Portions of text are highlighted pink w/ tiny squares next to them

[Mycelian]

Hello,

I'm trying to cut and paste from my main document (in OpenOffice) to InDesign. I'd say that 98% of the text is fine but occasionally I get random sections of text highlighted in pink with tiny squares next to them (see attached pic below). I don't believe this to be a missing font issue because I will have an entire paragraph with this particular font be perfectly fine. While another has roughly 3/4 of the text normal and the other 1/4 highlighted in this way. I can't simply change the font because I need that font I have for the body text. So far rewording the text has worked (to an extent) but after a certain point it will randomly highlight again. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[jmlevy]

Text highlighted in pink definitively means that the font is missing.

In your exemple, it could be bold or italic since there is not any problem in the other parts of the text.

[Mycelian]

The text is set to Regular, but it's interesting you mention Bold, because if I set just that frame to Bold, it's still highlighted, yet Italics (or Bold Italics) seems to correct the issue. I'm really lost as to what to do to correct these issues. I can't have these sections of the document boldened or italicized.

[SJRiegel]

You easily determine is a missing font is causing the highlighting; go to Type > Find/Replace Font, and see if any of the listed fonts are shown as missing in that dialog.

[Mycelian]

No missing fonts

[Mycelian]

So far I've found only two solutions to somewhat correct the highlighting problem but not the overall issue:

• Setting the text to Italics or Bold Italics
• Removing Ligatures from the text.

The latter I'm not sure about. I'm still very new to this program, and from what I can tell, all of the main text I have has Ligatures on, so while it may fix the highlighting I'm not sure how it will affect the text as a whole.

[Mycelian]

The only other option I've found is by going into this menu seen below and switching it to "Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer"

[jmlevy]

This has no relation with any missing font.

Put the text cursor anywhere in the pink highlighted portion and look at the control panel (the text section with a A). Is the font name displayed between brackets?

[Mycelian]

No, just the font name.

However, one thing I've noticed however is that if I double click that strange square next to the text I get the following message: "OpenType properties are not applicable" Is that normal, or is this relevant to the issue?

[jmlevy]

I get the following message: "OpenType properties are not applicable" Is that normal, or is this relevant to the issue?

No, I seriously doubt. This message is relative to some OpenType properties that the font you use has not.

What font is it? Can you post a screenshot of the character section of the control panel?

Did you try to save your OpenOffice document as a Word document and import it in InDesign instead of cutting and pasting? 

[Mycelian]

Here is a screen shot of the text bar:

I haven't tried importing the Word document in because so much of the book is already done, I'm worried I'll have to start over from scratch. The document from OpenOffice is .ODT.

Is it possible to save just the chunks of text that are being problematic as a Word document and import only those?

[jmlevy]

Is it possible to save just the chunks of text that are being problematic as a Word document and import only those?

Certainly, but it will take you a very long time.

As Uwe wrote, without seeing the actual InDesign file and the ODT file, it is very difficult to go further.

[Mike Witherell]

If you apply a paragraph style to control the text, you won't have that problem.

[Mycelian]

I do have a paragraph style set.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Then, select the text and reset it to the Paragraph Style;

A few ways to do that:

Click in the paragraph/select text and Option-click on the style in your Paragraph Styles Panel. This will reapply the style to the entire paragraph and clear any overrides.

or, select the affected text and pull down the menu on the top right corner of the Paragraph Styles panel, and "Clear Overrides"

(Of course, if you have some items you WANT to override with a bold or italic, they will get cleared as well, depending on the method)

[Mycelian]

First method doesn't work and "Clear Overrides" is greyed out

[John Mensinger]

I doubt it's "random". Almost nothing truly is.

Is your Clipboard Handling > Paste preference set to Text Only, or All Information?

I suspect it's possible the text you're pasting includes hidden markup language from OpenOffice.

For a workflow like this, it's best to paste Text Only into a frame (or thread of frames), to which a Paragraph Style is pre-applied. You'll never have this problem.

[Mycelian]

It is currently set to "Text Only"

[jmlevy]

It is currently set to "Text Only"

What do you mean?

As Mike suggest, I would create at least one paragraph style using the regular typeface you need, apply this style to your text and create character style(s) as bold, italic, bold italic that you could apply locally.

[Mycelian]

When I said "Text Only" I meant that the Clipboard Handling paste preference was indeed set to "Text Only".

As for paragraph styles. I currently have been using regular typeface paragraph style used throughout the document. That's why I don't understand why this is happening. I tried creating character style but I didn't do anything.

[Laubender]

Hi Mycelian,

please post one sample of the InDesign document.

Also one sample of the OpenOffice file.

This is a rather strange issue; I'd like to see into it.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Mycelian]

Left is InDesign, Right is OpenOffice

[John Mensinger]

Yeah those little squares are curious. What does that look like in Story Editor?

[Mycelian]

[Jumpenjax]

I agree with Jmlevy. It is a missing font. You may want to try to change the font. Take a look to see if the highlighted area has is fixed. If it is fixed you can see if it is in a italic or bold. Then  change the font back to original and see if thatclears it up. I have done that in the past and it seem to fix the issue. 💁🏼‍:female_sign: