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• • June 3, 2010 at 8:07 pm #55915
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hello,

    I am editing a catalog, with a big table that goes linked from one text box to another, more than 40 pages long.

    It was all going very well but, with no aparent reason, things became very slow.

    It happens when I edit the text inside the table. I type one character and the cursor goes spinning for seconds.

    I am using Mac OS X and it goes the same in my macbook that has 2 GB of memory and in my G5 with 8 GB.

    Preflight off, display performance setted to fast, tumbnails turned off.

    Is there anything else I can do? Please, it is killing me.

    Thanks,

    Rosana

  • June 4, 2010 at 3:26 am #55920
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    What version of InDesign are using?

  • June 4, 2010 at 5:11 am #55921
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hi Eugene,

    Sorry, I forgot to mention that, I am using Indesign CS4.

  • June 4, 2010 at 5:37 am #55923
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi,

    you can try to export the file as idml, if idml doesn't works try to export as inx.

  • June 4, 2010 at 8:18 am #55928
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hi Marco,

    I tried both idml and inx but, after exported, they doesn't open back to indesign. It starts opening but stacks before finish.

    Maybe the file is too complicated or too long for that. It is 64 pages long, there are some linked low resolution images (all tiffs) and it looks like the most tricky part are those big tables. The bigger one goes for 20 pages and has some various character styles all over it. And there are some small ones.

    

    Can the character styles cause the file to work so slowly?

    I read in this forum some pepople talking about some big files, including several books and lots of pages. They make my catalog looks so small. I did my best to think about the best procedures to make this catalog easy to edit. Now I wonder if using tables was a good idea. Maybe I am working the wrong way.

    But I can't think another way to do this.

    All coments about it are more than welcome.

    Thanks,

    Rosana

  • June 4, 2010 at 9:27 am #55930
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi,

    I hope to say something useful.

    i worked long ago, on very long tables, and I've also had some problems, in particular header rows (set in the table option) created slowness problems.

    Has your tables header rows?

    With regard to character styles, it would be interesting to eliminate them all, keeping the formatting and see if the problem still exists.

    A tip I can give you is to isolate the problem by removing some rows at a time checking if something works.

  • June 4, 2010 at 11:35 am #55933
    ropapareli

    Member

    Marco,

    I tried to eliminate the styles but it made no difference. The tables has headers rows and I also tried to eliminate them but nothing changes.

    If I delete one entire column (any one, I tried each one of them) it works. I can type and delete characters and the cursor doesn't go spinning anymore. But it is sad because I can't delete anything.

    I could separate this 20 pages group into 2 smaller groups, with 10 pages each. I tried that and it speeds things up a bit but it didn't solve the problem.

    Besides, this is not good for me because, if I break the table in two, any changes in the columns size and things like that I will have to make twice.

    My main concern is that it is not a big catalog. I have a bigger one on hold, waiting for data, that is at least twice the size of this, with one big table that goes from head to toe.

    Thank you for your tips, it is always useful, no matter the results. It is so good to have someone to think together.

    If you have any other idea, please don't hesitate and say. I am trying everything to make this work properly.

    Does anyone know if we can control the undo steps we have stored? Or if we can disable undo? It is a crazy idea but…

    And what about the memory used by Indesign. Can we set more memory for Indesign or it works automatically?

    Thank you!

  • June 6, 2010 at 4:40 pm #55948
    Adam Jury

    Member

    Something very simple you may want to try: Open your file, and then do a “Save As” — this helps eliminate a lot of the cruft that builds up in a file over time, reduces the file size, and generally should speed things up a little. After that, you may be able to export to INX/IDML and re-import for an even cleaner file.

    Another thing you may want to try is selecting the entire table and copying it to a new document, free of any of the other content from your catalog; once you've finished working on it there, copy it back into the proper catalog (or use InDesign's book feature to break the catalog into several INDD files, if possible.)

  • June 8, 2010 at 3:04 pm #55967
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hi adamjury,

    I did the “save as” thing but it didn't help the inx/idml files to be re-imported. Maybe there is something else causing my file to crash when I try to re-import because I have broken the longest table into two parts and the file still crashes when I try the clean-up with inx/idml formats.

    Now that the main table is 50% shorter, the performance is a little better. I didn't want to separate the table but I run out of time. And out of choices too.

    I am not happy and still want to find an answer for this problem.

    This table isn't so big, is it? I mean, am I expecting too much from my computer/software?

    Thank you for the tips. I really appreciate the help I find here.

  • June 9, 2010 at 12:45 pm #55981
    Lindsey Martin

    Member

    Large tables – hell, medium tables, anything over three or four pages – make ID lug no matter what tricks one uses. Has been the case since tables were added to app.; still the case with CS5. Right-clicking when working with large tables will freeze the app. For large tables, I use tabs and paragraph styles. Much more efficient. For greater efficiency, can be exported to tab-delimited text, styled and massaged using BBEdit and GREP.

