Text flow is not right

[Northporter]

I changed the order of three pages now the text flows to the original pages instead of to the replacement page. How do I get the text to flow correctly?

[Willi Adelberger]

Relink the frames, click on tho out-square bottom right to the should-be-next frame. Sometime click short wth holding the cmmd/ctrl key to select the nect frame.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I was going to add a note to Willi's instructions, but here's a complete page on how text pages link and thread — all good, relevant info:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/threading-text.html

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[Northporter]

It's a bigger problem than it first appeared. We have some very messed up pages. At this point we have double text boxes on some of the affected pages in addition to the text not flowing right. There may be other problems we aren't aware of.  I'm going to contact a person we know for a few hours worth of InDesign lessons. Hopefully, she can point out our errors and straighten things out. Thanks for the help though. It's nice to know people are willing to help.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Lessons are always good, but here's what might be a simple solution: create a new document with the same page layout. Be sure "Primary Text Frame" is checked when you do the setup.

Select all the text from the faulty document (Just Ctrl-A in the text flow, then Ctrl-C to copy it). Put the text cursor in the first text frame of the new document, and Ctrl-V to paste it. Should flow into a near-duplicate of the old doc with all the material in the right order.

Might be easier than untangling a mangled doc.

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[Northporter]

I like your thought. This is a 170+ page book that my wife has spent 6-7 years on. If I understand your instructions we need to copy the whole project then move the text. I tremble just thinking af the chances of me messing it up. We have someone coming about a week that is much younger than I and has taken college classes on InDesign. It’s a granddaughter. Our marriage has a much better chance of surviving if she messes it up. I’ll just try to learn something as she straightens this
out. Thanks for the advice though.

Sent from Mail<> for Windows

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

You don't have to risk the original at all.

Create a completely new document with the page size and margins of the original (or, this is the time to tweak them for good print standards — a typical mistake is to make the inside margin too small).

Make sure you have Facing Pages and Primary Text Frame checked when you create it.

Then open both documents, select/copy the entire flow from the original, and place/paste it in the new one. It should do a smooth new flow all the way to the end. And if you mess it up, just delete the pasted text and try again. The original book will be exactly as you left it. Save it as an archive edition.

Among other things, this will let you 'clean up' the new file considerably and get rid of excess baggage that can cause errors or just annoying editing glitches.

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[Northporter]

We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Nashville, so I haven't been able to respond to this post. My wife is going on a trip for a few days in about a week. I am going to try this when she is gone. It will save her (and me) a few grey hairs as she won't be looking over my shoulder and worrying about what I'm doing.  This looks like the same advice as the previous reply so thanks to you both.