thing just worked for my printed magazine is a bit of a learning curve.

I now feel a bit more confident in being able to send a print ready file to my printer.

You responded to my post where my printed magazine had text alignment errors; could this have been caused because I had 'show Grid' selected?

How do you find time to reply to all these posts?

[GarryP]

Again, you’re welcome. I’m glad to be of some assistance.

I imagine it is a pretty steep learning curve coming from Writer but I think your choice of Publisher is the right one. There are feature-richer alternatives and there are cheaper alternatives but I think Publisher punches well above its weight for the price in terms of the features most people need to get great results and the underlying technology that has so much potential.

It is generally recommend that anything that is going to a print shop be properly proofed by visually scrutinising the PDF before it’s sent out. If the PDF is exactly what you want then the printed result should exactly match the PDF. (There may be a few exceptions, such as spot colours, bleed, etc. but, in general, you should get what is in the PDF with no surprises.)

Also, if you’re sure the PDF is exactly what you want and you know you have sent the correct PDF to the print shop you will have proof if anything goes wrong, and a lever to get your money back or a free re-print. One extra thing you could do is use a tool – many are available – to get a checksum of your PDF. Send your PDF to the print shop and ask them to email you back with the checksum at their end (don’t send them your checksum). If they are the same then you can be even more sure that what you get back printed should be what you sent, unless the print shop and/or their processes have done something wrong. This document gives some basic instructions: https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/622361/storingyourdata_checksumexercise.pdf

The grid should have no effect on how the document is printed. It only exists in the Publisher document as some settings and isn’t really ‘a thing’ that can be transferred to the PDF. It’s just something that’s on-screen. I don’t think the PDF specification actually contains the concept of a grid in this sort of manner (but I could be wrong).

I make the time to reply to posts because other people have made the time to reply to mine and got me out of a jam on various occasions. It’s small a way for me to put something back into the community.