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Anonymous

Answered

InDesign CS5 - Can't Select Text Box...

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
October 27, 2010
7 replies
111380 views

Hi,

I'm having a problem with a text box, I can't select it or select the text inside or anything. I don't know what to do. I am able to select anything else I want on the page except for this one text box.

Any ideas?

Monica

How to

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer iPirate727

Hey Steve -

Go to the Object menu and choose "unlock all on spread." Should do the trick. That drove me totally crazy, too. Good luck on your project.

Ken

LiveFromStPete

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Trisha5DE1

Participant

I have the same dilemma just a while ago, it wasn't lock or anything. It turns out that I unintentionally put a big text box on top of the text I'm working on lol

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LottieGuhl

Inspiring

I came here with the same question. I had added a rectangle for a frame (no fill) and it was sitting in front of my text box, so I couldn't actually highlight any of the text. Silly mistake, but I had been editing the text fine before that, with that same rectangle there. I sent the box back a couple of layers and the text was then on top.

yellow1

Participant

I'm having the same issue, so I'm following. Sorry I can't give you an answer.

dannygrimes

Participant

Another thing that can easily happen is you create a blank text box on top of your currently existing box. In this case you keep clicking on the blank box, you see the box highlight EXACTLY over the current one but you cannot seem to click on or select text. Delete this extra box and the problem is solved.

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T_Hunter

Participating Frequently

THANK YOU !!!

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NH Steve

Participant

I am having this same problem -- am am pretty new to Indesign CS5 and I must have done something wrong when I tried to copy a text box from one page to a couple others, so maintain the same font and format, etc. Now I have these unselectable text boxes that Icannot work around and cannot select to remove! Please help asap I have a deadline!!!!

I

iPirate727Correct answer

Inspiring

Hey Steve -

Go to the Object menu and choose "unlock all on spread." Should do the trick. That drove me totally crazy, too. Good luck on your project.

Ken

LiveFromStPete

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NH Steve

Participant

Thanks for the suggestion -- unfortunately that menu item is greyed out In the mean time, I started a whole new doc and copied and pasted all the parts I had done in the earlier one until I got back to where I was -- still can't fix the original...

Thanks very much for responding though!!

Steve

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iPirate727

Inspiring

Monica-

Thanks for finding this. I've been FREAKING out for 2 hours trying to unlock this. I just started using CS5 and did NOTHING to make this happen (probably hit a shortcut key by accident).

Your solution got me back to my crappy Monday.

Thanks!

Ken in St. Pete

Peter Spier

Community Expert

iPirate727 wrote:
Monica-
Thanks for finding this. I've been FREAKING out for 2 hours trying to unlock this. I just started using CS5 and did NOTHING to make this happen (probably hit a shortcut key by accident).
Your solution got me back to my crappy Monday.
Thanks!
Ken in St. Pete

Must have missed this post last month...

Locking behavior in CS5 has changed from earlier versions. By default a locked object cannot be selected, but there is a preferences setting to change that so you can get back the behavior you are used to from earlier versions where locking an object locks the position only, but allows selection and editing of the content. This is particularly important if you are in the habit of locking things like placeholder frames so they don't move, or for re-using older files and templates in CS5.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Besides being on the master page, it could be locked, or on a locked layer.

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Anonymous

Hi Peter,

Not locked as far as I can determine, however I can't select it so can't really tell! Only one layer document, so not on locked layer. If I put an image or text box where the copy is (inside unselectable textbox) the copy reacts to it, moves. I've tried doing a larger marquee around it but it just won't select. It's driving me nuts. Any other ideas?

Monica

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Rupam_Delhi

Participant

You can try Resetting the preferences and then give a try

For that if you are on Mac::

Quit InDesign.
Drag the "Version x.0" folder from Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/ to the desktop.
Drag the "Version x.0" folder from Users/[user name]/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/ to the desktop.
Restart InDesign.

For windows XP::

Quit InDesign
Drag the "Version 6.0" folder from C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\ to the desktop.
Drag the "Caches" folder from C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 6.0 to the desktop.
Restart InDesign

For windows Vista/Windows 7::

Quit InDesign.
Drag the "Version 6.0" folder from C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\ to the desktop.
Drag the "Version 6.0" folder from C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\.
Restart InDesign.