Help! Anchor is moving my text.

[clessdu4]

I have a word doc with 100 pages of text and anchored side bar text boxes containing text that is relevant to the paragraph that its anchored to. When I place the doc into my indesign file the anchors move my text and or alter its style in the place where the anchor is, almost as if its a character. for example, I have a bulleted list, with a anchor in front of one of the bullets, it indents my text and strips out the bullet. The actual text box that is attached if fine, its just where the anchor is placed that is a problem. Any help will be so appreciated, I’m been brainstorming for 4 days. I expect the word file to have edits so I need to keep things tidy so updates flow right in.

[jane-e]

If you need to re-anchor the frame, then use your Selection tool to select > then cut > then paste. Re-anchor the frame by dragging the anchor box to the place you want it anchored.

I don't see that your margin has enough room for the frame to float within the margin. Does it have text wrap on it? Where do you want it placed and what do you want it to look like? (You can sketch it if you need to.) You might need to make it Inline by Shift + Drag the Anchor widget to a new line.

The anchored frame has an extra # sign at the top left and I'm not sure what that's about. Is it a frame for the text (anchored) inside another frame with rounded corners and a drop shadow? If so, you probably only want one frame, not two.

Another thing that doesn't make sense to me is that your frames on both pages extend upwards past your top margin (the purple guide) and also there is a Link Badge in the upper left indicating an image when it looks like text.

Maybe there are reasons for these that I don't see from the screenshot.

The paragraph that lost the bullet also has different text formatting. Reapply the Paragraph style you are using for the other bulleted paragraphs and it should be okay.

[clessdu4]

If I re-anchor in indesign file then a new anchor will duplicate each time I update the link and I will have to manually delete throughout the book, each time the file is upated. The link badge you see in the corner is indicating the text is linked, which it is. All text edits are made in Word and then indesign are updated. updating the style, does fix the style problem but the bullet is still not there and it just reverts back with each update. Indesign is treating the anchor like a character with I bizarre. I feel like there should be a setting on how to handle anchors.

[jane-e]

Okay, thanks for mentioning that the text is linked to the Word file. I don't use that feature.

• https://indesignsecrets.com/import-word-documents-edit-in-word-and-indesign-and-keep-linked-for-upda...

• https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2289490#9388689

Is it only happening with this anchor or with all anchors?

Three things I can think of to check:

1. In Word, link the callout frame to another paragraph. Does the new paragraph change? Does the former paragraph still change or is it now okay?
2. Examine the paragraph formatting in Word. Click the Launcher to open the Styles panel. What style is it using? Does it have overrides? They will be listed in the top box. It might say "List Item + 14 pts + Minion Pro", for example.
3. Examine the formatting in InDesign. What style is it assigned to here?

This may be a Word issue or it may be an InDesign issue. Not only did you lose the bullet, but the entire paragraph changed formatting. It has to be examined in both places. If it is only the one anchor and if it causes the same problem with a new paragraph, I would then suspect the anchored frame.