InDesign CC 2017 - odd text threading behavior?

[mahlonl37342014]

ID Ver: 12.0.0.81

Set-up: Booklet with multiple pages with 1 text frame per page.

Task: Export tagged text for editing in text editor; save current layout text to pasteboard; re-place tagged text into existing text frames.

=== Previous process (that I've used successfully for years/versions):

1 - Using text tool in frame #1, export all threaded content as tagged text (for editing in a text editor)...

2 - Move text frame #1 to pasteboard, click exit port and click in frame, or double-click exit port (Now, all of text in old thread is in this frame on pasteboard.)

3 - 'Place' edited tagged text into a new frame, now #1

4 - Click exit port and hover over frame #2, which has an empty input port

5 - Cursor changes to chain, click, and placed text fills all existing frames thru to previous last one. This is the expected behavior.

=== Now fails at step 5

I can place the tagged text into a new frame #1, but the loaded text icon no longer changes to chain when I try to link to remaining frames in layout; ID will ONLY generate an entirely new set of text frames... I really don't want to have to select all, cut, click in old frame #2, and paste...

???

[Eric Dumas]

Hi,

Have you tried placing the text while holding the shift key on your keyboard?

[mahlonl37342014]

A reader suggests that I should try holding down the shift key when placing...

That does indeed change the cursor, however doing so adds an ENTIRELY NEW set of frames throughout the publication, on top of the ones that are already in the layout... :~(

[Eric Dumas]

When I position my cursor near the edge of the first, already drawn, frame; it changes aspect from a 'corner' with lines representing text to 'a pair of brackets/paratheses' with the lines in the middle indicating that the text will be placed there instead of creating a new frame. Also if the first frame is selected before clicking on File>Place>...>Open the text is placed automatically in that first frame.

[mahlonl37342014]

Yes... You describe the way it USED to work. My next move will be to either reinstall, or delete prefs, etc. I just thought that it would be a good idea to see if something was changed in 2017 that I have missed in the announcement. Clearly, my copy is damaged somehow...

[jane-e]

Two things to look for:

1. Open your Layers panel and spin open the layer. This will show you the objects on the spread. One possibility is that there are already too many frames.

2. Show Text Threads and click on the first frame. Are the other frames linked? Do they stay linked as you work?

Also, reading through your steps, a couple of things jump out.

1. Skip step 2. Click an insertion point anywhere in your threaded text and export it to tagged text. It will get all the text in the threaded frames.

2. Skip double-clicking the in port or the out port, as that will break the link to the threaded frames.

3. Confirm that your frames are still threaded. Click an insertion point and place the edited tagged text. It will flow into the threaded frames.

4. The empty port means it is no longer threaded. Best practice: don't unthread. Don't double-click a port.
If you do unthread the frames and see an empty port, you need to re-thread those frames.

Let me know if this helps!

[mahlonl37342014 · Accepted solution]

Thank you to everyone who offered solutions. A solution has presented itself...

Is it possible that the document itself was damaged such that it would alter the behavior of text composition tools? Because, I took the first troubleshooting step: Start with a new document...

Create a NEW document, place the tagged text, collapse that thread into a frame on the pasteboard, re-place the tagged text, link to an existing frame, and -- text flow through linked frames working as expected... A puzzle, but one I'm happy to live with!