Thread: Connecting Multiple Text Frames Across 1,200+ Pages in InDesign

Report · Feb 29, 2024

I want to create a document with over 1,200 pages using InDesign, resembling the provided image (dots instead of text). Each page will contain four text frames of varied sizes. My challenge involves integrating four extensive Word documents into these text frames. To achieve this, I need to interconnect all frames. The goal is to link all "Frame 1s" to every other Frame 1 across pages, and the same for Frame 2s, Frame 3s, and Frame 4s. Ultimately my document will have four different so-called Stories/ Threads , all starting from the first page. And here's the problem: I can't connect all frames simultaneously. While I successfully merged one frame type-frame 1s (using Insert Pages to replicate 1,200 identical pages based on a parent page), this method doesn't extend to all four frames. It looks like I can only connect one frame number at a time (only create 1 story at a time). I experimented with various options such as with/without: Parent pages, Smart Flow, Shift, Alt, duplicate spreads, etc., but nothing worked. Any suggestions on how you would approach this?

Report · Feb 29, 2024

You should be able to do this by creating a parent page (probably a two-page spread) with 4 frames per page. Thread the pairs across the spread. DO NOT designate a primary text frame.

Report · Mar 01, 2024

Thanks for the advice. I created a new document with the following settings: No Primary Text Frame, With Smart Text Reflow, With a Parent/Master containing 4 (Facing?) pages. I linked each of the four text frames on the parent pages. I then placed my first Word document in frame 1 (on the first normal page). This worked well: all text moved to all frames 1 until the Story ended. Then I did the same with Frame 2s - and that's where the problem arose. Even though Frames 2 also nicely reflowed the merged Frames 2, Frames 1 lost the previously placed text (only the first 4 text frames remained with text - the rest were empty). When I tried to place the 3rd Word document into thext frame 3 , both frames 1 and 2s lost their text, and additionally some text frames 4 I was not able to activate / edit or place text. I start thinking that maybe the document is too long (over 1200 pages) and other my computer is not good enough to handle this amount or maybe even for InDesign it is too much. I am thinking to buy new computer with better RAM(?) memory. Can somone advise me on the minimum sofware /computer requirments ? Many thanks for any advises (I have basic knowledge of InDesign).

Report · Mar 01, 2024

Text shoulds not be disappearing once placed, so something is wonky. It might be related to smart text reflow - a feature I find at bewst dangerous, and at worst useless, but I'm old-school. Hold the shift key when placing text anc InDesing will add pages to hold it all. Also not sure I understand why you created a 4-page parent spread. Unless you are doing some sort of fold-out pages this will also be a problem for output.

In the meantime, which version, including dot release number and language localization are you using, and what is your OS (and version). You may have run into a bug, and if so it may have been corrected in a newer release, or with an OS upgrade, or you may want to roll back to a version 18 if you are running 19.

1200 pages is a pretty big document. Is it possible to split your text into sections and make multiple files? This is commonly done with very long documents, and the various files are combined/managed using the Book panel.

Report · Mar 05, 2024

Thank you, it worked! Thanks to your suggestions, I went in the right direction 😊

I will write what I did, maybe it will be useful to someone:
- As suggested, I turned off Smart Text Reflow. I also hold down the Shift key while placing text, which automatically moves the text to the correct text frames throughout the document.
- Initially I was using a 4 page parent spread because when I used 2 pages the effect was that I was getting 1 pairs of text frames (just two pages linked together) instead of one long Story. However, I eventually managed to do everything in 1-page-Parent.
- I also checked the InDesign system requirements - my computer has all the necessary requirements.
- I was also up to date with my computer's Windows updates, however, I found some Optional Window updates available in Settings: Update & Security. I completed the updates and after that my InDesign started running faster and stopped crashing. Most probably not updating Windows was the main reason for my problems.
- Important: When I'm done, I make sure there are no errors showing at the bottom (red dot) because sometimes some text frame threads "break" and I have to connect them manually (it happens to me every 300-400 pages so it's not a big deal because it only takes a few clicks to connect one frame to another).

Report · Mar 05, 2024

Glad you got it straightened out.

Report · Apr 10, 2024

I'm having the same issue (Text from frame 1 disappears when I paste into frame 2) but the solutions suggested here don't seem to work for me. When I disable Smart Text Reflow it only pastes the text into the frame on that page and won't reflow past that. Holding down shift doesn't work either.

Report · Apr 10, 2024

Don't paste. Click the red plus sign in the out port to load the overset text, then put your cursor over the next text frame (or blank page) and hold down the shift key and click.

Report · Mar 01, 2024

@Emilia23857006mvjk

If I may add to @Peter Spier's description - this is how your Master Spread should look like - I've moved each pair of TextFrames to a separate layers - for clarity:

And as @Peter Spier said - Smart Reflow isn't so smart - after overriding each TF on 1st Page and hitting NumEnter few times - it automatically adds new pages but then shifts previously added pages:

But after reverting, turning it OFF, hitting NumEnter few times and then manually reflowing:

Report · Mar 05, 2024

Thank you for the great visuals! I had the issues that you described, but at the end worked for me just with 1-page Parent. After running some additional/Optional updates to my Window the problem was resolved. Thank you for your help 🙂