• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Problem with text box not breaking across pages

Explorer ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

This is a new one. I am using a plugin to generate letters. Think of the ID document being made of rectangles. There is a text box that automatically enlarges if necessary, and pages are automatically created as needed.

But inside of this text box are more text boxes. The problem text box has a table in it. If the table is too large this text box doesn't generate a new linked text box. I don't suppose there are any formatting commands that I could apply to this text box to bend to my will.

TOPICS
Print

Views

187

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

Explorer , Dec 19, 2022 Dec 19, 2022

It turns out that the plugin I was using didn't require the text boxes anchored to text boxes. Everything could just go in the single text box. Problem solved.

 

Other approaches to using this plug did require the extra text boxes. But what I wanted didn't require them. Solved.

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I confess that I am having a trouble imagining what you are doing. Maybe you could share a sample file?

Have you experimented with setting the Text Frame Options (Cmd/Ctrl+B) for the textframe that contains the table to Auto-Size vertically in some way?

Mike Witherell

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

You are right, an example will be helpful, so I'm attaching an ID file. Look carefully at the main text flow, it has text boxes inside of it. The last text box is made of up a table which has tables inside of it. If the main table gets too long it goes to the next page. But it the table doesn't fit on a page I think it will  not expand to another page. I will have to test more. This is EasyCatalog creating documents from data and they seem to have thought of everything.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I forgot to mention that I have been playing with the Text Frame options. The solution probably resides in EasyCatalog and not ID but I thought it was worth asking.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

In looking at your sample file, I notice there are no paragraph styles and no table/cell styles. That limits your possibilities.

 

Also, I notice that there are soft returns just before embedded sub-tables. Seems to me they should be hard returns. I wonder if that would change the behavior? Just guessing.

 

I don't know if it is an option for you, but nowadays, you can design paragraph styles that include all sorts of rules, borders, and shading. The end result can look like a table.

Mike Witherell

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

After glancing over all your posts here —

 

Text frames don't automatically break over pages. If you want text to flow from one page to another, you must create and link another text frame. As much as this is automatic with primary text frames and in other ways, they are separate elements of the layout that just happen to conveniently link for flow of the content.

 

Not sure it applies to your current project or might to some aspect of it, but you can't break anchored text frames across pages either. That is, if you anchor a text frame for a sidebar or the like, it is constrained to one page.

 


â•Ÿ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) â•¢

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hey James,

I just was experimenting and noticed that the frame adornment icon for anchored frames is now an anchor icon. It used to be a big blue dot. I wonder when that changed?

Mike Witherell

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The blue dot is for an unanchored object, the cute little anchor is for, well, anchored ones. 🙂

 

I don't recall it ever being any different, but that doesn't mean much. It's my practice to purge obsolete information as much as I can.

 

The not-breaking-over-pages is a PITA for things like TOCs. The logic is sound, I think, but it does force some workarounds.

 


â•Ÿ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) â•¢

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Unfortuantely the tool I am using that is taking relational data and generating the letters works with tables if I want to create a PDF per letter. So that drives the use of tables. I think the problem is that the plugin I'm using can't have the inner text box cross pages. They are in GB so I won't hear back from them until Mondany. I originally generated this without tables but that required me to create a single PDF with over 1,000 of letters in it.

Now, If I can embed something that will identify page one and then break up the resulting ID file into multiple files or PDFs I could work that way.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Have you fully explored ID's merge features instead?

 


â•Ÿ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) â•¢

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 16, 2022 Dec 16, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

In playing with this example file, I wonder what is so complicated that you have to create so many anchored textframes within textframes. I wonder if it could not be simplified and still work merging data in a relational database.

Mike Witherell

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 19, 2022 Dec 19, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

It turns out that the plugin I was using didn't require the text boxes anchored to text boxes. Everything could just go in the single text box. Problem solved.

 

Other approaches to using this plug did require the extra text boxes. But what I wanted didn't require them. Solved.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines