shape moves to previous page on print

Everything related to our flagship word processor.
Post Reply
withoutFeathers
Posts: 140
Joined: 2013-03-19 16:22:50

shape moves to previous page on print

Post by withoutFeathers »

Hi,
The following bug is happening in 2.0.5, in a long document (200,000 words):

1. I have a shape (simple rectangle) overtop of some words. Let's call the page with the Box "B".
2. I choose Print for two pages, the previous page and that page (Let's say A & B, with the box on page B).
3. The box prints on the wrong page, A, at the correct location on the page . I.e., it prints on page A, instead of B, although at the right place on the page.
4. When I return to Nisus, the box has in fact jumped to page A (still linked to its paragraph on page B).

The box has "moves with paragraph" selected.

I've discovered that the same thing is happening with another complex shape a hundred pages away.

In Summary: apparently the page numbering of the shapes relative to the page numbering of the text gets out of whack by one page when I try to print, and stays that way.

I believe I've printed these pages before, and this wasn't happening; that was probably months ago though.

I've quit and re-opened the program, still does it.

Any ideas?

I'll also try restarting the Mac while waiting for your answer. If that helps I'll post here.

LATER:
--Reboot doesn't help, still happens.
--cutting out the shape and repasting didn't help.
--changing shape to 'Position on page' didn't help.
--BUT, then cutting shape from 'Position on page' form and re-pasting, it seems to be fixed and prints.
--BUT only that one; the earlier shape, a hundred pages or so away, still prints off by a page, even when I try that protocol of changing and repasting. So it's not fixed.

Note also that when I change to 'Position on page', before cutting it out, it changes to being off by TWO pages -- in the first shape it was two pages later, in the second shape it was two pages early.

I don't have time to pursue this immediately, but later may try cutting document down to just a handful of pages and see if it still happens.

Very annoying at this stage.

Any help appreciated.

wF
User avatar
martin
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 5227
Joined: 2002-07-11 17:14:10
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by martin »

I'm sorry for the trouble. Would you be able to share the whole document with us for testing privately? We can promise to delete the document in a timely manner once we've reproduced the issue. If so, please email it to:
Image
withoutFeathers
Posts: 140
Joined: 2013-03-19 16:22:50

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by withoutFeathers »

martin wrote:I'm sorry for the trouble. Would you be able to share the whole document with us for testing privately? We can promise to delete the document in a timely manner once we've reproduced the issue. If so, please email it to:
Image
Thanks Martin.

At this point I'd prefer not sending the whole document.
I'll try cutting it down, possibly using dummy text. If it still happens I'll send that.

wF
User avatar
martin
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 5227
Joined: 2002-07-11 17:14:10
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by martin »

Understood– and a cut down document is just as good for us, if it still reproduces the problem.

Another alternative: run the redaction macro and see if the problem still occurs in the garbled document.
withoutFeathers
Posts: 140
Joined: 2013-03-19 16:22:50

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by withoutFeathers »

martin wrote:Understood– and a cut down document is just as good for us, if it still reproduces the problem.

Another alternative: run the redaction macro and see if the problem still occurs in the garbled document.
Interesting idea, the redaction. But:
Result:
a) File is three pages shorter, for some reason (shape used to be on p. 276, now it's on p. 273).
b) Bug is gone.

So, that won't help I guess.

BTW, what is the function of the redaction macro? What's it doing under there? Did it lose those three pages because the text is somehow a different size, or some other way?

I'm having variable success with cut-downs (some fix, some don't). I have clue that I'm following, will report later.

wF
User avatar
martin
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 5227
Joined: 2002-07-11 17:14:10
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by martin »

A pity the redacted version doesn't reproduce the problem. Thanks for giving it a try anyways.
withoutFeathers wrote:BTW, what is the function of the redaction macro? What's it doing under there? Did it lose those three pages because the text is somehow a different size, or some other way?
The redaction macro just runs a series of Find & Replace operations. For example, it replaces every single digit 0 through 9 with the digit 9 (the number 367 becomes 999). It does the same with letters in various alphabets. This garbles the text in an irreversible process.

The problem, as you observed, is that the replacements can lead to results which typeset differently. The macro does its best to choose replacement characters of similar width (eg: it replaces all wide M's and W's with M's), but it can't be too specific about this, otherwise there would be a way to reverse the transformation. So that's likely where your missing 3 pages went.
withoutFeathers
Posts: 140
Joined: 2013-03-19 16:22:50

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by withoutFeathers »

Update:
Alas, my clue didn't pan out, and cutting down is proving impossible; bug disappears if I cut down by more than a few pages either before or after the shape in question.

For example, speaking roughly from memory of the tests I did yesterday, I can get the problem to fix by:
--Cutting first ten pages or so (or any greater amount).
--Cutting any large amount *after* the problem graphic.

However, cutting the first 5 pages, or a single page, or single other graphic, doesn't fix it; so it's not just a simple sequence of the pages or object numbers; somehow it's related to the bulk of my 600-page document being intact both before and after the place of the bug.

This is beyond my knowledge so I have no way of knowing how to proceed except by shipping the whole thing to you. I'm on a schedule with the early sections so I'm going to finish those first, and if nothing has changed I'll send it to you later.

Thanks for your help.

I'd like to note also that I've had other problems with shapes jumping around (there was a similar one with saving to PDF, although PDF isn't different with this bug; and another with shapes getting stuck across page borders), and I'd like to suggest that you look at the deep level of how you harmonize the shapes placements on the page, relative to the text. I think something is too fragile there, and might need a new code design. Just my 2 cents. :P

wF
User avatar
martin
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 5227
Joined: 2002-07-11 17:14:10
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by martin »

Thank you for your efforts, and sorry for your sunk time. We do have some bugs already filed against floating content becoming mispositioned in certain circumstances, so we'll definitely take a look at that aspect of the code. All the same, if you do hit upon a way to reproduce the problem, we'd love to have an example document, so we can be sure it's particular situation is addressed.
User avatar
CrisB
Posts: 122
Joined: 2006-09-25 10:30:11
Location: Gibraltar, Europe
Contact:

Re: shape moves to previous page on print

Post by CrisB »

I've documented numerous issues with shapes in NWP over the years, including with latest 2.0.6. Unfortunately, this is one area where the usual outstanding Nisus quality is noticeably lacking.

Let's hope the next version addresses many of these shape problems - and that it comes out sooner rather than later...
Find strategies to improve your effectiveness at http://www.lifestrategies.net
Post Reply