Hello! I’m having some problems with aligning text in page layouts. First, it seems strange that the horizontal and vertical alignment options are in two separate places. The horizontal is in the pallet where you edit text and the vertical is in the properties panel. Shouldn’t they be in the same place?
When I select the page number text frame to change the horizontal alignment, it also changes it for the title text frame and the page number text frame on the opposing page. Is there any way to have opposite horizontal alignments for opposing pages? To not change the title text frame, I have to move the page number text frame to another place, and then move it back. Is there any way to edit only one text frame at a time without selecting the others?
You can select one text frame within another one but it has always been a little bit tricky. Make sure you select a handle of the text frame you want to edit (shift-alt-click can help, it cycles through the selectable items at a given place). Press tab to select the frame and not the handle, press enter to edit the text inside the text frame.
For page numbers, make sure you use the appropriate paragraph styles, since there is “outer page” justification in the paragraph styles (and not in the little text editor).
Hope it helps!
To add to what @MarcLarcher said and to answer this question:
In the Paragraph Styles, you have the option to align text to the outside or inside edges. By default, the paragraph style for page numbers is set to outside edge.
For the pages numbers, I’d say it’s easier to create a frame that spans the full width of the page—this way, when you copy L>R or R>L in the Page Template editor, the page numbers stay in the right place. I’m not sure why Dorico’s default page templates place the page numbers inside small boxes in the edges; it can bring justification issues when you copy L>R or R>L.
@MarcLarcher@charles_piano Thank you for the information. I now see how to select the right text frame. I did have outside edge selected in paragraph styles, but it was set as regular text and not page number. Now, it’s all fixed.
Like Charles, I stretch my page frame all the way across the page.
I also indent the title frame 10mm from left and right to let me select the page frame easily when I need it. Any title that would stretch from margin to margin and need all that space is a problem that needs a solution of its own.
I might be wrong, but I think it’s a kind of testament of how they were built in the first iteration of the software. I don’t think there were outside edge and inside edge justifications by that time, and it was certainly kind of complicated to deal with those master pages, at a time when no manual was available. A rare case of historic debt in Dorico?
In any case, I agree building up page number frames that span through the whole width of the page is a good move, one that has been described by Daniel Spreadbury himself in those early days.
