How to place text in columns in InDesign?

Manish_1988 wrote: as always Bob is right , you have column guides on your page but no frames Hence create a big text frame equal to your pages size , then Go to "Object-->Text frame options" and enter the no.of cloumns and gutter space as you have defined for the column guides, this will create the text frame with column which will be constraint to the column guides. Then place the text and check

First, let's be perfectly clear that "place" has a precise meaning in InDesign: Import from an external file. Placing text does not include pasting from the clipboard or typing directly in a frame.

It is NOT necessary to have any frames on the page at all when placing text, and what happens depends entirely on whether there are existing empty frames and where you click, and whether you click and release or click and drag before releasing or if you add the Shift or Alt/Opt key when you click.

If there is a frame, ID should place text into it as long as you click and release in the open area of the frame away from any guides. If you click on a guide, however, ID is going to ignore the exisiting frame and draw a new one. Click and drag will always draw a frame that correspondes to the location and shape you drag.

If there is no frame, click and release will draw a frame with the top at the y-coordinate where the mouse was clicked. This frame will extend down to the bottom margin guide, and it will fill the space between the column guides on either side of the x-coordinate where the cursor was clicked, if you actually click inside a set of column guides. If you click in a gutter area  the frame will start where you click and be the width of a column, but will not snap to the guides. Clicking on the pasteboaed or in the margin is similar.

Adding Shift when you click and release will Auto-flow all of the text in the story. ID will add frames and or pages as required to fit all of the text. Any added frames will be threaded to your first frame and will fill column guides from top margin to bottom margin. Adding Alt or Opt puts you into Semi-auto Flow -- your text will fillonly one frame, but the cursor will remain loaded so that you can create a new frame threaded to the first in a size/location of your choice. Holding both works very similarly to just holding the Shift key, but ID will flow only as much text as you have space for -- no new pages will be added -- and the rest will be overset.