Shifting Pages

[Old Bruce]

37 minutes ago, WJC said:

I did as Bruce told me. I am so new to the program, I am just grasping at straws. I hate to bother the people at Serif directly, especially since it took a month to learn that the current version of AP does not have an auto-repagination feature and there would not be one for months.

I went to the tutorial section and typed in "deleting pages," which I thought was a valid query. But I only got the "Sorry" reply. Boy, I sure wish I could import my book into InDesign. There is no doubt this program has a great future. But the here and now is causing me massive headaches with answers to simple questions hiding under rocks.

Aside: My goodness, I had to refresh my memory about this and went to the first page, you have had a problem since September 21st.

I suggest that if you can, open the file  and do a Save As...  with a simple name "Problem.afpub" then try to zip that up and post that file so we can all try our best to help you with it. Many times problems will disappear with a Save As....

Another Aside: I am starting to take your problems with this file somewhat personally (I know it is irrational), how dare something like software not do what I suggest. [there is probably an emoji for how I feel about this file but I don't use them so I don't know what it would look like and whether or not it would be understood in this context]

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, WJC said:

Anyway, it's HOPEFULLY attached.

You can get a free DropBox, OneDrive, or Google Drive account if you don't have one already. If you can't get the file uploaded directly to the forum you could upload to one of those (or any other file-sharing service, if you don't like those), share the file, and give us a link.

 

[thomaso]

18 hours ago, WJC said:

I am just grasping at straws. I hate to bother the people at Serif directly, especially since it took a month to learn

The straws might become more or wider if you would communicate relevant info only, means those which are related to the technical aspects of the issue. Especially for non-Serif forum members complaints about lack or waste of time or the individual importance of a project does make the communication about the issue more complex by making it harder to filter issue related facts within the increasing amount of posts.

Did you meanwhile try the current beta v499 to fix or avoid your issue?
And, if yes, can you experience any improvement related to master page assignment, as for instance I can?

 

[WJC]

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS CLOSED-CIRCUIT FOR THOMASO.

 

Hi, Thomaso:

I’m sorry if my communication offends you; I certainly didn’t intend to do so. But was I NOT being succinct when I first mentioned “shifting pages,” and did it not take a month for someone at Serif to admit that there is no way in the current version to logically correct the problem? That may not be “wasting time” for you. However, it is for me. You may also note, I have not been the only one vexed with this problem.

Please look at the first jumbled page attached. I have sent the file to Serif as requested—TWICE. Still, to this day, I have not been told the cause of the problem or what can be done to correct it. Yes, there have been many words, but few answers. Having to do a hard shutdown on the computer and bring it back up—7 or 8 times a day—is, to me, a waste of time. Having sent the file to Serif twice, I would have suspected a solution; alas, no.

Then, we not only have pages shifting, but items shifting ON THE PAGE (graphic 2) with no logical reason why. They shifted on THIS page and others. Text and graphics switched sides on the left page and graphics switched sides on the right page.

The final attachment (graphic 3), shows a duplicate image that I was not able to DELETE or CUT in more than half an hour of trying. To me, this was, again, a waste of time. Would it not be for you? When I sat down at the computer the following day, the errant image had just disappeared.

Finally, when learning of beta v499, I was also told that it was not a working program, the file could not be imported into the current professional version, could not be used for publication, and Serif’s Patrick Connor said it could be MONTHS before that upgrade is ready.

And I remember being told that InDesign will not import AP files.

Please, Thomaso, don’t I have a right to be a little verbose? Perhaps if I were getting more straight answers, I would not need to be.

I freely admit, that I have seen some wonderful things in the program; I have said this from the start. Yet, the shortcomings in programming I’m dealing with has been pegging out the needle on my frustration meter.

[Patrick Connor]

8 minutes ago, WJC said:

Finally, when learning of beta v499, I was also told that it was not a working program, the file could not be imported into the current professional version, could not be used for publication, and Serif’s Patrick Connor said it could be MONTHS before that upgrade is ready.

We are not asking you to use it in production, we are asking you to try it on your computer using a copy of your file. It's a starting point for identifying if the problem has already been solved.

[Oval]

2 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

we are asking you to try it

Has Serif already tried to open the file without results since the last few days? Well, WJC is not a systematic tester but a purchaser.

