Bug when copying text containing apostrophe+hyphen

[Roberto1972]

In the process of redoing a manual from PagePlus to Affinity Publisher it involves a lot of copy-paste of texts.

I noticed a consistent fluke: everytime I paste text containing an apostrophe it forces a new line where a second apostrophe should be.

The worst part is that the new line seems totally isolated from the line above: backspace or delete doesn't work for joining the lines again.

Example text to copy: ----... 9 -    High Voltage mode indicator: when the ‘o’ indicator on the right-hand side is visible ...---

Text pasted in Affinity Publisher: ----... 9 -    High Voltage mode indicator: when the ‘o

indicator on the right-hand side is visible ...---

Again, neither placing the cursor at the end of the first line and enter 'delete' nor placing the cursor at the start of the second line and enter 'backspace' fixes joining the lines: instead both lines remain separated from each other. My current workaround is deleting the first line after having retyped the text in the second line.

UPDATE: when enabling 'show special characters' I noticed a blue 'paragraph'-symbol at the end of the first pasted line. It is the exact same symbol for 'shift-entered' lines (instead of 'entered' lines). Somehow I cannot delete that control character. They remain there wherever I applied my workaround (delete first line after having retyped contents in second line).

[Wosven]

Can't you copy-paste it in the search & replace panel doing a wider selection "o...in" and deleting the "o" and "in" in the search input to only keep this control character and replace it?

[Roberto1972]

Hi Wosven,

I read your remark over and over again but unfortunately I cannot figure out what you meant. The last part was also confusing: ...only to keep this control character... As the introduced/resulting 'paragraph' control character is holding me from normal text behavior (no backspace, no delete character) it is a control character I rather would kill than keep :-P
PS: This is a superb unrivaled feature in WordPerfect! One has 100% control of control characters with a (Reveal Codes) panel showing raw code next to the visually intended WYSIWYG layout: in both one can type and edit while in the 'raw code panel' one can see every individual special character and edit, move or delete them individually. HUGE help with imported/pasting texts messing up layout and addressing the exact cause in order to achieve cleanest 'code' possible (just like software converting to/exporting html code producing code not nearly as clean as one would write from scratch).

Search and replace is a good point to start with, though ... it is common practice in preparing 'data' from one format to the other (like data logger output file via, via eventually being used/imported in graph software).

Indeed it would work just as well in copy/paste text files/frames just to get rid of issue-causing characters.

However, I discovered the issue only after having copied the whole text contents of linked text frames and pasted them into Affinity Publisher linked text frames... while I was cleaning up the slightly messed up text layout (e.g. ignored tabs). That's when I found the apostrophed words causing sentences to be spliced in two and both sentence parts not behaving like normal text.

 

[Wosven]

What I means is, that sometimes, when I can't copy some invisible (and I don't talk about hidden characters, but some that aren't visible as with a bad UTF8 conversion, when there are 3 characters in "Åæ " (random characters for example), I usually copy more text in the search input:  "characters_beforeÅæ characters_after" and I delete from the field: "characters_before" and "characters-after".

It's possible only if something is pasted in the field, if not, there's nothing to erase, of course. And APub replacing some characters by buttons instead of keeping good old "\t" or readable characters doesn't help.

I didn't know about WordPerfect and this feature, it sounds interesting! Cleaning poorly set documents (before or after importing in layout application), can be difficult. I'm always wondering how people end up with such files…

 

[walt.farrell]

Can you provide a .afpub file with that text pasted into it, and demonstrating the problem, @Roberto1972? That might help others of us see what is happening.

[Roberto1972]

Hi Walt,

Since I have an English as well as a Dutch manual to 'convert' (read: redo) from PagePlus to Affinity Publisher for your sake I started to repeat the process for the English version before I finished the Dutch version.

Unexpectedly this time I didn't run into the split line issue when pasting the text in the text frames in Publisher!
However, it turned out a minor detail making the difference: 'o' indicator works while 'o'-indicator does split the sentences.

Attached an afpub file in which I only pasted the copied text from PagePlus without any post editing other than adding two red exclamation marks where sentences got split in two.

Also attached the original PagePlus document

TEST-Know_your_DruidLCD1.afpub

Know_your_DruidLCD1.ppp

[Roberto1972]

Hi Wosven,

Oh right, it is perfectly clear now. Yes, that's a good idea but in my case I copied the whole at once so I should have captured it all :-P

As for the Reveal Codes functionality in WordPerfect attached a screendump of how it looks. I LOVE that tool; kind of a pitty I don't use a text editor that much anymore as I used to.
Actually, after having switched software various times (back and fourth, including trying new tastes due to changing update costs, or brand boycot principles) I'm still confused of what to use for future works with limited graphics: text editor or dtp editor. Bottleneck is compatibility while my goal is saving for future use. Even considering the epub format (eBooks) which is a very interesting concept: an epub file is just a zip file (you can change extension and unzip) containing folders: one for the actual text, one for the actual images, one for layout, etc. This way whatever happens you always can extract the original text and images while being independent of branded software and versions having installed on the pc.

