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How do I prevent border formatting from disappearing whenever I insert a table?

Contributor ,
Nov 05, 2022 Nov 05, 2022

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JonChambers_0-1667708573883.png

Hopefully the image above tells you all you need to know, but this is the inside of a textbox. I swapped out the genuine text with placeholder text so as not to distract you, but otherwise this is a very real project I'm actually working on.

So the text above appears inside a border. The text below appears inside a border. But what I actually want... I generated my desired output using photoshop, but I don't know how to replicate it into anything sensible in inDesign.

JonChambers_1-1667708959127.png

(I'll be changing the colour of the cells later anyway, so it doesn't matter if the solution preserves the transparency inside the cells or not.)

So, how do I do this?

 

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correct answers 2 Correct answers

Community Expert , Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

The easiest way - to achieve graphics part - would be to do each block of text/table as separate table - or anchored/inline TextFrame ... BUT if you'll have a lot of text before / after the table - it'll be complicated to flow the text...

 

How long are your before / after texts ?

 

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Contributor , Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

I think I understood you. Or if I didn't, my misunderstanding of you worked perfectly.

 

Using a table just didn't work as hoped, but using four textboxes in a group, c/p directly into the main textbox worked exactly as I intended. Here's a screenshot of the final result.

 

JonChambers_0-1667779247489.png

I'm still slightly disappointed that I couldn't get this feature to work when inserting a table, but given that I wanted a 4 cell table with all cells of exactly equal size, this restriction hasn't hurt my workflow for this proje

...

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Community Expert ,
Nov 05, 2022 Nov 05, 2022

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It's hard to know what is going on without a detailed screen shot. Please provide one with frame edges and hidden characters showing. The box around the text above and below your table (which I assume you want gone) could be strokes on frames, paragraph borders, or tables. 

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Contributor ,
Nov 05, 2022 Nov 05, 2022

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Better?

JonChambers_1-1667710019129.png

Yeah, those are paragraph borders

Edit: If it helps to know, this is the top of 16 linked textboxes. So there is some wordwrap from the previous textbox.

 

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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The easiest way - to achieve graphics part - would be to do each block of text/table as separate table - or anchored/inline TextFrame ... BUT if you'll have a lot of text before / after the table - it'll be complicated to flow the text...

 

How long are your before / after texts ?

 

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Contributor ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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The before text is 1811 words (at time of writing) and spans across 17 pages. 

 

The after text is 252 words long and spans across 2 pages.

Edit2: I deleted my first edit, which showed my misunderstanding of the solution presented.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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If you put table inside the text - cursor in the empty paragraph, Table / Insert Table - your table will flow with the text.

 

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Contributor ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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I think I understood you. Or if I didn't, my misunderstanding of you worked perfectly.

 

Using a table just didn't work as hoped, but using four textboxes in a group, c/p directly into the main textbox worked exactly as I intended. Here's a screenshot of the final result.

 

JonChambers_0-1667779247489.png

I'm still slightly disappointed that I couldn't get this feature to work when inserting a table, but given that I wanted a 4 cell table with all cells of exactly equal size, this restriction hasn't hurt my workflow for this project. Though having this behaviour work with inserted tables is something I still don't know how to do. Should I put in a feature request for it?

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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Ok, now I'm completely lost 😞

 

What do you want to achieve? 

 

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Contributor ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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I acheived it! My latest picture was an example of success. That's exactly what I was trying to do this whole time. When I do it with a table, it doesn't work. But when I do it with 4 textboxes, it works. No idea why, but I'm just rolling with it.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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Either I or Robert are not fully understanding your problem because I don’t see how his solution solves what I think is the problem.

 

As I see it you want the text above and below the table to NOT have a border and NOT have a different coloured background. This is easily accomplished. At the moment it appears those paragraphs have both a paragraph border and paragraph shading applied. You can turn those off in the Control Panel or in the expanded Paragraph panel.

Screenshot-2022-11-06-at-12.09.44-PM.png

 

Screenshot-2022-11-06-at-12.08.23-PM.png

 

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Contributor ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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No... I want the text above and below to share the same border with eachother, and I want the table in the middle to share that border also. So I need to figure out how to turn it on for the table. I already know how to turn it off for the text. It took me ages to get it just right to begin with.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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I'm pretty sure I understand what you want to achieve 

 

Main TextFrame - brown background, text above / below table - gray background, table - transparent. 

 

Looks like I don't understand what you are trying to achieve 😞

 

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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Would just adding a stroke to the text frame solve the problem? Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to apply a paragraph border to a paragraph with a table in it. Below you can see five paragraphs, including the one with the table. The paragraph border is not applied to the paragraph with the table in it, despite all thee middle paragraphs having the same formatting.

Screenshot 2022-11-06 at 8.24.04 PM.png

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Contributor ,
Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

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I already solved it. Is my solution not showing up? I'm puzzled as to why more solutions keep flooding in.

No, adding a stroke to the text frame definitely wouldn't solve the problem. The solution is to create four more text frames, group them, and add a stroke to THAT border, as presented in my solution. (admittedly, the image doesn't show that step yet)

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Community Expert ,
Nov 07, 2022 Nov 07, 2022

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But four TextFrames grouped together is a 2x2 table ??

 

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Contributor ,
Nov 07, 2022 Nov 07, 2022

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No, but they LOOK like a 2x2 table, and for print media, that's close enough.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 07, 2022 Nov 07, 2022

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Ok 🙂 I've re-read all your replies and now I think I understand what you are trying to achieve 😉

 

The misleading part were missing top and bottom edges on your example screens 😞

 

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