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c.kurtz
c.kurtz
Inspiring
April 27, 2022
Answered

Unable to set bounding box / paste on specific spread

  • April 27, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1230 views

Hey all,

I am currently working on a rather large InDesign-File with lots of InCopy-Links and am experiencing some mayor issues all of the sudden.

 

I noticed this when out of the blue most of the objects on the left page on some of my spreads disappeared. Or so it seemed. When I looked at the layer-panel all of the objects where still there. When I the objects them, the had zero width and height and where exactly at the center of my spread. Whenever I tried to rescale them I either get the following error message: Requested operation would cause one or more objects to be to small, or InDesign crashes completely.

When I delete the objects through the layers panel, they get deleted and my file automatically scrolls to the last spread in my document.

All this wouldn't be too dramatic on its own, I would just have to add the objects again, but it gets worse:

When I try to paste something onto the mentioned spreads I get the same error message as before. When I try to draw a shape or anything else on the spread I get yet another error message: Unable to set bounding box.

Am I missing something really obvious here, or are some spreads in my file just corrupted?

 

Happy designing,

Carl

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Hi Carl,

the document is partly damaged.

What could help: Add a new spread to the document and copy over all elements on the damaged spread to the new spread. Collect the items you like to copy over with a selection marquee. My guess is that the objects are "infinite" small and maybe are positioned near or at the spine.

 

Well, perhaps better, collect them by selecting them in the Layers panel.

 

Do not use the command "Select All". Also: Use Paste in Place when on the new spread.

 

If that will not work for whatever reason, try to save or export the document to IDML, open the IDML file as document and save to a new name.

 

Do all your work on a duplicated InDesign document file.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

3 replies

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 28, 2022

Hi Carl,

just today I answered a similar case.

And to my surprise the spread was restored with a simple Save As of the document to a new name.

Never thought it could be so easy.

You could try that as well.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 27, 2022

Hi Carl,

yes, the problem is obscure, but not so rare.

Every now and then it is reported here in the forum.

Still, I have no idea what causes it.

 

I know it's a bit unfair of asking this:

But was there something special you did just before seeing the issue?

Anything. Perhaps also outside of inDesign…

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

c.kurtz
c.kurtzAuthor
Inspiring
April 27, 2022

Hi Uwe,

 

Interesting!

Some more objects disappeared after I replied to your first answer by the way, but after exporting the file as a IDML everything worked like a charm. Some of them even reappeared and the file was running much more smoothly overall.

 

It's totally okay to ask. I am not entirely sure when it happened exactly as I was not working on the specific spreads when I noticed the disappearance. There where a couple of things though that I did between me last seeing the objects and noticing that they are missing.

 

  • I replaced a rather large photoshop image on a different spread
  • I did some content aware filling in a photoshop file while my Indesign file was open (Which was quite taxing on my computers performance)
  • And I changed the language in my main bodys Paragraph-Style which cause some text reflowing across my document, including some of the pages where the objects disappeared

 

Changing the language was the last thing I did before noticing the error. Coupled with the fact that the text flowed over some of the effected pages leads me to think, that this might have something to do with it.

 

I am working on a 2017 Macbook Pro running Monterey 12.2.1 and InDesign 17.1.

 

All the best,

Carl

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
April 27, 2022

Hi Carl,

the document is partly damaged.

What could help: Add a new spread to the document and copy over all elements on the damaged spread to the new spread. Collect the items you like to copy over with a selection marquee. My guess is that the objects are "infinite" small and maybe are positioned near or at the spine.

 

Well, perhaps better, collect them by selecting them in the Layers panel.

 

Do not use the command "Select All". Also: Use Paste in Place when on the new spread.

 

If that will not work for whatever reason, try to save or export the document to IDML, open the IDML file as document and save to a new name.

 

Do all your work on a duplicated InDesign document file.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

    c.kurtz
    c.kurtzAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 27, 2022

    Hey Uwe,

     

    Thanks for your quick reply, I really didnt think anyone would have an answer to this obscure problem. 🙂

     

    For now, creating a new spread and manually rebulding it seemed to have fixed the problem. I just hope that this problem doesnt come up again.

     

    Best wishes,

    Carl

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