  • June 9, 2010 at 3:44 pm #55985
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    good evening Rosana.

    Maybe your problem is related to the justification mode you are using in your table. It may sound funny but have you checked the justification mode used for the data you have entered in the different cells? Have you defined one (or more) specific paragraph styles for this table or are you using the basic standard paragraph provided by Adobe? If you have not changed anything it is almost sure that the justification setting are based on paragraph. This mode is very very very slow if you use it in a table. If you choose the other setting available (per line) you will be surprised. Normally you should be able to edit your table with a correct speed.

    If you are using the basic standard paragraph, you can edit it, even if you cannot change its name.

  • June 10, 2010 at 3:06 am #55991
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    Heezza, are you referring to Justification -> Composer -> Adobe Paragraph Composer?

  • June 10, 2010 at 8:42 am #55992
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Yes, I am referring to Justification -> Composer -> Adobe Paragraph Composer.

    I don'k know if it is a bug or a feature ;-). But if you work on a long table with the Adobe Paragraph composer you have to stop very quickly. Everything is very very slow. If you choose the opposite setting everything works fine.

    Be careful: you have to apply this setting for ALL the cells in the table (even for the empty cells)

    Please let me know if it helps you!

    • October 29, 2018 at 7:51 am #111209
      Dandalo Gabrielli

      Member

      Thank You heezza !!!
      Apparently this bug is still in the service. Changing to single line composer speed up, the redraw of my table. CC-2018 before October update

  • June 10, 2010 at 10:36 am #55995
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hello guys!

    Crych,

    when you say you use tabs and paragraph styles, do you mean you do the table structure, all the frames, lines etc, under your paragraph box by hand, one by one?

    Heezza,

    I was having trouble to find this feature. I have so many things to learn about Indesign… thanks to Jongware's question I was able follow your explanation.

    I mostly used character styles all over the table. There is only one paragraph style I created for one specific situation but, like you said, other than this one, I didn't change the paragraph settings.

    What do I have to do, then?

    I edited the paragraph styles: Justification -> Composer -> Adobe Paragraph Composer -> Adobe single-line Composer

    Do I have to apply the styles again? About the empty cells, if I have the style modified, they are going to be modified automatically, right?

  • June 11, 2010 at 4:47 am #55999
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Rosana,

    Even if you use mostly character styles, you have used “beneath” (knowing it or not) at least ONE paragraph style. If you have the feeling that you are NOT using any paragraph style, it means you are using the default one (i.e. “standard paragraph”).

    If you edit a paragraph style via the paragraph style palette you don't have to apply it afterward. InDesign does it automatically.

    If you edit a paragraph style locally, the modification will be applyed only in the paragraph in wich the cursor is blinking.

    I hope this answer will help you

    heezza

  • June 11, 2010 at 7:49 am #56004
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hi heezza,

    I edited the paragraph style using the palette. There was the basic style and only one other, created based on the basic style. Once I edited the basic one, the other updated automatically.

    The performance is better than before. When I type, the cursor still spin for a brief moment. Maybe this is as good as it gets with a table as big as this. Even now that it is half the size it was in the beginning. And I used all tips posted here.

    The only thing I couldn't do was export in inx/idml formats and re-import. I will try that again and post the results here.

    Thank you so much for your answers. You are very kind!

  • June 11, 2010 at 11:37 am #56006
    Alan Gilbertson

    Participant

    In case it isn't clear, here's how you can check the Single Line/Paragraph composer question:

    Click inside the story that has this large table.

    Press Cmd-A (to select everything in the story).

    On the paragraph panel flyout menu, click on “Adobe Single-Line Composer,” which will change everything at once. You don't have to change all the individual styles to test this out, and you probably don't need it for a table anyway.

    There was a commentary somewhere, which David talked about a while back, that the paragraph composer, being processor-intensive, could have various side-effects if you leave it on all the time.

    Hope this helps.

  • June 11, 2010 at 12:40 pm #56009
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hi Alan,

    it was all changed to “adobe single-line composer” but now I am 100% sure! Thank you for the tip!

    The story panel is very handy! I never used this before.

    I am sure it is gonna help me a lot.

    Thanks again!

  • June 16, 2010 at 7:35 am #56072
    Rebecca Evans

    Member

    Does InDesign CS4 let you edit table cell text in the Story Editor window, or is that CS5? Try Edit/Edit in Story Editor (or the CS4 equivalent) to see if making text changes there is faster.

  • June 17, 2010 at 6:51 pm #56093
    ropapareli

    Member

    Hi evansreb,

    it is possible to edit the table content inside the Story Editor in CS4 but, when I select this table and try to navigate inside the story editor window things get really slow.

    For this particularly big table nothing seems to work properly.

    But thank you for the tip, it is always worth trying.

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