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As I work in AffPub on a book with frame text boxes it becomes increasingly difficult to select a box in which the text frame options (color, border, etc.) are active. The boxes which have color fill and stroke assigned from Text Frame can no longer be selected by clicking or double clicking on them or their borders but only through selecting the layer. My layers and sublayers are all unlocked, and there are no conflicts with my master pages, i.e., no text frame box in my master page. After I close AffPub and bring it up again, the problem disappears, but only for a short time. However, if I hold down the CMD key while clicking on the box (as suggested to me in pre-1.7 days), it is selected. I'm wondering if having a fill in the text box might the reason for this, although the color should be below the text. No big thing (I can use the CMD approach) but it would be more convenient to simply click.

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The CMD fix above does not always work so I must select the frame text box from the layers panel. Once I have done that I can click outside the box to deselect and then clicking the same frame text box works well, over and over again. However, this does not effect the other frame text boxes (now including those without a fill or stroke) which do not respond to my clicking to select them. They too only open via the layer panel. I realize that this sounds as if the relevant layers or top layers are locked, but they are all unlocked. Normally I would think this to be a bug, but since no one else appears to report the problem I wonder what I might be doing wrong.

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I have an idea that this may have become a problem after I put my AffPub work into top layers but cannot be sure. I'm attaching a snap of my layer panel in case that helps to isolate the problem. The reason I suspect this is that when I use CMD 'a' (select all on the Mac), the only items selected are in the top layer in which I last worked. If I click on a top layer then I can click on any individual item in that top layer and it is selected. However, items under the other top layers cannot be selected until I select that top layer. Perhaps it is supposed to work this way, i.e., one can only directly select an item under a top layer until that top layer has been selected. This, however, is rather inconvenient. 

346305418_ScreenShot2019-08-18at5_50_48PM.thumb.png.bfbf81ea61412ef35c8a4088bb381790.png

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I just found somethings that I believe confirms the above. 

1. After I click a top layer with only one item in it (as "Event Head" on one of my double page spreads) OR after quitting AffPub and bringing it up again without selecting anything, it is possible to select any item by clicking it on screen. Once I have done this, all of the items under that top layer can be selected on screen ... but I can no longer select any item under any other top layer until I select that top layer in the Layers panel. Once a new top layer is selected, all of the items below that layer can be individually selected by clicking them on screen. Obviously, the problem I am having is related to this. This also explains why when AffPub is brought up afresh I was able to select any item on screen.

2. I have also copied all of the items on a spread (with top layers and items such as above) and pasted them into a completely new double page spread. All of the items appeared on screen and in the Layers panel, but none of the top layers. I was able to select any item on the spread by clicking it on screen. This confirms that having top layers restricts on screen selection to 1) directly via the item in the Layers, or 2) selecting the relevant top layer in the Layers panel and thereby making it possible to on screen select all of the items under that top layer.

Again, I would like to know if this is the way AffPub is supposed to work. If not, I suggest that you add this to the AffPub bug list. Thanks!

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Thanks for your offer, Callum. I have attached a small part of the somewhat larger doc on which I'm working. The only way it differs from my doc is that I replaced texts with "Lorem...." If you follow what I have explained just above, no doubt you will get the same results as I have. The clincher for me is that when I copied the contents of the pages 2/3 spread and pasted them into the pages 4/5 spread I lost all the top layers and only the text boxes remain in the Layers panel. You can see that on pages 4/5 one can select any text box by clicking it on the screen. Note that EVENT HEAD layer only has one item in it, and that layer interestingly copied into pages 4/5. On pages 2/3 one must select the text box via the Layers panel. Only when selecting a top layer in the Layers panel do the text boxes under that layer become available to select on screen.

BTW, realize that what I call a top layer is actually just a layer with items within it, but I used the term top layer here to make things clearer. I have written elsewhere that Affinity's decision to allow what I call items to appear in the Layers panel without being in a layer is very helpful. I hope it remains that way. I mention this because Introducing an actual layer into the Layer panel appears to cause the problem on pages 2/3. Sorry to be so verbose but Affinity wants a full description of any problem or bug.

Trial for Affinity-190819.afpub

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I thought it might be because my top layers had items from both sides of my two-page spread so I made separate top layers for the left page and for the right page and moved the items appropriately. The problem, however, persisted it appears that this is not the solution.

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