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wmrowen
Known Participant
July 11, 2019
Answered

Header rows on tables disappear randomly

  • July 11, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 4595 views

I have a booklet with 258 tables that I could not import/place from Word reliably so I rebuilt them all ( ! ) with the plain text/tabs via:

  • Convert Text To Tables command
  • Added 1 header row via Table Options > Headers & Footers (1) with
  • Repeat Header as Once For Frame (Skip First unchecked) and pasted the header text in

Now I find that occasionally some of the header row disappear. I have been getting the header row to re-display by hitting a hard return to the left of the table and then erasing it.

But it keeps occurring randomly and so this a bit like playing Whack A Mole. Not looking forward to saving this as a PDF for printer and finding occasional pages with the problem still occuring.

From reading the forum, similar issues seem to have been happening since as least 2017.

I can only think of two-work arounds:

1. Change the header rows to body rows and manually applying cell styles

2. Output to PDF, then find the problem page(s) on the PDF and then substituting a newly distilled PDF for that page(s)—and the missing rows could cause reflow errors onto the following pages also

Do you have a better solution? Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer winterm

Too bad, you didn't specify your OS/ID versions.

It was a known bug with InDesign CC 2017, it should be fixed in a later versions, though. Whatever, one of the possible solutions is to Recompose all stories. You won't find this command in the user interface, however, the KB shortcut still exists. Go to Edit > Keyboard shortcuts > Product Area: Text and Tables, find Recompose all stories command, check what KB shortcut is assigned to it, or assign your own.

Now run it on your layout.

3 replies

Community Expert
January 2, 2020

Hi Laree,

best add a sample document with a table that misbehaves to your bug report.

I commented the report with a backlink to your post with the screenshots.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Participating Frequently
January 4, 2020

Oh, thanks! Didn't know that.

 

fyi, after I fixed the broken headers (using overset text), they disappeared after I closed InDesign and reopened the file. This has happened twice, so I've rebuilt these three times so far. I'll add that to the bug report.

Community Expert
December 30, 2019

Hi LareeDraper,

I would file a bug report. Maybe there already is one?
See here: https://indesign.uservoice.com/

 

When done best come back and post the link to the report so that we can vote for fixing the issue.

 

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

winterm
wintermCorrect answer
Legend
July 11, 2019

Too bad, you didn't specify your OS/ID versions.

It was a known bug with InDesign CC 2017, it should be fixed in a later versions, though. Whatever, one of the possible solutions is to Recompose all stories. You won't find this command in the user interface, however, the KB shortcut still exists. Go to Edit > Keyboard shortcuts > Product Area: Text and Tables, find Recompose all stories command, check what KB shortcut is assigned to it, or assign your own.

Now run it on your layout.

wmrowen
wmrowenAuthor
Known Participant
July 11, 2019

Thanks I will try that. Versions: Mac OS 10.14.5 Indesign 14.0.2

wmrowen
wmrowenAuthor
Known Participant
July 11, 2019

The Recompose entry worked for the page I was looking at several hours ago. I noticed  headerless tables just now and so did the entry and it fixed that but either the earlier entry didn't work everywhere or the headers keep dropping like flies.