I want to flag a spasmodically recurring issue for discussion/exploration. From time to time when I have been laying out long pieces of text in ID (on text-only pages — no background), I have found that a recently laid text frame disappears — or rather, the text in the frame vanishes (the frame itself remains on the page and can be clicked on using the selection tool). Interestingly, it is all still present when examined in Story Editor, but it has become ‘overset’.
Mostly, I have found that this issue can be resolved by reclicking the ‘additional text’ box on the lower right of the previous text frame. Doing this causes the next text frame’s contents to reappear, and generally those contents then remain visible.
However, my most recent experience of this phenomenon is more intractable: nothing I have tried has been able to recall the text. I have tried saving the ID file as a new name, to see if any reconstruction of the file occurs. No joy. I have tried exporting to IDML to see if any file reconstruction occurs when opening the IDML file. No joy. My only option seems to be to go back to a prior backup and reconstruct the work I did prior to occurrence of the error.
Reading posts over many years on this forum, it seems to me that a number of ID users have experienced some version of this flaw. I suspect it may have multiple causes, but that essentially it is a kind of file corruption — a weakness in ID which yields to file damage of various kinds.
I would value insight into why this phenomenon occurs, whether any preventive action can be taken once it appears, and whether there is any solution for it. I would also like to flag its existence for ID developers to look into for future development of ID.
.
