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J
Jens27032826roju
Participating Frequently
November 8, 2022
Answered

Indesign created 4000+ pages when "placing" my novel with formatting

  • November 8, 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 3519 views

Hi everyone, 

 

I've encountered a strange problem when importing my novel into Indesign. It's spreading the document over 4000 pages (where some of the pages only have a single word, a single line, or a single paragraph). It's almost like the spacing is spread out 10x during the import. 

 

My manuscript is 132,000 words in 10pt, so it should be around 400-450 pages. I set the size of the document to 5.5 x 8.25, adjusted the margins accordingly, and then tried placing the document onto the top left corner (I'm just following the steps of a Skillshare course). But when it processes the text it's extremely spaced out over 4000+ pages instead of being reasonbly spaced as I would expect.

 

When I import without any formatting selected it places normally and looks great! But that removes at italics that are hidden within the story text, so I can't really do that without having to manually find italics and correct them in post (which would be an absolute nightmare). 

 

It must be something to do with the doc x formatting that is causing Indesign to spread it out over a massive amount of pages. I need to import everything with italics and have the proper spacing, but I just have no idea how. 

 

I've run into this issue on literally step number one, so I'm pretty discouraged in trying to format my novel with Indesign. If anyone has any ideas I'd greatly appreciate it! 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Willi Adelberger

Check the keep options in your paragraph style. Haven eye on the no break function as well. 

6 replies

C
ck_ny
Inspiring
November 9, 2022

Hi Jen,
I took your docx file and save it as a doc file (word 97-2004). Placed it in Indesign by holding down Shift-key and clicking on the first page. Got 6 pages with the doc format, not the 250+ with the docx. You can also try Barb's method. Good luck with your book!

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2022

Hi @Jens27032826roju:

 

Click on the first page with the Type tool and choose Edit > Select All. Change your Keep Options as shown below. The text will come back into view. 

 

~Barb

 

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
J
Jens27032826rojuAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 10, 2022

Hi Barb,

 

Thank you so much for the help! And everyone else who posted suggestions! That solved the issue entirely. 

 

I was getting rather frustrate and discouraged by the problem, so I appreciate you finding me a way around it! 

 

On to designing my novel 🙂 

 

Jens 

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 10, 2022

    Hi Jens:

     

    We are always happy to help!

     

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    m1b
    Community Expert
    m1bCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 9, 2022

    Just to add to what everyone has said, I suggest, after trying other suggestions given, you save a Word doc with just a page or two of your novel and import that and see if that behaves better. Ideally choose a section of novel that you are happy to share here or maybe try filling Word document with dummy text. Or at least show screen shots in Indesign with Show Invisibles on.

    - Mark

    J
    Jens27032826rojuAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    November 9, 2022

    Hey Mark, 

     

    I've attached some example dummy text down below. I exported it from Pages as a doc x, and them imported into Indesign using the "place" function. It created hundred of blank pages with just this short example set of pages. 

     

    Not sure what I'm doing wrong! I appreciate any insight you could give me on how to get around this issue. 

     

    Jens 

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    November 9, 2022

    Check the keep options in your paragraph style. Haven eye on the no break function as well. 

      brian_p_dts
      Community Expert
      brian_p_dtsCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 9, 2022

      Could be any number of things. Page breaks or other odd characters in the manuscript; funky paragraph style settings; etc. Please share a sample doc/indd template

      J
      Jens27032826rojuAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      November 9, 2022

      I've attached some dummy text down below! It does the exact same thing with this document as it did with my novel. I suspect it has to do with converting a Pages document (where I've written my manuscript) to a doc x file. 

       

      Not sure what to do about it though, other than maybe trying Microsoft Word. I'm not keen on buying more software just to check this issue though! If there's a workaround for Mac that would obviously be ideal. 

       

      I appreciate any insight you could give me! 

      Robert at ID-Tasker
      Robert at ID-Tasker
      Legend
      November 8, 2022

      Are you using File / Place (Ctrl+D) or copy&paste directly from Word? 

       

      But without seeing an example of the original text no one will help you 😞 can you share few pages of the docx - don't share INDD as you won't be able to share only part of it.

       

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      November 8, 2022

      It sounds like a Keep fault, but I am not sure how it would have been transferred from Word to ID as they don't manage 'keep with next' etc. in quite the same way.

       

      That is, if you have all of your body text set to "keep with next" or "keep with previous" or even "keep all lines together," ID goes nuts trying to comply when there are too many lines and paragraphs so connected.

       

      Back in Word, make sure your body text style does not have ANY "keep with" settings, and try again.

       

      Happy to answer more questions if you continue to have problems. Word import can be very simple and straightforward, or very glitchy, and there are some "good practices" to apply to the Word doc before import that can make the work in ID easier.

       

        J
        Jens27032826rojuAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        November 9, 2022

        I think part of the problem might be that I'm trying to import on MacOS, and Idesign doesn't allow you to import straight from Pages. Instead I've exported as a doc x and then used "file" "place" to import the document. 

         

        I'm not sure how to check the "keep with" settings since I'm not creating my doc x directly within Microsoft Word. 

         

        Maybe an issue is arising during the export of a docx within Pages? If so, I'm not sure how to get around that since I only have one editing software. 

         

        I've attached a sample page of the exported doc x manuscript. I tried importing just this short section and it created 271 mostly blank pages. 

         

        I set "preserve styles" during the import, and I'm shift clicking on the upper left of the text box to place the text within Indesign. Not sure if it's partly the method I'm using, but the fact that the import without formatting selected works perfectly does support waht you're saying, that there's some strange formatting issue going on with the original file. 

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