ID ignores inset spacing

[Kelli Jae Baeli]

I've spent many many hours researching, trying every suggestion, and have come up empty. Nothing seems to work, now.  (I've had this work several times in the past, and wrote it all down, followed it, and it was just fine. And then, sudden;y, it doesnt' work anymore. I've even done the nuclear methods of clearing preferences, uninstalling ID and reinstalling, etc.).

I'm trying to update my novel manuscripts by putting them in Indesign for publishing. Been having fits with the gutter and inset settings. I want to avoid the errors in KDPP, when they say there is overset text.

I have changed my margins to allow for the space they need by using inset settings. SOmetimes they work, sometimes they don't.

I have a template that has all the document settings: margins, 6x9 document, etc.

Tried both using a primary text frame in the setup, and not using it. Neither works reliably.

Here are my steps to create these documents.

(Tried not creating text boxes on parent pages, but making sure doc is set to right ones. Tried creating the text boxes on the parent pages, with the proper settings, and even threading the first box on the facing pages, to the second box on the right of the parent page).

But--Auto sizing height and width is on
Edited file/document presets with settings I want, and
Edited file/document setup
Edited object/text frame options to include the inset spacing and gutter with autosizing turned on for all settings above
Applied parent page settings to all pages
Place/docx file by clicking into first text box on first page (not in parent, in the document), it autoflowed text as expected.
But in the document, it ignored the Inset spacing on the right-hand pages.

IT seems there ought to be a global selection to apply changes to the entire document, but try as I might, I cannot find a way to do it. Going through a 300 page doc and correcting each frame is a ridiculous waste of time. Can someone PLEASE tell me the secret to addressing this issue?

[Joel Cherney]

There are actually a few different ways that one could go about doing this. Since we can't see your document, I can't guess why it's behaving as it is with any degree of certainty. It kind of sounds like you're starting with a one-page document that has Facing Pages turned on, then adjusting one frame on page 1 to have your desired inset settings, then placing and auto-flowing to find that all of your verso (left-hand) pages have your inset setting, but your recto (right-hand) pages do not. Did I get it right? 

Now, I just hate primary text frames on parent pages. They do sound like the very thing you'd want to use here, but I would most likely go about it differently, out of my own prejudices. I would open up the Object Styles panel, and redefine my Basic Text Frame style to have the desired inset. (Or, better, to make a new Object Style, with a not-Basic text frame which I could then set to my desired inset and gutter settings.) Then I could autoflow my document in, and if I needed to make any changes to those settings, I could do so in the definitions of the style. Then, I could make adjustments to every frame in the book from one place, no matter how many pages were involved. 

However, that's just one way to go about doing it. I'm hoping that one of the other forums regulars will tell us how to do it with the primary text frames on the parent pages, because I would like to one day get past my knee-jerk loathing for them. 

[Joel Cherney]

Another way that just occurred to me, that I do not like because I always prefer setting style definitions before I start to fixing things with find-replace at the tail end of a project. But: you absolutely could use the Find Object tab on the Find/Replace panel, and specify the desired inset settings in the Text Frame General Options area in the Change Object Format Options. Then you can set the Search scope to Document and the Type to Text Frames, and hit Change All, which should ostensibly standardize the inset settings throughout the document. 

[Kelli Jae Baeli]

thanks...I'll have to go back and check into this. I'm fifty steps beyond, doing other aspects. I got it to work by starting over with clean doc, but i really want to nail this down. I don't want to deal with it repeatdely. I have 60 books to update. Thanks for your input, I'll come back to it and check it out when i can swing back around.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I've read this twice, and Joel's responses, and I am still unclear on what you mean by "inset spacing." Since these are novels, I am assuming the formatting is fairly basic—chapter headings, body text, bold, italic, maybe a separator. I am not sure why you would use text-frame inside spacing for flowing text, if that's what you mean.

Can you explain (or post an example of) what you mean by "inset spacing" and how you're using it?

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