Cannot delete text frames

[Guest]

I had three text frames as callouts for a graphic within an anchored frame. I deleted the anchored frame, also deleting the graphic, but the text frames remained. I selected the "Select Object" arrow from the Tools Palette, but it will not let me select the text frames. There are other text frames in the document (within anchored frames) that I am able to select and delete. Please help me understand what to do in order to select and delete these three text frames.

Thank you.

[Van Kurtz]

Try holding down the Ctrl key as you select the edge of the frame.

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

BB, Or upload a screen shot (with Borders and special Characters switched on.

- Michael

[Art Campbell]

Or try Select All (Ctrl-a) and then Ctrl-click each object you DON'T want until just the text frames remain.

[peter minneapolis]

BBTechWriter wrote:

I had three text frames as callouts for a graphic within an anchored frame. I deleted the anchored frame, also deleting the graphic, but the text frames remained. I selected the "Select Object" arrow from the Tools Palette, but it will not let me select the text frames. There are other text frames in the document (within anchored frames) that I am able to select and delete. Please help me understand what to do in order to select and delete these three text frames.

Thank you.

It's possible that there's a graphic (perhaps left over when its contents were deleted) or text frame with a clear fill on top of the text frames that you can't select. If these are larger than the anchored frame that holds them, clicking on them to select won't display selection handles in the anchored frame, though, with View > Borders ON, you may see selection handles "showing through" on the document page. Try clicking the black graphic selection pointer in the anchored frame to select the overlying frame, then press Delete, to see if that removes the selected frame. Or, with the overlying frame selected, choose Graphics > Send to Back, then click away, and click on one of the text frames to see if you can select it. If not, perhaps there's another overlying frame to delete.

Another approach might be to select the anchored frame, then tap and release these keys in sequence: Esc m p (lowercase matters) to adjust the size of the anchored frame to slightly larger than the largest object it contains. This may reveal overlying frames.

BTW, FM can't select a graphic frame and any other object at the same time, not even another graphic frame, so Ctrl+A won't select a graphic frame if other objects are selected.

Finally, are you sure that the text frames are within the anchored frame, and not behind it on the document page, or perhaps on the master page? You can test this by selecting the anchored frame and deleting it; save the file before experimenting, if there's valuable stuff remaining in the frame, so you can use File > Revert if Edit > Undo doesn't revert correctly.

HTH

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

[Guest]

I tried all of these suggestions. My borders and text symbols are on and that does not help. Using "ctrl" and clicking on the text frame does not help. I tried selecting any anchored frame that might exist and "sending back" and deleting it and that just left me with a blank page and pushed my text frames to the next page. At one point I ended up with other graphics under my text as if there were multiple layers and could not select text or graphics.

I decided to just create a new chapter and rewrote the whole chapter.

Thank you all for your help.

[peter minneapolis]

BBTechWriter wrote:

I tried all of these suggestions. My borders and text symbols are on and that does not help. Using "ctrl" and clicking on the text frame does not help. I tried selecting any anchored frame that might exist and "sending back" and deleting it and that just left me with a blank page and pushed my text frames to the next page. At one point I ended up with other graphics under my text as if there were multiple layers and could not select text or graphics.

I decided to just create a new chapter and rewrote the whole chapter.

Thank you all for your help.

Perhaps I wsn't clear about sent to back - anchored frames can't be sent. I meant that if it were possible to select an overlying frame inside the anchored frame, to send that to the back, so as to expose the text frame or graphic frame it was blocking.

When you say that deleting the anchored frame left a blank page and pushed the text flow to the next page, it sounds as if you deleted the main text frame on the body page.

Finally, when you found graphics under the text as if on another layer(s), this happens when applying a master page to a body page that has a different layout; the existing layout (frames and content on the page) is kept, and the master page layout is applied on top. It's confusing to be sure.

I hope that you were able to copy/paste at least some of the material, so you didn't have to retype everything.

Depending on the history of the document - perhaps being converted from earlier or later versions of FM and other vague events - it's possible that the document itself was corrupted. Search Google for the term "framemaker mif wash" without quotes to learn about this simple process that often clears troublesome corruption from FM files.

Regards,

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices