Problems autoflowing text

[T***@adobeforums.com]

When attempting to autoflow a large text file (200 pages +), Indesign stops at three pages, the red overflow + appears but will not allow me to place anymore text at all auto or manual. Any suggestions?

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Do you have any paragraphs that have as part of their style definition
"start on a right-hand page"? If so, there's a bug in InDesign CS2. It
happens in the following circumstances. If the next paragraph is set to
begin on a right-hand page, and this would mean that the facing left-hand
page is completely blank, autflow grinds to halt. You have to add a page and
pick up manually where you left off.

Not sure if that's your problem, but it sounds similar.

Ariel
www.FreelanceBookDesign.com

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Post by A***@adobeforums.com
You have to add a page and
pick up manually where you left off.

Or temporarily redefine the paragraph style to start anywhere. Easier than
doing it manually if you have a lot of these.

The other thing that will do this is if the first paragraph that's
oversetting has some other kind of impossible-to-display formatting, like
indented 30p in a 27p frame. You can actually push the cursor into the
overset paragraph (by placing the cursor in the last character on the page
and cursoring right) and taking a look at the indent settings. I get this a
lot with letter-size Word files that have to fit into a 6x9 layout.

Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Yes, all of my files are formatted to "start on right hand page". You mentioned a bug in CS2. Do you happen to know if there is a patch to fix it? Thank you both for your suggestions. I will experiment and let you know what I find.

[F***@adobeforums.com]

No patch, but what you can do is redefine the style to start on the right hand page after you autoflow into InDesign. This will still cause for some manual work in the end, but considerably less.

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Ok, I have done that and it still does the exact same thing. I have removed any style formatting and it is just text. It stops at the same point in the middle of the page every time. I have set reveal formatting to make sure there are no page breaks or place holders that could cause the problem. It still does same.

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Open it up in the story editor. Do you see anything there that would cause the text to stop flowing?

Are you able to manually flow the text at the place where it stops flowing?

[P***@adobeforums.com]

A long line with "no break" applied might do this, too.

[T***@adobeforums.com]

No, it won't let me manually flow the text past that point either. I've looked for any reason that would cause this with no success.

[T***@adobeforums.com]

At the risk of sounding like a novice, (which I am) how do i open it in the story editor, the choices are greyed out.

When I try to manually flow the text beyond the "problem" area, it seems to create a text box but will not let me put any text in it or do anything else to it.

I should mention, I am using a master created by someone else. Is it possible that there was somthing incorporated into the design of the master that is causing this?

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Ok, i have opened it in the story editor and it shows overset at the point where the text stops flowing. How do i fix the overset?

[K***@adobeforums.com]

You fix the overset by changing whatever is causing it not to fit in the
frame. There are quite a few things that will cause this. I mentioned
impossible indents, Peter mentioned No Break, and Ariel mentioned Start on
Right.

If you go through all the paragraph and character formatting on the first
overset paragraph (not the paragraph *before* the overset) you'll find
something that's causing it to jump to the next frame, then the next, then
the next, ad infinitum, looking for a frame in which it can fit itself but
never finding one.

What about Keep with next? I've seen text where everything was set to keep
with next, and since everything couldn't fit in one frame, nothing could fit
anywhere.

Try radically increasing the size of the frame. You'll probably have to
increase the page size.

Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[T***@adobeforums.com]

I should have asked how do i correct the overset in my document before placing it into Indesign? I am using Office 2003.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

You don't need to correct it in Word. You can correct it in Indesign. You
just have to figure out what's causing it.

If you want to zip up the ID file (less than 5 mb) and send it to me
(kbenson at pegtype dot com) I'd be happy to take a look.

Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Thankyou all for the great suggestions. In the end, each file had a different problem. Most of the ones you named. These are old files that were exported from PDF to word.