Primary text frame creating frames instead of columns

Hi Typorator:

How did you add the primary frames on the master pages? Did you enable the Primary Text Frame checkbox in the New dialog box or did you draw them yourself?

When you navigate to the master pages and select the primary frames are they one frame per page with 4 columns? Do they show the primary frame badge?

Primary frame badge:

Not a primary frame:

My guess is that you are placing the text on page one but not in the primary frame, so the text is creating the 4-frame layout on the fly.

~Barb

I haven't worked in long-document design for a few years, so maybe I'm not doing it right, but there is a way I can recreate what you're describing.

I made a new document with a primary text frame, 4 columns and .25" gutters. If I select the primary text frame on the first document page before I import my text file, or if I click into the primary text frame on the first document page while the cursor is loaded, I get 4-column text frames. But, if I first delete the primary text frame from the first document page or shift-click the top left corner, it will leave the primary text frame unfilled and make 4 frames per page the size of the column guides.

Could it be this, or am I not doing it right?

This sounds like possibly a corruption issue with your program. Try trashing preferences and see if resetting the program to its defaults clears it up.

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create  new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.