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• • April 26, 2011 at 12:46 pm #59418
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Working on a book document with tons of footnotes, I encountered a major problem: every now and then, a whole page was left blank, although text frames were set to threaden automatically (autoflow in frame).

    I found two solutions: (1) produce fake footnotes here and there; (2) resize, only slightly, the text frames on the blank pages.

    As a result, the whole text (and all footnotes) were placed correctly (and visibly), but obviously I had to manually look for those resized text frames and de-resize them. I realized when the book appeared that I had missed some of these dissized text frames.

    Now for the next time I run into this problem: Could I have automated looking for (and changing) those resized text frames, and thus find all of them?

  • May 10, 2011 at 8:24 am #59556
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I don't know why this might be happening, but perhaps it is due to Keep Options. Sometimes if a lot of paragraphs are “kept together” then they'll skip a frame. When you make the frame bigger, the text can fit. Possible? Hard to know.

  • May 10, 2011 at 10:05 am #59557
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Yes, this must have been the reason.

    What I am struggling with now is the question of how to find those resized text frames once everything is nearly finished. Now that the text is placed correctly and there are no more blank pages, I need to find those altered text frames and resize them. Some I have found, but others are just a few points over the inside, outside, top, or bottom margins – wherever (I have not kept a list of the page numbers I changed the text frames on), and the sheer size of the book (several hundred pages) forbids to manually check each page.

  • May 11, 2011 at 3:11 am #59561
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    There should be no reason why the text frame resized?

    Can you post screen shots with Frame Edges Showing (CTRL/CMD H)

  • May 11, 2011 at 7:26 am #59563
    David Goodrich

    Participant

    I have seen many instances in IDCS4 where a blank page replaces what used to be correctly formatted text with footnotes, with that content flowed onto the following page(s). Usually, adding a point or two to the blank frames' height brings the text back, and I think I can often go back to the original height and still keep the text in place.

    I take this to be one of ID's “little ways” with footnotes. To me, it resembles ID's habit of occasionally losing the separator line above the footnotes when I use a different separator for footnotes that continue onto a second page, as if the footnote-making sub-process doesn't quite complete properly. ID's preflighting will generally flag overset text caused by the re-flowing after the blank frame, but I find I have to check the footnote separators individually. Or, if I remember, I can just run the fix for the latter problem: change the document's separator and then change it back.

    David

  • May 11, 2011 at 8:34 am #59564
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks, Eugene and David, for your replys.

    Eugene, sorry if I was not clear enough: the text frames of course did not resize by themselves, but I had to resize them in order to bring the text back (see David's comment).

    Usually, adding a point or two to the blank frames' height brings the text back, and I think I can often go back to the original height and still keep the text in place.

    David, suppose you have found most of the text frames you have changed, but not all of them. Is there a way to search for the ones with a changed size?

  • May 11, 2011 at 6:39 pm #59572
    David Goodrich

    Participant

    Happily, for most of my jobs it doesn't matter if frames are a shade long or short, so long as those on facing pages are the same length. With margins derived from master pages, I find I can eyeball whether particular openings deviate, and I confess I don't always check the numbers if they look close enough. Which is to say I don't have an automatic method.

    David

  • May 12, 2011 at 1:25 am #59575
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    I think that's what's happening is that there isn't enough room for the footnote itself, so it pushes the text over to accomodate the footnote. See the two screen shots.

    First one I've highlighted the Footnote and the Size of the Footnote – you can see it doesn't fit in ths space beside it

    

    In the Second screen shot I've reduced the size of the footnote type size and the the leading and now it fits in.THIS is not a good solution to have your footnotes different type sizes and leading – PLEASE do not do that. It was for illustrative purposes only.

    

  • May 12, 2011 at 9:23 am #59581
    David Goodrich

    Participant

    The problem I tried to describe is where in the middle of a run of pages with footnotes, with one text frame per page linked fore and aft, IDCS4 suddenly decides to leave an entire frame blank and flow the text into the next page and frame.

    So far as I recall, this occurs in files born in IDCS4, with text from MS Word files prepared in a separate dummy ID file to remove all MS Word styles and to apply the correct fonts. And sometimes it seems to happen between the time I saved and closed the file and then opened it again, i.e., without my making any changes at all. It is not a matter of keeps options (I generally define the auto footnote paragraph without keeps — I usually apply “keep last two lines together” by hand only as needed). It is as if, in re-flowing the text, ID gets confused, forgets about the whole frame, and goes on to the next page/frame.

    When this happens, I don't think I've ever tried David Blatner's trick for forcing a text reflow<https://creativepro.com/force-text-reflow-when-indesign-forgets-to-flow-the-text.php&#62;, “Recompose All Stories” (shortcut Command-Option-/ (slash) or Ctrl-Alt-slash). Perhaps my habit of lengthening the frame is equivalent to his double-clicking the text frame, though sometimes I must leave the frame a shade longer to maintain page-breaks.

    As for catching frames that are not of a specific length, I suspect that's scriptable.

    David

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