Case of the disappeared text from Story Editor

[SantiagoPerezArt]

Help, I have a tight deadline. I had a document in the works with 30+ pages. Have been working on it for days and saved and opened it several times. This last time I opened it to my horror the text was gone. I checked story editor and when I click in one of the linked text boxes I click Ctrl+A to select all content even though I don't see anything the story editor is completely empty, all I see is the paragraph style name Body  (Normal 0.1. 

The file is 23MB so that tells me I didn't loose the content. When comparing it with a previous version (17 MB) it makes sense because I've added a lot content since the previous version.

What is going on?! PLEASE???

Thank you, Santiago

[Barb Binder]

Do you want to post it on dropbox so that we can take a look?

[SantiagoPerezArt]

Thanks for taking the time  Barb  Dropbox - LetYourLightShine.indd

[vinny38]

Could you share an IDML file as well please?

[Barb Binder]

Here's the IDML file, Vinny:

Dropbox - LetYourLightShine.idml

[SantiagoPerezArt]

IDML FIle: Dropbox - Let Your Light Shine.idml https://www.dropbox.com/s/vc27zylppfgyog3/LetYourLightShine.indd?dl=0

[Barb Binder]

Best I can tell, Santiago, the text is gone. This can happen when you inadvertently select all, and press delete (or any other character on the keyboard)—although it normally happens to brand new users, it can happen to any of us if we are distracted. I'm going to guess you don't have a recent back-up available? I do see that you are using styles—so perhaps you can quickly catch up by re-placing the text.

But first, let's see what Vinny comes up with. (fingers crossed)

~Barb

[SantiagoPerezArt]

I did a test by making a copy of the original file and removing the picture frames to eliminate all pictures to see how much that would bring down the file size. Not much from 23,220 KB to 22,808. This tells me the content (text) is still in there?

Original FIle: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vc27zylppfgyog3/LetYourLightShine.indd?dl=0

No Pic FIle: Dropbox - LetYourLightShine_noPics.indd
IDML from original: Dropbox - Let Your Light Shine.idml

[BobLevine]

Doing a save will almost always increase the file size. Only a save as will shrink it up.

[vinny38]

Well...

Opening the IDML in CS6... I can see your text ^^

(Not if I open Barb's link though...)

What happens when you open the IDML yourself??

EDIT : oops sorry, maybe a short-lived relief.

It's not the right file I guess... It' "One Amazing Day On Sparkle Street"

[Barb Binder]

(Not if I open Barb's link though...)

I was working in CC 2017.1.

[SantiagoPerezArt]

Yeah, I thought the IDML would be from the template I bought. But getting back to the .indd files what would make them so big if I removed the image place holders and text is "gone"? I can't imagine the empty text boxes would make the file that large.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

As Bob mentioned, saving will increase the size of the file, and save as will decrease it. I immediately tried a save as when I opened your file because you had already mentioned the file size. It reduced the size, but not as much as I would have expected.

I don't think any of us can recover the missing text. It's gone, and file is saved. So, moving forward:

1. Work from a recently-saved back-up
2. Reflow the text, reassign files and re-enter edits. (Never fun, but always faster than the first time, and please don't ask me how I know that!)
3. There is a company called Markzware that can help with recovering corrupt files. I'm not sure if this qualifies or not, but you could always ask. Markzware DTP File Recovery Service

[SantiagoPerezArt]

Thanks again Barb. Luckily I do have a back up from a day or two ago.

[Barb Binder]

Oh thank goodness. You hadn't mentioned it yet, so I assumed the worst.

Looking ahead, nightly back-ups are important (set it up so that they are automatic) as is saving a working file under a new name a few times during the day. Technology is awesome when it works, but some days, it just doesn't.

[Laubender]

Hi Vinny,

you leave me a bit confused…

I opened the "IDML from original" with InDesign CS6 8.1.0 on Mac OS X 10.6.8 and can see text in the document.

If "One Amazing Day On Sparkle Street" is the right contents, well… ( we have a winner here ).

Regards,
Uwe

[SantiagoPerezArt]

Not the right contents. Ignore that file.

[SantiagoPerezArt]

When I turn on show hidden characters I can see # in the last two pages and the first page. Does anyone know what special character these are? Page break, column break etc?