red boxes appearing over text in IDML file

[Alanaloha]

Can anyone help with this problem.
I created pages in the most recent version of Indesign for a client that uses Indesign 4.
When they open the IDML file I created, red boxes appear over devices they pull onto the page (see attached). Any ideas why?

[Eugene Tyson]

Are they on a Mac?
Ask them to try turning off the GPU Performance in the InDesign preferences.

[Alanaloha]

I'm pretty sure they are on a PC. Is there a fix for same issue on PC?

[Eugene Tyson]

Try getting them to update InDesign

Very difficult to know - would need to know
Exact indesign version
Exact specs of PC (RAM, Hard Drive, Graphics Card)
Update the drivers on the computer - switch from dedicated to CPU graphics


Really would need them to be on here to explain their issue.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Is a red fill set as a default?

They should click somewhere on the UI so that nothing is selected in the document, then click on None for fill. That may stop the default of filling each new object with color.

[Alanaloha]

Thank you for your suggestion but fill is not the issue here.

[Jeff Witchel, ACI]

Definitely a bug! I've seen a variety of color shapes unrelated to the design randomly appear on my Mac on occasion. If you scoll the affected area off your screen and back on the screen, it will force the layout to redraw and all goes back to normal. Until it happens again.

[Alanaloha]

Thanks Jeff. We ended up creating a new page template loading only paragraph styles from the new design and this seems to have fixed the issue. 

[Jeff Witchel, ACI]

You can report bugs here: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs

[Eugene Tyson]

Hi Jeff

Do you swtich the GPU performance off and it still happens?

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

@Alanaloha said: "… I created pages in the most recent version of Indesign for a client that uses Indesign 4"

Well, you have turned on the Style Override Highlighter feature in your most recent version of InDesign.

That is the visual marker you see for style overrides. Blue in your current version, red in the old version where the feature was not available in the GUI, but could be turned on by scripting the document.

What you can do:

Turn off Style Override Highlighter in your recent version of InDesign and export the IDML again for your customer with the old InDesign. You'll find the feature in the Paragraph Styles panel or the Character Styles panel, the button that looks like [a+].

FWIW: The red horizontal bars is indicating character overrides; the vertical bars at the left edge of the text frames is indicating paragraph overrides… ( blue in your version of your recent InDesign )

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Alanaloha]

Thank you so much, this simple action has resolved the problem.