...too many docs by now having been created with obsolete software that even refuse to install on Win10. If having too much time still plan to convert it all to pdf on an XP computer ... XP swallows and runs everything :-)

[walt.farrell]

55 minutes ago, Roberto1972 said:

Attached an afpub file in which I only pasted the copied text from PagePlus without any post editing other than adding two red exclamation marks where sentences got split in two.

Thanks. What's happening, for some reason, is that the copied or pasted text has a section symbol inserted in it, which in Publisher represents a "story break", or the end of a linked set of Text Frames:

[walt.farrell]

Also, unless a moderator happens by and comments here, I think you should repost over in the Publisher Bugs on Windows forum, including your .afpub and .ppp files, or a pointer to this topic.

[Roberto1972]

Yes, but still: any kind of 'break' normally should be deletable, right? Just like with backspacing or deleting text characters.

In this case the break is rock fixed; the cursor can be moved around that point while deletes are ignored.

Hmm, Iactually I assumed I was at the best place for bug reports; will look again which forum is dedicated to bugs.

Thanks for looking in to it.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Roberto1972 said:

Yes, but still: any kind of 'break' normally should be deletable, right?

Not that one. You can't insert one, or delete it. It is supposed to exist only as the last thing in a set of linked text frames, and represents the absolute end of that story. If you add more text to the story, it goes before that break, and as needed the break (and added text) flows into a new text frame.

This forum (Feedback), by the way, is primarily for new feature requests. There's a separate forum for questions and discussions, and another one for bug reports.

[Roberto1972]

...somehow it got to the bug forum (Affinity Publisher Windows) as well; perhaps someone copied it to there?

Or the word 'bug' in the title does it automatically?

[Wosven]

2 hours ago, Roberto1972 said:

…text editor or dtp editor…

Same as you. For work, I use at work ID, and AD (producing PDF I'll import in ID, or using JPG+path if I need to import a curve) and AP. For files other users will need, I'll use Adobe' app, since I'm the only one testing Affinity products. A PDF version to access the content fast if needed.

For personnal use, or everyday notes, texts, etc. I'd rather use good old plain TXT or HTML files produced in my favorite text editor. I can open then on any device and easily when I need, without installing anything.

At work, we use ID, export as PDF, and archive all with IDML.

In the worst case scenario, I would use some HD PDF to get back images and text if I wasn't able to open the original file and original images (but we use TIFF format, PSD can be opened in other apps… problem would be with .AI files if there's no PDF embedded). When we switched from QXP to ID, we needed a script to convert them, and we kept a Mac with QXD for emergency cases, but today, I only convert 1 QXD file by year, or less…). If one day we switch to full Affinity, it'll be the same: keep at least 1 Adobe licence, everyone else on Affinity apps.

For the ones that can't keep a licence, it'll be more difficult, and need planning ahead: exporting IDML (for when APub will be able to import them) or exporting text content to DOC or other formats, exporting PDF of the contents and PDF of the master pages, and why not PDF with examples of each text styles used in a document (one document doesn't always use all at the same time). Using scripts to do part of this is possible in ID.

------------------------------

About the current problem: that's strange, I don't create section in the text, but selecting pages in the panel, it should be selectable and deletable if not palatable

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Roberto1972 said:

...somehow it got to the bug forum (Affinity Publisher Windows) as well; perhaps someone copied it to there?

Or the word 'bug' in the title does it automatically?

Most likely one of the moderators noticed the discussion and moved it.

[Jon P]

Hey @Roberto1972,

Are you doing anything special when copy and pasting the text over?

I can see the issue in your afpub file, but when I load your PagePlus file and copy and paste the text over into a new document I don't see the same issue.

I can log it as it is but am intrigued why we seem to get different behavior

[Roberto1972]

Hi Jon P,

No, nothing out of the ordinary:  putting the cursor in the text frame, ctrl A and ctrl C.

When I wanted to copy an English text it didn't happen but then I noticed I used 'o' indicator in the English text while in the Dutch text I used 'o'-indicator.

When I changed 'o' to 'o'- (with hyphen) it also happened with copying and pasting the English text. When removing the hyphens in the Dutch text copy and pasting went fine.

Anyway, I noticed it even happens in Publisher itself: when typing text, copy it and paste it in a new text frame; see attached.

Perhaps it has to do with the OS language (Win10 Home Dutch) or keyboard layout (US). For typing the apostrophe I used the [' "] key thus basically a dead key; in order to get the apostrophe I type a space after having hit the [' "] key.

APub_CopyPaste-issue.afpub