Empty pages with placed Word file

[Christian282769785w8y]

Hello!

I have been working on a a pre-print of a book about 200 pages long (using Master pages) and sometimes InDesign desides to skip a page (i.e. leave it blank) and continue on the next one. I removed all Keep options to make sure this isn't the reason and it still does this. I have no overset text or images, as seen in story mode. I have no weird formatting other than simple chapter titles. However, the problem seems to pop up at random and doesn't seem to have to do with chapter titles. Funny thing is if I manually drag the box where the text continues into the blank page it actually works.

What could be the reason?

Thank you

Chris

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Is there anything identifiable or consistent about the breaks? Do they involve extra paragraph returns? Are they associated with particular styles or headings?

[Christian282769785w8y]

Turns out for some reason the text boxes weren't set to autoflow text in this particular instance! I simply used the square icon on the bottom right of the last page with text and placed the text in the next box... I don't know how that happens when I have master pages on...

[Randy Hagan]

It can occur if you use "Next Page" markers at the end of your chapters/sections in the MSWord document.

If you used those markers in your MSWord manuscript, InDesign can interpret that to move and leave a blank page in the document. One way to test is to go to one of those New page starts in your InDesign document and backspace once. If it goes backward before your "blank page" and to the end of your previous paragraph two pages back, that's likely your culprit.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Autoflow can be a little fussy. The most reliable way to bring a Word file into InDesign is to create a new document, set up facing Master pages, make sure Facing Pages and [Use] Primary Text Frame are checked in Document Setup.

Then, on the first blank page, use Place to select the Word file, usually with Import Options checked so you can control the import (and map styles, a big time saver)... and then use Shift-click to place the content in that first frame. It will autoflow to as many pages as it needs.

Not sure that clears up why you are getting blank pages, but unless you can match those gaps to specific content, it's easy enough to go through and close them up.