Some text vanishes in documents when adding them to a book

[Alan_Exceed]

I have created a collection of indesign files which are each the chapter for a book in InDesign.   Pretty simple stuff, just a couple of master pages, one for a page with a title and one for a normal page.   I had created all the chapter files before compiling them all into a book.   However, now I have added the files to a book to correct page numbering, some but not all of the chapter files are no longer displaying their text.   It is still there, I can see it in Story Editor, but it is all overset and I can't work out why.  There are 24 chapters and it seems to have happened to about half of them.

Adding them to the book also seems to have permanently changed the files.  I can restore them from Google Drive backups, but I suspect if I try to build the book again from backup files the same thing will happen.

Any suggestions?

[Barb Binder]

Hi! You posted your question in the non-technical Lounge forum, which is where you can connect with your peers for conversations that don't directly relate to product help and support.

I'll move it to the InDesign forum so that you can get the answer you are looking for.

~Barb

P.S. For a list of all available product forums, see https://forums.adobe.com/welcome/

[Alan_Exceed]

I actually realised that and reposted it there already, feel free to delete this thanks!

[Barb Binder]

No worries. When I got over to the InDesign forum, I saw that you had two posts, so I locked the other one. We will keep this thread active.

And while we are chatting, did you synchronize your files after you put them in the book window? If you had conflicting style definitions, that would overwrite them and could cause the text to reflow. I use books all the time and have never experienced the situation you are describing.

[Alan_Exceed]

The problem happened as soon as I added the files to the book, I then tried Synchronise to see if it would fix it but no luck

[Barb Binder]

Is it overset on the last page of each chapter?

[Alan_Exceed]

Here is the last page of a chapter which does work:@

And the first page of the following chapter which does not work:

[Randy Hagan]

I've got a couple:

1 & 2) Did you use paragraph/character styles when setting up your book? And if you did, were there any unique changes to those styles made in any individual chapter files?

By my experience, this often happens when someone edits a paragraph style to make something fit specifically for one InDesign document, or they set a unique parameter for how first pages are created through the repagination settings.

That unique style fix somehow gets edited into the style -- generally in the Keep Options settings within one document. But while it might work perfectly in that individual document, when someone collects them using InDesign's Book functions, they either immediately or during updates choose to Update Styles when the book is crated/paginated or updated/repaginated. And it causes problems through the InDesign Book collection where "updating" InDesign style(s) scatter problems in other documents which didn't need that unique fix, generally within the page flow of the offending/offended document(s).

In the case of Pagination options, it's generally something like "start first pages on the next right/left page which clips off the end of offending/offended InDesign documents in the book collection.

So the intended position of where your missing type should be will be your first clue.

I train folks how to use InDesign and I help a couple of publishers produce long documentation with InDesign book functions. I run across this issue a half-dozen times a year and one and/or the other of these two settings has generally been at the root of it.

You may or may not have to recover an earlier version of your files from the cloud. But I'd start with looking at your paragraph styles and see if any of them have a unique Keep Options setting. If one or more of them do, remove the unique setting(s) and then repaginate the book. When you repaginate the book, first make sure all the type is laid out on InDesign pages and make sure that any unique settings for repagination are turned off. Repagination won't automatically fix the problem if the missing text is at the end of publications; you'll first have to put it on new pages until there is no overset in the documents.

Good luck with your job, and let us know if this answers your question.

[Alan_Exceed]

Hmmm, I am not using any custom styles

I was just thinking though, if one of my files ends on a right-hand page and the next also starts on a right-hand page, would that cause problems?

[Randy Hagan]

Depends. If you have your repagination set to start your new chapters on the right-hand page it will add a new left-hand page. That shouldn't affect how copy flow goes through your book, but sometimes, somehow it does. It depends on how text frames, primary text frames and master page text frames do/don't interact.

Barb Binder has good insight for you on your issue.

[Barb Binder]

Alan: what are all the graphic frames (blue boxes with Xs) in the first screen shot. Is that how you are creating a hanging indent?

[Alan_Exceed]

Re: The Blue boxes, yeah they are just how I am indenting the lines below each item in the numbered list

[Barb Binder]

Ok, that's indicative of a manual approach to layout. I wonder what else has been done manually that is now causing issues?

The 2nd screenshot also shows an odd workflow:

From the top down, I see

1. a linked image
2. the long text from Story Editor appears to be in a small frame under the image and
3. the empty frame with a link in the output that should contain the main story in the background.

I think you are going to want to back up and clean up the documents.

[Barb Binder]

Starting with what I can see in your screen shots:

There are two ways to create hanging indents, neither of which entails drawing and managing text frames.

If you are using auto-numbers, go back to Bullets and Numbering and set the hanging indent:

If you are using manual numbers, use Type > Tabs and shift drag the lower left triangle to set the hanging indent.

In either case, remove the graphic frames once you have set the hanging indents correctly.

[Barb Binder]

In the second screen shot:

1. Select the text from story editor
2. Edit > Cut
3. Close Story Editor
4. Click in the main frame visible in the background and Edit > Paste

I can see the first frame is threaded to the next one. If they are all threaded, the text will flow from one frame to the next. Then remove that little frame that was overset.

[Alan_Exceed]

I am clocking off for the day but I will try everything suggested here tomorrow, thanks all!

[wrensauer]

Hi Alan,

Did you find success with Barb's suggestions? Please let us know if you need any more assistance.

Best,

Wren