What is this mysterious text area?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 3, 2025
4 replies
2935 views

Hi all.

I'm trying to understand the formatting of some docs I've inherited, and I'm new to InDesign.

I don't understand what I'm dealing with in the attached screen shot. There appear to be three columns, but the text frame has only one. The area(s) containing the text are part of the text frame (they disappear when the text frame is hidden or deleted), but can't be selected in the layer view.

And, as you can see, the mystery area exists outside the text frame itself. What might this be?

Note: The other objects in the layer list are on a facing page, out of view.

How to

Correct answer Robert at ID-Tasker

@Thomas_Calvin

It's a Table.

T

Thomas_CalvinAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks guys. It is most likely a table, and I can tab between the columns. But it does not appear as an entity in the layer list; there are no other layers in the doc aside from what's depicted.

Where would the table properties be shown?

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Start by dragging the text frame wider for access to those columns.

Then select the table full width, and drag the right margin in to a net width better suited to your text frame size.

All controls are in the Table palette and/or Table menu.

T

Thomas_CalvinAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks. I had made the frame smaller to show how the mystery area overflowed it. Even with it as big as possible, you can't select the table... except with another mystery thing; it has no ToolTip, does nothing when clicked, and produces no relevant context menu when right-clicked: