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• • February 8, 2014 at 10:10 am #67048
    angharad09

    Participant

    I’m using InDesign CS6. My template has one master page with a two-column text box that has the “primary text flow” icon turned on. (It is also the only text box on the page.) Each time I create a new document from the template and attempt to place text into it, I have trouble (the text comes in as one column). So far, if I try enough times, eventually I can get it to come in in two columns. But I have not been able to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t — it seems random. I have had both success and failure with (1) primary text flow on or off on the master page, (2) black arrow tool or text tool selected when I place the text file, (3) tool clicked in the text area or clicked outside the text area or not clicked anywhere after creating the new document.

    Am I missing some obvious step that is making this work when it does work? Or is this just an unstable feature? (I know it was new to CS6; I never did master whatever its cousin was in the earlier versions.) Do I assume right that, when text comes in as one column, it’s ignoring the text box and just picking up on the margin settings?

    I have plenty of workarounds; this is more a question of wanting to understand how the mechanism works. Thanks for any insights!

  • February 8, 2014 at 12:25 pm #67049
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Primary text frames work great; even multi-column primary text frames. Not sure what the problem could be for your workflow.

    I wonder if the text coming in is getting the Span Columns style applied to it for some reason? In that case, the text would span across multiple columns in the frame.

    • February 8, 2014 at 1:19 pm #67051
      angharad09

      Participant

      No, no Span Columns style applied.

  • October 12, 2014 at 12:19 pm #71007
    John Snape

    Participant

    When you place text into the margins on the page, you shift-click to have it flow to new pages (If your preferences are set that way). I’ve done this multiple times with no problems. I think the problem you are having is that, for primary text frames, the way to get it flow through the two columns is a little different:

    1. Select the primary text frame.
    2. Go to File > Place and select the file.
    3. Make sure “Replace selected item” is checked!
    4. Click OK and it should place it properly in the primary text frame.

    *** If you select the file and try to Shift-Click to have it flow through the document, you’ll get a NEW frame of a single column placed over your primary text frame. From your description, it sounds like this is your problem.

  • April 16, 2015 at 3:55 pm #74747
    AaronA

    Participant

    Is there no way to continue the flow from a previous frame — onto new pages — using the primary text frames? I mean, without placing a file?

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