Margins have disappeared from Parent (master) pages

Report · May 05, 2023

Hi. Using ID 18.2.1 on Win 11.

On page 8 of a 10-page chapter in the middle of a book, the margins have disappeared from the parent (master) pages AND from the working pages. This occurred when I added two pages to a spread. The new pages showed up without margins. Headers and footers are present. A quick check of the parent pages show that they, too, no longer have margins even though margins are still defined correctly in Document Setup.

This is not an issue of not having guides enabled or somehow mistakenly being in preview mode. Closing and opening the file and the program had no effect. The margins are gone from the parent pages and from new pages created from the parent pages.

Margins still appear on previously existing pages in the file that already have text. I can link overflow text and margins appear on the new page when I click... but they are not the margins as defined in Document Setup, which still shows the correct margin definitions.

This looks to me like a bug caused by some horizon condition. There are other posts that report similar problems, but they appear to be from folks who didn't realize they were in preview mode, or for whom hiding and showing View Margins in the layout menu had an effect. Not for me!

Suggestions?

Thanks as always to the community.

-j

Report · May 05, 2023

I don't know what happened or how to fix it. I exported to IDML and re-imported... but that did nothing.

So what I have done is to create a new file from my working template and then copy/paste all text from the problematic file to the new one. There was a non-zero chance that the new file would break because of whatever happened to the old one... but that didn't happen. Then I deleted the old file from the book, replaced it with the new one, and I am proceding.

But SOMETHING happened. Something triggered the loss of the margins -- and only the margins. Grids were still present. Headers and footers and page numbers still present in the parent pages. When I added two pages, something occurred to delete margins.

Report · May 05, 2023

It's hard to know without seeing anything. A few screengrabs could help.

Margins just don't 'delete'. But not appearing is a worry as it could be other corruption going on.

One thing I have done in the past to 'fix' odd behaviour is create a new document with the same margins and all else.

Then with both documents open you can use Move Pages to move your pages from the damaged document to the blank new document.

https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/indesign/using/pages-spreads-1.html#:~:text=Move%20pages%20between%20the%...

I don't know if that will help.

But again - it's difficult to know without seeing the situation - if you could share screenshots or the actual document that would be very helpful.

Report · May 06, 2023

I'm not sure how much images will add to the discussion, but I'm happy to offer them.

The first is the document setup dialog. You can see that margins are defined.

This is a sample parent page (tainted). You can see that the grid is visible as well as the header and the page number in the footer -- but no margins are visible, even though they are set for the document.

This is a working page. It likewise displays no margins.

Now... immediately previous to these pages AND IN THE SAME FILE, I have active text and illustrations AND margins that display. I added two pages, and suddenly neither the parent pages nor the working pages (that had no text because I had just added them) would display margins. One of the solutions I have seen for people with similar problems is "Oh, you have mistakenly been using preview mode." No. That is not the case. (Certainly, the grid lines would not display in Preview mode; but I did check to make sure.) Another potential solution is, choose Layout | Margins and Columns -- you have forgotten to set or display them. Not so. Or: Toggle the Margins and Columns preview button. Nope, didn't work. Margins are displayed in half the chapter, why not on the new pages? And what happened to them in the parent pages? They are set. They should appear. They do not appear. Anyway, here is the Margins dialog:

This is why I call BUG. I still think that somehow, I hit a horizon condition (or corrupted a low-level setting to which I have no direct access). The only solution I have come up with is to copy and paste the old text into a new chapter with working visible margins. That worked, but it doesn't prevent it from happening again in this or any other file -- as long as the triggering even is not understood.

Thanks.

-j

Report · May 06, 2023

If not document related it's application.

Try resetting your preferences:

Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.
Further info and instructions here if needed:
https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

____

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html