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MarketingSchmidt
Participant
Apr 2, 2026 9:42 AM UTC
Question

Copied text frames become overset after paste in InDesign

the original text field is fine, but the copied version always blends out due to being overset. is there a fix/bug or something i need to consider copying text fields?

i’m using indesign for 8 years now, primarily on typgraphic products so normally i’m a confident user.

8 replies

Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
Apr 2, 2026 5:29 PM UTC

Also see if the text is set to align to the baseline grid.

Many times problems like this can be traced to differences in the definition of the [Basic Paragraph] style between the two documents. It’s generally considered best practice to never use [Basic Paragraph] and to define your own styles based initially on No Style.

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Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
Apr 2, 2026 5:23 PM UTC

It wouldn’t hurt to check and see whether Text Wrap panel is defaulted on; or one or more objects have Text Wrap turned on by mistake.

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Mike Witherell
Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
Apr 2, 2026 11:42 AM UTC

Hi ​@MarketingSchmidt,

 

Sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this issue. I tried reproducing this on InDesign 21.3 on Windows 11, but I wasn’t able to see the same behavior. Could you please share your InDesign version and OS details so I can check this further on a similar setup? Also, please confirm which font you are applying to the text in the frame.

In the meantime, I’d recommend manually resetting InDesign preferences by following the video at the bottom of this article and then testing again: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

 

Let me know how it goes. Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

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MarketingSchmidt
Participant
Apr 2, 2026 12:01 PM UTC

Hey ​@Abhishek Rao 

thank you for your fast reply! I’m also using InDesign 21.3 (had the same problem with the predecessor 21.2) on Windows 11, version 25H2.

Unfortunately resetting my preferences didn’t work, I also tried un- and reinstalling InDesign. I work in a small marketing department and crazy enough I’m the only one experiencing these issues.

Let me know if you can figure something out and thanks again for helping!

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MarketingSchmidt
Participant
Apr 2, 2026 10:53 AM UTC

i realized that indesign automatically adds top-margin to fonts inside the text field. that’s how it pushes the text down and creates the overset at the bottom of the field. as i see there is no way to prevent this from happening

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rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
Apr 2, 2026 2:20 PM UTC

as i see there is no way to prevent this from happening

 

Hi ​@MarketingSchmidt , Check the pasted text frame’s Text Frame Options First Baseline Offset—the offset you choose would have an affect on whether the text will fit or not. The default text frame’s Baseline Offset could be defined differently in the source and destination docs

 

 

 

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MarketingSchmidt
Participant
Apr 2, 2026 2:37 PM UTC

Hey ​@rob day thank you for the tip - i actually wasn’t familiar with the submenu ‘Baseline Options’ before.

The first option (“Oberlänge” in german, don’t wanna mistranslate and cause confusion) is selected as default and should, to my knowledge, cause the uppermost possible part of a letter to stick to the text field border. But still there is a margin of about 1,5 mm. I didn’t select any margin myself anywhere.

The other options don’t produce the ‘default-effect’ as well.

Do you have any experience about malfunctions in that area?
 

 

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