Please Help asap: overset text & blank pages

[creeperh79667473]

So recently I tried to import a word document into InDesign and I have some questions about it.

First, it will be a really big book with more than 1000 pages (not mine) and it's a real struggle to apply styles to every title and dedication manually.

When I tried to import the text with " Remove Styles and Formatting" ticked it worked, but as I said I had to do everything manually. When I try to import the document by preserving the styles and formatting something strange happens. Also I forgot to mention that I hold Shift while placing the text (autoflowing). What happens is that the text isn't placed entirely (2nd image). The pages onward are just blank. Please help me as I have to finish this until tomorrow morning and I can't do this entirely manually (I've already done about 600 pages and it's mentally draining). Thanks!

[Barb Binder]

Are you doing this book as one huge 1000 page InDesign document with a single story, or are there chapters/sections that you are creating individually that you will pull together using InDesign's book features?

On that second screen shot—did InDesign draw the text frames? If you go to Story Editor is all the text in the file, just not showing on the InDesign pages? What happens if you choose Recompose all Stories? Ctrl Alt / (Mac Cmd Opt /) Or if you grab the bottom handle of the empty frame and tug it up or down, and then put it back to the bottom margin?

[creeperh79667473]

In Story Editor it shows me the whole text, but there's a red line next to the text that isn't showing. Also I forgot to mention that this is a book with about 1000 poems and there's a lot to do when it comes to titles and dedications. Also the autoflowing takes a lot shorter when I'm preventing the styles and formatting. Recompose all stories doesn't work for me, and neither does the other thing you said.

[Barb Binder]

Ok, the text is there, that's good.

How about saving the file (or better yet a copy), then deleting the blank pages (which does not delete the text, just the frames), then click on the overset text icon (the red plus) on the last page with text, add a new blank page after, and Shift+click to auto-flow the rest.

[creeperh79667473]

Doesn't work..

[Barb Binder]

Then let's go back to my very first question:

Are you doing this book as one huge 1000 page InDesign document with a single story, or are there chapters/sections that you are creating individually that you will pull together using InDesign's book features?

[creeperh79667473]

It's a poem book with about 1000 poems. The word document has 700 pages but every poem has to start on a new page through a page break. I don't know anything about the book features ( I started using this app for my mini-job, i'm 14)

[creeperh79667473]

this pic might help you; it says that there are 1157841 characters of overset text

[creeperh79667473]

I resized the text frame and it seems to be there. What should I do?

[Barb Binder]

Ok. The text is overset, so it's not flowing into frames beyond page 31. I wonder if there is a keep issue going on that isn't allowing the paragraphs to break. Can you post the file on dropbox so that I can look at it? You can post the file here (publicly) or just click my name and send me the link as a private message.

[Barb Binder]

I'm wondering if this is too much for your computer. You might trying breaking the Word document into smaller segments. Maybe you can place the divided Word docs into this file, or maybe you need to create several InDesign files.

Other than that, here's my last thought, what if you delete the space between what is overset (under the gray line) and what isn't. Is there some problem character between devreme, and asteapta-ma? If that doesn't work, I recommend dividing up the file. Since each poem begins at the top of the page, that shouldn't be an issue.

[creeperh79667473]

I sent you the link

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Ok, I went through the file and was able to make all of the text visible so that you can continue working.

What I found was that there was a lot of formatting done in advance in Word, that was causing issues. In addition, you are using the Normal style (from Word) to format everything manually, and that style had issues. So with the focus of getting you back to work quickly, I went through the file page by page simply to show all of the text. There are much quicker and more efficient ways of working on future projects, but I'm hoping I got you back to where you can continue to move forward and meet that deadline.

[creeperh79667473]

Thank you so much!!

[jeffh57049941]

Wow!  That was really cool that you helped him out like that!

I'd be interested in knowing what you did to make each page visible.  I'm afraid I'm running into a similar issue.  I'm trying to place a .rtf file and maintain the formatting.  Holding shift and clicking produces pages but without visible content. 

[Barb Binder]

Hi Jeff:

That post was from July and can barely remember what I had for breakfast.  

The first thing I'd check in your file is if the text color is white or none. The second thing to look for is if the text is visible in Story Editor.

~Barb

[jeffh57049941]

Thanks Barb. Holding down shift while clicking, allowed me  to accomplish the desired result. 

I appreciate your reply!

[Barb Binder]

Excellent. Glad you got it figured out, Jeff.

~Barb