Hidden character symbol (#) went to the front

[Ken25780576sejp]

Hi all,

I have encountered an issue about the hidden character symbol (#), its suppose to be end of the sentence, but dont sure why it went to the front and then when I type someing into it, it became strange, and not in order.

Does anyone know what happened and how can I solve it?

Thank you in advance!

[Willi Adelberger]

It happens when another text frame is above the first one.

Go to the layer panel, expand all layers and look if there is an unwanted text frame.

[Ken25780576sejp]

Thank you, Wili.

I looked into the layer panel, only one text frame there.

In addition, I copied from another indesign file actually, it is fine at the original file, but when became strange when it is copied to another file.

[Willi Adelberger]

Is one frame on the master/parent?

[Ken25780576sejp]

Master is clear, I unlinked that page to any master, still the same

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ken25780576sejp ,

my guess is that the paragraph is formatted with the Adobe World-Ready Composer or the Adobe World-Ready Single-line Composer plus the paragraph direction of the paragraph is right to left. Therefore the end of the story is at the left and not at the right. See my screenshot from my German InDesign where I set-up a sample below.

Setzer (Composer) Globaler Adobe-Absatzsetzer (Adobe World-Ready Composer) + paragraph direction: Right To Left

If you do not have the MENA version of InDesign (Middle East North Africa) that is necessary for Hebrew or Arabic, you can change the paragraph direction back to "normal" with this script written in ExtendScript (JavaScript):

Have some text selected in the paragraph and run this script code:

app.selection[0].paragraphs[0].paragraphDirection = ParagraphDirectionOptions.LEFT_TO_RIGHT_DIRECTION;

Note: your sample may include some Chinese or Japanese glyphs. The World Ready Paragraph Composer is not necessary for this kind of glyphs to show right.

However, for a whole paragraph with Chinese or Japanese glyphs I would recommend to use the Adobe Japanese Paragraph Composer or the Adobe Japanese Single-line Composer which are only directly available with a menu command in the Chinese/Japanese version of InDesign.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Ken25780576sejp]

Thank you, Uwe. Looks like this is the root of the issue.

I am not familiar with ExtendScript, how can I apply the script code in this case?

Thanks.

[Laubender]

Hi @Ken25780576sejp ,

save the code to an unformatted text-only file with suffix *.jsx on your desktop.

Back to InDesign: Open the Scripts panel in InDesign.

Select the User folder inside the Scripts panel. There is a command at the panel that can show the selected folder of the Scripts panel in the Mac Finder or in the Windows Explorer.

Back to your desktop:

Copy the script file to the Scripts Panel folder in Mac Finder or Windows Explorer.

Back to InDesign the script file's name should be available in the User folder of the Scripts panel.

To execute the code of this script file set your text cursor inside the paragraph or select one or some characters in the paragraph and double-click the script file's name in the User folder of InDesign's Scripts panel.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ken25780576sejp ,

also see into this blog post:

How to Install a Script in InDesign That You Found in a Forum or Blog Post
If you find a script that is just text (not a downloadable file), how do you install it?
by David Blatner, This article was last modified on December 21, 2021

https://creativepro.com/how-to-install-a-script-in-indesign-that-you-found-in-a-forum-or-blog-post/

Or look into this:

How to Install InDesign & InCopy Scripts
Just Put Them into the Proper Folder
by Dan Rodney

https://www.danrodney.com/scripts/directions-installingscripts.html

Or this one by Peter Kahrel:

https://creativepro.com/files/kahrel/indesign/script-info.html

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Ken25780576sejp]

Thank you! it works