Fixed Page Autoflow doesn't seem to work as described.

Question

I'm creating a 300 page document using Data Merge, placing an image on each page, based on this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfDojdhILig

it begins with a one page document that has a parent page. I put down a container for the picture and boom, it's done.

but I want there to be a text box on each page as well, one that's linked to the page before.

I set up an autoflow box on the parent page. Then I create the 300 pages. But when I put overflow text in the box on page 1, instead of leaping to the box on page 2, it creates new pages at the end.

when I turn off autoflow in type prefs, it doesn't go beyond page 1.

when I follow the instructions in the manual:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/threading-text.html

it tells me to use option shift on my mac to switch it to fixed page autoflow which is supposed to do this, but it doesn't.

Can someone help me see how to do this? It seems not-hard, but it is.

thank you

Rene Andritsch · Accepted Answer

@sethgodin2 the auto flow thext box will always create new pages for overset text. You have to approach it a little differently.

For the Data Merge to work in your example you don’t need the Parent Page. Just create a new document and run the script from the first video to create that csv file.
Then draw an image frame onto the page and insert that image variable into the frame
On the same page create a simple text frame where you want it (just one)
Then run the data merge
In the new document you have to use another script to link all the text frames – script attached here. You have to rename the extension from .txt to .jsx once downloaded. It is not possible to upload jsx files here so we have to use this work around. Then install the script like the other script before (I found this here on the forum: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/link-all-text-frames-in-document/td-p/10414316)
Then it should work as you want it.

Let me know if it worked – I tested it on my end and it worked nicely. Thanks @Peter Kahrel for the script – as always 🙂

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