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, WJC said:

I’m sorry if my communication offends you;
(...) don’t I have a right to be a little verbose?

You did not offend me at all. – It's just that I have difficulties to follow as it demands filtering to detect relevant info. Yes, you may be verbose (not sure about a "right") but especially in case of a complex issue it is much easier for others to follow the content when it's reduced to issue related info. Your communication outside the forum might be understandably annoying for you – it is no real info for forums members to follow or try to solve the issue.

3 hours ago, WJC said:

when learning of beta v499, I was also told that it was not a working program, the file could not be imported into the current professional version, could not be used for publication,

I think it is slightly a misunderstanding that the beta could not be used for publication. You are a customer of Serif, they will be happy if they can solve issues with a beta. That means if your issue will be solved or improved with the beta there is no need to go back with the document to your current retail version. You may use the beta to open any of your existing documents or create new – until the beta app will become a retail version. Possibly after v499 there will come other betas until the next retail release. You are allowed to use them all. Once you get your book printed none will ask whether it was done with a beta.

Also you could use the beta to test a slim situation in your interest to discover whether it can avoid the issue. You could test with a new file, simple and less complex than the existing entire afpub. If you run into the issue with such a new, slim afpub then it also might be easier to provide it to the forum as an upload and thereby get more feedback of other users about the issue.

[WJC]

Hi, Connor:

First, to Oval. Yes, I am a purchaser. However, I signed up as a beta tester the day that option became available. Thus, I can’t understand why pointing out these anomalies seems to be taken in a negative light. Isn’t that what beta testers are supposed to do?

Connor: There can be no doubt that I am as frustrated as a fellow can be. But while at least one has taken me to be verbose, it seems when I am succinct two bad things happen. 1) I am short on explaining THOROUGHLY what I mean, and 2) I am taken to be terse when it is certainly not warranted.

— I guess the primary question for me is: Am I the only person using AP on the planet having these problems? I have a late model iMac with a terabyte of memory. As I see it, that is a critical piece of the puzzle.

— Also, why have I sent the ENTIRE file containing the mangled first file above to Serif (TWICE) without being told what the problem is or how to solve it. I assure you that’s not being snotty. But I have invested a lot of time and think I deserve an answer, just as with the other two graphics problems.

AP is new enough that I wouldn’t expect even the senior engineers to have all the answers. However, when “I don’t know” is the honest answer, I expect to hear or see it. I am not the enemy here and know we’ll reach workable answers faster if all our cards are on the table. Yes, I’m frustrated. But I’d rather be part of the solution than part of the problem. Honest communication can make it so.

— Finally—and this is tied to my first point—if putting my book/file into beta v499 will help, I am eager to do so. Just tell me what to do—simply, computer program style—how I am to accomplish this, without SUPPOSING I know anything.

I’ve been up for hours and this stroke victim needs to head for the sheets for a while.

PS Thomaso: I understand your thinking. Please try to understand mine. A great career in optics and a good salary are behind me and I could use the money my new book will generate.

 

 

[Wosven]

@WJC ,

Hi, to switch you file to theBêta version and check if the problem persist or is solvable, you just need to make a copy of your file (to avoid overwritting it), and open this copy in the Bêta version.

Once open in the Bêta version, can you delete or move easily the images, etc.?

 

[R C-R]

34 minutes ago, WJC said:

I have a late model iMac with a terabyte of memory.

Just for future reference & to avoid any confusion, "memory" refers to the memory modules (also called RAM) installed in your computer. Since no iMac supports more than 256 gigabytes of memory & most are limited to 64 GB or less, I believe what you mean is your iMac is equipped with a hard drive or solid state drive with a storage capacity of 1 TB.

This would not be a factor unless the drive is getting full. You can check that with Disk Utility.

[Oval]

On 12. November 2019 at 10:51 PM, WJC said:

Thus, I can’t understand why pointing out these anomalies seems to be taken in a negative light. Isn’t that what beta testers are supposed to do?

The post was an information for Serif, not for you. You complained about APu but you have not tested the file with the new beta, so you were not a tester in this situation because you wanted a solution from Serif. Serif seems to have no time to check the file because there is still no statement, just an information that the purchaser should try. In the future, we will stay out of the problems of others better. Sorry.

