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M
Michael Brennen
Participating Frequently
October 1, 2021
Question

Random blank pages when reflowing a text file

  • October 1, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 325 views

I am running ID 16.4, but I have seen the following since around ID 15. I searched in the forum but did not find a post that seemed to fit my situation.

 

I use ID almost exclusively to compose long academic books. I break the book into chapters and use a book file to collect the chapters. The chapters are text only, no image, inset text boxes, etc. Chapters may have in excess of 200 footnotes per chapter.

 

When changing the text in any way that causes a reflow, blank pages frequently appear in the middle of the text, sometimes several scattered through the filel. The text skips around the blank pages, which inserts new pages at the end of the file. Doing something to force a reflow, such as expanding and restoring a margin on a page, eliminates the blank pages that were inserted in the last reflow. Even resyncing the styles from the style master is enough to cause blank pages to be randomly inserted in the chapters.

 

This is really annoying, particularly when making a final format pass over a chapter to close up gaps and square up page bottoms; most changes cause a reflow, and more often than not blank pages will be randomly added that throw the formatting off. I must stop to force a reflow, which generally removes the blank pages.

 

Has anyone else seen this? Are there any suggested workarounds? Thanks....

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Ashutosh_Mishra
Ashutosh_Mishra
Inspiring
October 3, 2021

Hi there,

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. Do you see this behavior with a specific document? Would it be possible for you to share a small video of the workflow for better understanding. This information would help us assist you accordingly. Please share version of OS & InDesign as well.

Looking forward to your response.

 

Regards,

Ashutosh

M
Michael BrennenAuthor
Participating Frequently
October 7, 2021

Hello, thanks for your response. Here is a video of ID 16.4 running on OSX Big Sur 11.6. It is large, so I provide the link instead of attaching the file.

 

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZAWC6XZVMFCjn7xQ8j5AYjqnWnA1pWe6v9k

 

I opened a book that was fully typeset, no blank pages. In the screen recording I synced the styles from the style master to all the files, and a number of them ended up with overset text due to blank pages inserted in the text. Chapters 1 to 9 had Smart Reflow turned off in preferences, so the type ended up overset rather than inserting new pages. The Intro still had smart reflow on, and in inserted two blank pages at the end that I had to delete. I then go through several chapters and eliminate the blank page simply by changing the margin on the blank page and changing it back.

 

At exactly 3:07 you will see in the ID page browser that closing the first blank page opened another one a few pages below it. I am glad this happened, because this is precisely the situation I work with all the time: reflowing text in a chapter frequently opens up one or more random blank pages in the file. As you will see in the recording, changing the page margin closes the blank page.

 

I have seen this sort of behavior since ID 15; I think it started when 15 came out. Every new ID release since then has done this.

 

From my scanning through the pages on the video you can see that the chapters are all text with plenty of footnotes. If you want further information please let me know.

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