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Inspiring
October 8, 2024
Answered

How to Fix Phantom Paragraph Styles Skipping in Find Search?

  • October 8, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 342 views

I have a document that has a paragraph style "Caption" that I use for Table titles. In the document, I have Table 1, Table 2, Table 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, and Table 23. I don't know why this paragraph is skipping numbers 3-13, and 18-20. If I open the Find window and start a search for paragraph type "Caption", starting at the beginning of the document, it goes to:

<Find> -> goes to and selects text of Table 1 title

<Find> -> goes to and selects text of Table 2 title

<Finds #3-13> -> Table 2 title deselected but but navigation stays on the same page

<Find #14> -> goes to and selects text of Table 14 title

<Find #15> -> goes to and selects text of Table 15 title

<Find #16> -> goes to and selects text of Table 16 title

<Find #17> -> goes to and selects text of Table 17 title

<Find #18-20> -> deselects Table 17 text and navigation stays on the same page

<Find #22> - goes to and selects text of Table 22 title

<Find #23> -> goes to and selects text of Table 22 title

 

I've made sure that all frames are deselected before I run "Find." My find is only for the style Caption and all the other fields are cleared out. I do not have any hidden, conditional text, and my preflight panel is set to report overset text, and I don't have any overset text errors.  Regarding conditional text, I did not set up any for this document and don't actually know how to use it. But I opened the Conditional Text window and it seems like I don't have any. 

 

I have shut down InDesign, reseting Preferences to Default, restarted InDesign, opened this again, with the same result.

 

It seems like I have some phantom Caption styles that the Find results can't display. Please Help!!!

 

 

<Title renamed by MOD>

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Margaret5EDF

Thank you. This problem went away when the new version of InDesign came out. The next time I opened the file all my Table Captions were numbered consecutively. But I will keep your recommendations in mind. 

3 replies

Community Expert
October 9, 2024

Easy way to find out if it's hidden

Duplicate your document to test on

Select all the text and then Delete all the text

Try doing the find - if it finds the text it's hidden.

 

If it doesn't find it - try deleting in portions and then find

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If a document is not behaving well then try 

File>Export 

Choose IDML

Open the IDML in InDesign
Save the file as a new InDesign file with a new name
See if the issue persists.

Margaret5EDFAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
October 29, 2024

Thank you. This problem went away when the new version of InDesign came out. The next time I opened the file all my Table Captions were numbered consecutively. But I will keep your recommendations in mind. 

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 8, 2024

Hi @Margaret5EDF:

 

Or if you are comfortable sharing the file, we can take a look. You can put it on a file sharing server like dropbox and post the link here (public) or message me directly (private). There's likely an straightforward solution but with seeing the file, it may take a while to figure it out. 

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 8, 2024

Can you show a screen shot of your find/change dialog box?

Did you save the file as IDML and reopen in InDesign?

 

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)