Pasted Text does not Flow to Succeeding Page(s)

[Jack]

I just pasted some text from an external text editor into my open inDesign document, and was surprised to observe that that the text failed to flow onward into the next page. Could one of you please show me what setting(s) might need to be changed, to fix this.

[fenjas29325284]

Autoflow:

Copy/Paste: Draw the first text frame and paste the text.

Click with the arrow tool (V) on the + symbol of the first text frame, press & hold the shift key and click on the next position.

Or use the File > Place command with the same keyboard shortcut.

See here for the possible options: Thread text among frames in Adobe InDesign

Fenja

[Barb Binder]

Or,

Switch to the Selection tool (the black arrow ) and click on the overset icon in the bottom right of the page to load the text cursor, and navigate to the next page.

Click at the top of the next page to place the text. Or, if there is a lot of text to place, Shift+click to autoflow the remainder of the story.

That said, you are better off using File > Place to bring text in from Word. You have better control over the conversion than if you use cut and paste.

[rob day]

Could one of you please show me what setting(s) might need to be changed, to fix this.

Look at Preferences>Type>Smart Text Flow. With Smart Text on anything pasted into a Primary Text Frame or Master text frame will automatically add new pages

[Jack]

When I opened Preferences | Type, I found that Smart Text Reflow had already been checked. When I looked at its sub-properties, I changed the selection after "Add Pages to” from "End of Story” to “End of Section”.

Then tried again. All text again piled up in the current page.

tks,

jwc

[Barb Binder]

From Thread text among frames in Adobe InDesign :

By default, Smart Text Reflow is limited to master text frames — text frames that are on a master page. If the document includes facing pages, master text frames must appear on both left and right master pages, and the master text frames must be threaded for Smart Text Reflow to work.

You can change settings to allow pages to be added or removed when working in text frames that aren’t based on master pages. However, a text frame must be threaded to at least one other text frame on a different page for Smart Text Reflow to work.

To see how to thread on the body pages, take a look at my first response.

[rob day]

However, a text frame must be threaded to at least one other text frame on a different page for Smart Text Reflow to work.

Generally I keep Smart Text turned off, so I just tried starting with a pair of threaded text frames that are not connected to a master, and when it reaches the last frame the new pages get a text frame set to the page's master margins, which could produce an unexpected result:

Here my pages have different margins than their masters

[rob day]

Then tried again. All text again piled up in the current page.

Hopefully to clarify—when you create a new document there is an option to include a Primary Text Frame. If you check it, a text frame is created on the document's A-Master spread and those master page items are automatically overridden on any new pages you create. If you paste overflow text into a page's Primary Text Frame or any overridden master page text frame you create, then Smart Text Reflow will add pages as needed.

The technique Barb is describing uses the page's margins to create new pages and draw new text frames on those pages. In that case the new text frames are Page Items and have no relationship to a master unless you explicitly create and target master page items before you paste.

[Jack]

Understand from your response that the text-flow setting should be made when creating a new document. Now that I have one with already considerable content, where can I go to change that setting if needed? I looked in inDesign Preferences and could not find the setting there. It's probably there (?), but I could not find it.

[rob day]

You can't add the Primary Text Frame functionality to an existing document that was not set up that way. In the end a primary text frame is an automatically overridden master page text frame, so it is possible to add text frames to your existing masters, but if you are not completely comfortable with the way master pages work you could get into trouble. I think Barb's #2 is the best you can do with a document with no master or primary text frames.