Text wrapping anomalies

[lacerto]

The latest beta 1.7.2.458 has some fixes related to the way overlapping text frames wrap text around each other.

Now the z-order of the text frames determines which frame will wrap text in other text frames, which IMO is a step back, since the behavior is different from graphic objects (which wrap text even if they are lower in z-order), and it also unnecessarily makes decisions on behalf of the user. Now if an underlying text frame is wanted to be the one that wraps the text in text frames that are higher in z-order, this must be done with auxiliary (dummy) objects, while it could be done without additional objects, if it is done just using the frame-specific wrapping settings.

The logic should ideally be as follows:

1) For the overlapping text frames where only one text frame is set to be wrapping, this text frame should wrap the text in other text frames no matter what is the z-order of the frames.

2) If multiple overlapping text frames are set to be wrapping (and accordinly the wrapping settings themselves cannot determine which objects wrap), the topmost text frames wrap text n the lower-order text frames.

The latest Publisher beta also behaves strangely when the text frame has a setting to ignore text wraps: it correcly ignores wrapping effect of other ojbects (including text frames), but also applies the text frame's own wrapping effect -- and now even if the object is lowest in the z-order. I suppose the effect of this setting should simply be to ignore wrapping effect of other objects.

See below the screenshots and the Publisher file:

Here is what happens when the orange frame is applied the "Ignore text wraps" setting:

 

To compare, here is how text wrapping is done in InDesign in a similar scenario (green frame is lowest in z-order yet wraps the text in the yellow frame because the yellow frame does not have text wrapping effect turned on. The red frame does have text wrapping turned on and as it is higher in z-order, it wraps the text in the green frame. Making the green frame to ignore text wrapping does not have any effect on the way the green frame itself wraps text in other objects, but instead only determines whether text in the green frame wraps around other objects, so the green frame would continue to wrap the text in the yellow frame, and the red frame no longer would wrap text in the green frame, causing texts of the two frames overlapping each other.

Is the way text wrapping now works in current Affinily Publisher really intended behavior? I would prefer Publisher to implement the feature similarly as it has been done in InDesign, since it makes creation of auxiliary wrapping objects mostly unnecessary by ignorng the z-order of objects as long as wrapping settings are logical and it is clear which object will wrap text in other objects. This way one can easily use underlying objects and transparency settings to create a desired effect without the application dictating the wrapping behavior with an assumption on how the user wants wrapping to happen.

"Ignore text wraps" setting, if meant to be behaving as it now does, is misleading, as its effect is actually opposite in a situation where the text frame itself has a text wrapping setting turned on.

EDIT: Sorry, posted this mistakenly in the release forum, can it be moved to the beta forum? The release version actually behaves otherwise as suggested here, but just does not apply wrapping according to the z-order in situations where overlapping text frames both have wrapping turned on. Ignore text wraps seems to work ok in the release version.

 

wrapping.afpub

[Jon P]

Hi @Lagarto,

Thanks for the info and the file to demonstrate, I've passed this on to the developers.

[Patrick Connor]

We believe the issue "Ignore text wrapping causes text wraps on other frames" has been fixed in 1.8.0 [Publisher beta is currently available if you care to check]. 

[lacerto]

I stumbled on this accidentally after having reported this initially over 2 years ago, and I am not sure if this was fixed at some time, but it is not in the current release version (1.10.4) but behaves simiarly as before.

IDML file in InDesign:

An object can wrap text around adjacent objects if it has one of the wrap features turned on: 

a) unless the object has "ignore text wrao" setting on.

b) unless if is an object that also has text wraooing feature turned on and it is higher in z-order.

Below, all except the blue object have text wrapping properties turned on. The green and pink squares wrap text within the yellow on because they are hight in z-order:

1a) InDesign, the yellow object with "Ignore Text Wrap" off (left) and on (right):

  

b) Affinity Publisher, the yellow object with "Ignore Text Wraps" off (left) and on (right):

This may of course be "by design", and the UI term is a bit different (plural) but the point is that in Affinity Publisher, if an object has text wraps turned off, it means that it will ignore text wraps of its adjacent wrapping objects but will also start wrapping text within these objects even if they are higher in Z-order. In InDesign the properly simply just determines whether adjacent wrapping objects can have any effect on the object that has this property turned on or off.

If the IDML import is supposed to do what InDesign does, this is a definite bug.

wrappingobjects.idml 

EDIT: I am not sure how this should be labelled to get it noticed, as this is now in former beta archive and obviously marked as a solved case.

 

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Lagarto said:

EDIT: I am not sure how this should be labelled to get it noticed, as this is now in former beta archive ans obviously marked as a solved case.

Create a new topic, in the Publisher Bugs found on <your OS> forum if you think it's a bug, or in Feedback for Publisher on Desktop if you think it's just a request for an enhancement.

Point to this thread if you want to give additional context.

(But as one Serif staff member is following this topic, that may not be needed. It's safer, though, in my opinion.)