Body text boxes move when I delete a page

[amyeds]

Hi all

I am formatting a book, and after about 300 pages I realized I needed to make a change to the size of the text boxes on the B master page, to reduce the page count. I did that, and it worked fine for the first chapter (chapters start on A master pages.) I deleted an empty page at the end of the first chapter. 

From then on, every text box was incorrectly aligned, with some having the wider gutter margin on the outside pages instead of the inside. This happened bc even pages became odd, and Vice versa, but I've deleted document pages before and never had this problem: I didn't override the master pages when I placed the text. Is there a setting I might have accidentally changed? Possibly with the new update? Would love to not have to start over or move every box back by hand.

thanks! 

[J E L]

Hi Amy - I have never used text boxes for narrative flow on master pages for books as you won’t have the same control if you need to make adjustments. I use master pages to set margins as guidelines and then use place text comman to import text which creates automatic text boxes on each page within my margins. Maybe that is a longer workaround but it’s how I’ve always done it. Then, if I need to tighten things up, I can change the paragraph styling or adjust margins on the master pages to reflow the text. So, I’m trying to think about what you are experiencing. Are you saying that the A master with the adjusted text box size that is applied to pages after chapter 1 are not resizing? Or are you applying a different master to subsequent chapters? Are the text boxes on odd and even pages different sizes? What is the resson for that? Have you tried creating a new master page and applying that to see if the alignment problem is fixed? You may also need to reset your numbering and section options to fix the odd/even pages. Happy to look at your file if I can help!

[amyeds]

Thank you! I've never tried importing text that way, but I will next time. This is what it is looking like for me right now: on my master page, each text box is set within the margins. 

[J E L]

Hmmm. I can't duplicate what you are experiencing. The only thing I can think of without seeing your file is that you needed to check the "adjust layout" box before applying the change since you say you didn't override the master pages when you placed the text. Let me try some things tomorrow!

[Willi Adelberger]

Has your master primary text frames or did you put text frames on the master?

[J E L]

Good question, Willi. I’m thinking a text box would have to be placed on a master page deliberately because I don’t see a way to create a master page that automatically has a workable text box. If you manually place a text box on a master page, there is a dialog box on the edge you can “click to make this story the master’s primary text flow” but even so, how do you go to a normal page and add text without creating another text box? The use of master pages is for elements that are fixed, like folios, graphic elements, and page numbers, which can be overridden when needed on individual pages.

Amy, have you looked at your layers to see if you have more than one text box on each page? How are you adding text to individual pages? Through the place tool from a text document like Word? You may have to adjust the text boxes to the new master page margin guides on each page. Or, if you saved a version of your file before you made the change to the size of your master page text boxes, you could go back to that version and try turning on the “adjust layout” and “adjust locked content” on the margin settings before making the change. The only other thing I can think of is to try selecting the pages that are affected and choose to “override all master page items” and then create and apply a new master page and adjust the entire layout. But the text boxes you show in your screenshot makes me think nothing is going to change the position of those boxes now automatically. Unless there is some script that would tell the document to place all or selected text boxes at a specific X/Y location on each page? Again, I’m not able to recreate exactly what you are experiencing so please take my suggestions as wild guesses! Please let us know what you figure out!

[J E L]

I don’t see a way to create a master page that automatically has a workable text box.

Just an added note to say I realize the “primary text frame” option could have been checked when creating a new document but I have never used that for a book set-up.

[Willi Adelberger]

For books I would strongly recommend to use primary text frames as you can reapply another master and the stor will reflow in the different text frame (not box).

But if someone adds a normal text frame on the master, each time he applies the same or another master, another text frame is added on the page.