[Pauls]

@WJC - could you upload the file here please. (The 2 versions you have provided have not survived the forum upload process, sorry)

Could you also confirm in Affinity Preferences, Performance what do you have set for the Display option ?

[WJC]

The following does not roost with the problem. It for general communication only.

Oval:

Please don’t stay out of the problem. Almost everything I am learning is coming a piece at a time from users.

The attached is all I have left to show I signed up as a beta tester. I’m confident Serif would have dates to show I signed on as early as possible. This town has a grand total of ONE Mac geek. The last time he “helped” me with a problem, he deleted 3,100 documents and images! Some help, huh? My next iMac problem will cost me a 200-mile round trip.

Within what he deleted was, I’m certain, the icon for the beta was among the disposed of images. I had just switched from PC (where I had been using Serif’s PagePlus 7) to iMAC and learned the PP 9 was a “legacy” program that wouldn’t work on the Apple format, anyway.

After Installing AP 1.7.3, the beta only worked sporadically and finally wouldn’t start at all. I just figured the programs were conflicting. Whether programmed that way or something I did, I don’t know. I thought testing on 1.7.3. was adequate. But, then as now, I couldn’t give a lot of time to it. Even at this moment, I have material owed to Sky & Telescope, Southern Boating, Times of the Islands, and my new book. Thus, I have little time for pleasure.

R C-R:

I put too much stock in what my iMac helper said on his first visit. I have 8 Gb of RAM and a terabyte of storage.

Pauls:

I must spend some time away. But when I return, I will try to do what you say and provide the info requested.

[WJC]

191113

Hi, ALL:

I have done as requested ... at least mostly; the rest will come, tomorrow. I downloaded beta 1.8.0.502 and put an experimental copy of my book into it. As a beta, I must first say there should be a way for the end-user to know his program is being downloaded. Most other programs offer that simple feature. When I finally went to look in my downloads, I found 4 copies being downloaded. When I got rid of the last 3, I found that the program stopped downloading at odd times. It seems trying to work on anything else during the download process, the download timed out. For most other programs I’m familiar with, this wouldn’t have been a concern.

Next, I was told that auto-repagination would have probably been corrected by 1.8.0.502. It was not. Apparently, I am going to have an unnecessary blank page here and there to get pages situated where they need to be because this critical part of page layout has so far been omitted.

I did learn why the program refused to remove those FOUR duplicated pages. When I selected the pages from the “pages” sidebar and saw they were highlighted, I pressed the “delete 2 pages” option. I did this several times, thinking something would eventually happen. It did. Each time I chose that option, TWO PAGES WERE DELETED ... FROM THE END OF THE BOOK which was totally unintuitive, given the text and graphics at hand.

Which brings me to: Where do I find a way to delete pages within the document? I would have thought “deleting pages” would have been a topic in the “HELP” section. Alas, no. Deleting or cutting the text box just makes the text go to the next page and deleting the highlighted page just removes a page from the end of the document. In so many ways, I am impressed with the program and I hate to think I may have to recreate the whole book again in InDesign. However, if it’s going to be the “InDesign killer” some IMPORTANT things are going to have to be more intuitive.

I’ll be back at it tomorrow, doing as Pauls suggested. In the meantime, I hope someone will please tell me how to delete, cut, burn, or bomb those unwanted pages in such a way they can’t show up somewhere else.  

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, WJC said:

As a beta, I must first say there should be a way for the end-user to know his program is being downloaded. Most other programs offer that simple feature.

Beta or not, the downloading indicator is provided by the app you use to download a file and/or the OS you are using. Serif has no control over that.

 

3 hours ago, WJC said:

Where do I find a way to delete pages within the document? I would have thought “deleting pages” would have been a topic in the “HELP” section.

The help topic Add, arrange and remove pages explains how to do this:

How to select pages is explained in the Select and view pages help topic:

Note in particular what it says about the indication of selected pages.

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, WJC said:

deleting the highlighted page just removes a page from the end of the document.

Possibly just a visual impression? If you delete a page in the middle of a document which has linked text frames over the entire .afup then the text will not be reduced (removed, deleted) but moved on all pages after your deleted page, in the same way that page numbers don't get deleted but re-numbered through your .afpub. So, e.g. if you delete page 5 there still will be a page number 5 in the document.

