Automatic Flowing not working

[F***@adobeforums.com]

InDesign 3.0
MSFT Word 2000
Windows XP

I am trying to Automatically flow a Word document into frames in InDesign, with InDesign creating new pages until the whole file is accomodated.

Following the instructions in the help file for automatically flowing text into a master, I get exactly ONE paragraph in ONE frame. None of the rest of the text appears in the first frame, and it does not automatically create new frames. However, when I look at the "Story Editor", I can see all the text and the style tags ... it's there, just not showing up. I have tried making all the text the same style, it still only shows one line.

What is the trick to getting this to show up in the frames and flow from frame to frame?

[K***@adobeforums.com]

You want autoflow. Your one frame should be showing a red + at the bottom
indicating there is overset text. Click on this and then click in the next
frame holding down shift as you do so.

k

[R***@adobeforums.com]

Fulana,

Are you sure you are holding Shift when clicking?

Ronald

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Yes (I see the icon change to what Adobe claims is the AutoFlow one ... and according to the help files, InDesign AUTOMATICALLY create new pages and frames to accomodate the incoming text.

"To flow an entire story automatically:
With the loaded text icon displayed, hold down Shift as you do one of the following:
* Click the loaded text icon in a column to create a frame the width of that column. InDesign creates new text frames and new document pages until all text is added to the document.
* Click inside a text frame that is based on a master text frame. The text autoflows into the document page frame and generates new pages as needed, using the master frame's attributes."

I have tried them both, and neither one works as promised. I get some of the text into the first frame, but no new frames and pages are created.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

You say you get some of the text is in the first frame. Does this mean that
the frame is not filled?

Maybe there is something that is too wide to fit the frame. Does that frame
have a red cross at the bottom signifying further overset text? If so can
you select that and put it into a wider text frame somewhere else?

k

[G***@adobeforums.com]

So it doesn't auto flow!

What is it doing? Does it indicate a red (+) in the lower right corner?

George

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Too wide to fit? That might be part of the problem. We might have some tables.

I have achieved partial success, creating the template with "Master text Frame" enabled. I can now place part of the file, and it adds pages, but it quits right after a bit of text that has an ordinary paragraph after it, paretway through the file.

Is there a size limit on placing files? I don't get errors during the conversion (it's MSWord) just don't get all the text.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

"Too wide to fit? That might be part of the problem. We might have some
tables."

As you're using CS, why not look at the copy in the text editor and see what
follows immediately after the last thing that will fit in the frame?

k

[D***@adobeforums.com]

No, but you could have a paragraph that is somehow being set to No Break and so it's one enormously wide line of text.

Use Ctrl-Y (I think) to get into the story editor and see if the rest of the text is there. If so, then examine the first "invisible" paragraph to see what its problem is.

Dave

[F***@adobeforums.com]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

ID chokes if a paragraph’s font overrides the paragraph’s style base font. It doesn’t seem able to change the fault to the correct one, or to apply the overriding font. It stops the placing operation at the first paragraph where the defined font and the actual font are different.

Making sure the styles all have the coirrect fonts (we're doing a lot of cutting and pasting into the MSWord file, and stuff got out of sync.

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Also, tables are never too wide to fit. They can be too tall (if a single row is taller than any of your text frames), but never too wide: they extrude left and/or right according to the paragraph style of the paragraph that holds the table.

Dave

[F***@adobeforums.com]

"why not look at the copy in the text editor and see what
follows immediately after the last thing that will fit in the frame?"

The text editor showed all the text, as if nothing were wrong, showing para styles and everything ... I had to go to the MSFT Word source files and see whether the "hexed" text could be moved around and exorcised, and why it was different than others of the same named style.

Tables are not too wide ... but they are overlapping all over the place because most were full-page width. That's a minor problem.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

"The text editor showed all the text, as if nothing were wrong"

It would do.

The point is to identify the next bit of text, the bit that won't fit in the
frame, and see if that offers any clues.


k

[D***@adobeforums.com]

You could also inspect the text in the story editor by clicking in that first paragaph that disappears in the layout and then using the control palette or the character and paragraph palettes to devine the problem.

Dave

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Tried it, with the original hexed file ... finding and fixing any font peculiarities in the Story Editor does not make any more text appear in the frames.

Apparently the import file has to be "clean" or the hex is permanent.

[D***@adobeforums.com]

No, you're just not finding whatever it is that is causing the text to jump to the next frame. Did you check for:

Keep Options/Start Paragraph at:

No Break Character setting

Both of these can have the effect of jumping text to the next frame. If it's jumping to overset, then it is almost certainly caused by No Break being activated.

Dave

[K***@adobeforums.com]

In story editor select a chunk of type that spans what is in the frame and
what isn't, cut it and paste it somewhere safe. If the following type then
flows into the frame you know that something in what you've taken out was
causing your problem.

If your excised material spans two paragraphs, then you may be looking for
something at paragraph level. If it is all from the same paragraph, then
there is some character level attribute that's forcing the break.

You could then start pasting the text back in bits until the problem
re-occurs, and you will have identified exactly where to look.


If cutting a chunk of type doesn't make any difference, it sounds like a
paragraph level attribute, such as something in keep options, which is
applied to all the text.

I can't recall, did we establish whether the overset text from one frame
will go into an identically sized continuation frame? If it will, then you
are definitely looking for some keep options setting. If it won't, then it
may be a no break setting applied to the text immediately after the first
frame that makes it too wide to fit in anything.

If you widen the frame does it make any difference?


k