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paperslide
Participant
November 6, 2010
Answered

hidden character - blue pound symbol

  • November 6, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 41552 views

Alright, preflight... Why am I seeing a little blue pound symbol in the upper left hand corner of a few pages (hidden characters revealed)..

And this TOC is unreal, now an overset textframe.. Why would the litte red box be 2 pages down from the end of the TOC and not the same or next immediate page?

If I can get past this I might be close.

Something else, what is the little blue thing in the middle of the period Leaders, for every TOC line, offest from one another each line..

Thx

    Correct answer Peter Spier

    The # indicates the end of a story. It will appear in the upper left of every text frame until you add text, at which point it will appear at the end of any text, includeing text threaded to another frame. Most common reason for seeing it in an unexpected place is ID defaults to converting any empty shape or frame to a text frame if you click in it with the text tool. You can select the frame and reset the content to unassigned. It would also show an any blank page with a master text frame.

    Your other blue mark is the Tab. I think there's probably a chart of non-printing characters in the help, but you should also find one over at InDesignSecrets.com.

    Overset indicators appear in the last frame in a thread when there is more text. Open the story editor and see what's overset, and what is in front of it that might be causing empty intervening pages, though I suspect there really aren't and you've just shuffled pages so that the thread is jumping two pages. Turn on text thread visibility to see what is linked to what.

    And buy the book.

    3 replies

    Bohdan Chreptak
    Bohdan Chreptak
    Known Participant
    September 1, 2016

    I had the same issue. 

    I think the simpler answer is just to turn off show hidden characters.    [option] + [command] +

      S
      SJRiegel
      Legend
      September 1, 2016

      Bohdan Chreptak wrote:

      I had the same issue.

      I think the simpler answer is just to turn off show hidden characters. [option] + [command] +

      Kind of like fixing the check engine light by putting black tape over it?

      As Peter wrote: Most common reason for seeing it in an unexpected place is ID defaults to converting any empty shape or frame to a text frame if you click in it with the text tool.

      This used to drive me crazy. The first thing I do with a new version of InDesign is go into the preferences and turn that off.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 1, 2016

      This thread is six years old!

      Peter Spier
      Community Expert
      Peter SpierCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      November 6, 2010

      The # indicates the end of a story. It will appear in the upper left of every text frame until you add text, at which point it will appear at the end of any text, includeing text threaded to another frame. Most common reason for seeing it in an unexpected place is ID defaults to converting any empty shape or frame to a text frame if you click in it with the text tool. You can select the frame and reset the content to unassigned. It would also show an any blank page with a master text frame.

      Your other blue mark is the Tab. I think there's probably a chart of non-printing characters in the help, but you should also find one over at InDesignSecrets.com.

      Overset indicators appear in the last frame in a thread when there is more text. Open the story editor and see what's overset, and what is in front of it that might be causing empty intervening pages, though I suspect there really aren't and you've just shuffled pages so that the thread is jumping two pages. Turn on text thread visibility to see what is linked to what.

      And buy the book.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 6, 2010

      P Spier wrote:

      And buy the book.

      Indeed...I'd buy two of them based on what I'm seeing here...Sandee's of course: http://amzn.to/cABPCN

      and Real World ID: http://amzn.to/baVnSL

      Another good investment is a month to month subscription of Lynda.com. For $25 you get "all you can eat" training.

      Bob

      rob day
      Community Expert
      rob dayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 6, 2010

      There are many white space and break possibilities all with their own invisibles. Here is a sc with some common symbols: space, en space, em space, non break space, tab, indent to here, right indent tab, end story:

      http://www.zenodesign.com/scripts/invisible.png

      Turn your invisibles on and choose the available spaces and tabs from Type>Insert Special Characters>Others or Insert White Space.

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