You can proof whether a specific page gets deleted if you place an obvious object on the page before deleting the page, for instance a red rectangle shape object. If this object does not appear after page delete then this page was deleted – even though there is no "gap" in the pages panel at that position but at the documents end only.

8 hours ago, WJC said:

I would have thought “deleting pages” would have been a topic in the “HELP” section.

The help search is not as fuzzy as google. It finds rather exact terms (more like the reference in a printed book). So for the help eg. the the continous form "deleting" is different to "delete". Here's your wanted "delete" result:

[R C-R]

15 minutes ago, thomaso said:

The help search is not as fuzzy as google.

The online version of the help (like https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html for the US language version) works well for this ... probably because it is powered by Google. 

Same results with "delete."

[Oval]

On 9. November 2019 at 1:53 AM, WJC said:

I've already sent the whole book to Serif employees, twice.

So this was not true because Pauls asked “again” for the file?! 

[Patrick Connor]

5 minutes ago, Oval said:

So this was not true because Pauls asked “again” for the file?! 

It was "true" but the forum software truncated this very large file attached to his posts and he would not have known that.

[Oval]

14 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

the forum software truncated this very large file

SO “sent the whole book to Serif employees” via forum software was possible?

[WJC]

Oval,

Please before calling me a liar, you might want to check with Serif's "Callum." he is the one who requested the file and was sent it, TWICE., as Patrick—after this reply was started—verified. I am many things, but a liar isn't one of them. If I were willing to bend the truth, I would not be hurting for money.

Pauls,

I have related several issues. Please, before I ATTEMPT to send the file again, tell me what you/I hope to gain from it.

R C-R,

I knew about the blue border and the pages I THOUGHT I was selecting were grayed out as well, indicating to me that I was about to delete THOSE pages not those 70 pages later—at the end of the book.

Thomaso,

It seems "delete" would have been more helpful than "delete pages."

Patrick,

I keep seeing how my book was "truncated" and did not make it to Serif. At the bottom of this page, it says I can attach files up to "1985.64MB" in size. My file was 89.1 mg in one mode and reduced to 39 mg when zipped. Even at its largest, it is still a fraction of what I am told will be accommodated. What's happening?

Finally, I can't be the only person working with books. Are all my concerns assinine because everyone else on the planet has it it all figured out or are using AP to make 2-page fliers?

 

 

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

41 minutes ago, Oval said:

SO “sent the whole book to Serif employees” via forum software was possible?

Ah I see I have confused things here (Sorry WJC). The quote about sending the whole book twice already was from before the forum attachments attachments in this post and this post. I thought he was referring to the two times in this thread, but they were after the quote I missed that fact, my mistake

WJC has dealt with Callum for some time over this before, as he says above. I do not think it is helpful to question his posts like this.

[Patrick Connor]

9 minutes ago, WJC said:

Patrick,

I keep seeing how my book was "truncated" and did not make it to Serif. At the bottom of this page, it says I can attach files up to "1985.64MB" in size. My file was 89.1 mg in one mode and reduced to 39 mg when zipped. Even at its largest, it is still a fraction of what I am told will be accommodated. What's happening?

I was informed that the files attached to these forums were incomplete, so Paul asked you to re-provide them. The dropbox link version is under investigation. Perhaps the information I was given about your attachments was incorrect, in which case I apologise.

[WJC]

Patrick,

You need not be sorry. Beat, Beat, Beat ... Ah, I feel so much better now, and you? Also, on your investigating, stop apologizing or I'll beat you again. Yes, I am frustrated! I NEED to get my book out. But I haven't become uncivilized; we are all in this together. Apparently, some more than others.

I have been called a liar for saying I was one of the first to sign up as a beta tester. Although I'm sure Serif's records could back me up on that.

I have been called a liar for saying I had sent my file to Serif—TWICE—when you could easily, and did, verify my comment. I wonder what other accusation awaits me as I just try to get some valid answers.

Oh, where is that "Serif of Nottingham" when you need him? 'Lil Robert Hode humor ... sorry, I meant "humour."

 

[Oval]

1 hour ago, Patrick Connor said:

It was "true"

Of course it was. This is why we did not get an information after asking “Has Serif already tried to open the file without results since the last few days?” and saying “Serif seems to have no time to check the file because there is still no statement, just an information that the purchaser should try”. Hopefully Serif finally has found the problem/solution now.