Skip to main content
P
puffmoike
Inspiring
May 10, 2017
Answered

What is causing this overset text issue in my data merged document?

  • May 10, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 7578 views

I have created an InDesign template from which I produce an ~400 page document from the records of ~100 people. (I use this once per quarter, for a job that requires a turnaround of only a couple of hours, so I can ill afford the mucking about I currently have to do to produce the finished doc).

Each person's data contains hundreds of values, most of which are simply numerical values or text fields with just a few words, and my ID doc handles the data merge for this data into multi-column tables just fine.

But each person's records also include up to 39 'Actions' which have greater variability in the length of the values, as shown in the Master page below. As you can see this data is displayed in a table of two columns, which respectively contain placeholders for a graphic and for text, which is flowed across threaded text frames.

Frustratingly in the the merged document any page on which this table has sufficient data such that it should extend into the text frame on the right instead gets an overset text error, without any data displayed in the right hand column. But when I look at the specific pages identified in the overset text report in most cases it is not at all clear why the text supposedly does not fit. Indeed, as shown below, I have found through trial and error that simply enlarging and then contracting the second frame is enough to unearth the data and clear the error. (Typically there will also be a couple of instances of 'legitimate' overset text—where the data doesn't visibly fit in the two text frames—and for these I manually apply a different paragraph style with a compressed typeface).

Here is an example of a merged record which triggers an overset text error and doesn't display properly:

1. As initially displayed (right hand frame not displaying any data)

2. After extending the right hand text frame a tiny bit (now displaying all the data, but somewhat intriguingly still showing the red plus icon in the bottom right of the frame)

3. For the point of completeness (and possible help isolating the cause) if I extend the frame further InDesign appears to think it is displaying everything (no red plus icon)

4. Contracting text frame back to less than original size (but with all the data now visible)

The overset test error is not produced if all the data fits into the first column (i.e. the person has completed ≤25 Actions)

So why is InDesign tripping up?

Is there something about the way I have built the template?

(Alternatively is there something I can look for in the CSV file which might be causing this? FWIW to me it seems unlikely that the source data file is the problem given that the issue seems to be consistently triggered by whether the data would extend into the second column or not.)

Any suggestions gratefully accepted

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer xavixanxe

Hi,
I've seen that you have 13 empty table rows on the master page, and I think that's just what cause the overset.
Try removing the unnecessary rows from the master page (you need max 39, right?), I think that way you will stop having problems.
Greetings,
Xavi

3 replies

xavixanxe
xavixanxeCorrect answer
Inspiring
May 18, 2017

Hi,
I've seen that you have 13 empty table rows on the master page, and I think that's just what cause the overset.
Try removing the unnecessary rows from the master page (you need max 39, right?), I think that way you will stop having problems.
Greetings,
Xavi

P
puffmoikeAuthor
Inspiring
May 19, 2017

xavixanxe  wrote

I've seen that you have 13 empty table rows on the master page, and I think that's just what cause the overset.
Try removing the unnecessary rows from the master page (you need max 39, right?)

Bingo!

The longer story is that the number of actions a user could add was unlimited, and it must have maxxed out at 52 on one occasion. The 39 Action limit was introduced only in the last quarter or two. In retrospect I can't believe I didn't think to try deleting the superfluous table cells when I was trying to determine the cause of my issues.

(Of course I'm still intrigued by why I apparently have a whole host of unnecessary XML tags, but unfortunately I'm unable to share the source file publicly. Many thanks to Laubender​ for so generously trying to sort out my issues)

xavixanxe
xavixanxe
Inspiring
May 19, 2017

Hi,

I think those brackets are there because of text variables.

They should not pose any problem.

If you want them to disappear (well, they're not going to disappear but you won't see them anymore ;P), you can do it this way (I don't know which name has this option on english version):

Regards,

Xavi

    P
    puffmoikeAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 11, 2017

    Please note that this statement in my original post is wrong (as evidenced in post directly preceding this one). ​Unfortunately the forum does not allow me to edit the original post.

    puffmoike  wrote

    The overset test error is not produced if all the data fits into the first column (i.e. the person has completed ≤25 Actions)

    L
    Laubender
    Adobe Expert
    May 11, 2017

    Hi,

    I have no answer.
    Just some question:

    1. Do you need the XML tags surrounding nearly all of your records in table column 2 ?
    Maybe there is an issue with the special characters?

    2. Did you try a 2-column text frame instead of 2 text frames threaded?

    Regards,
    Uwe

    P
    puffmoikeAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 16, 2017

    Laubender  wrote

    1. Do you need the XML tags surrounding nearly all of your records in table column 2 ?
    Maybe there is an issue with the special characters?

    I'm out of my comfort zone already, but I don't think there are any XML tags???

    I have a table with two columns, which is threaded across two text frames. In the first column is an image placeholder for an icon (which has one of two file paths in the CSV file), and in the second column has a text placeholder (and if I open the CSV file in Sublime Text then I just see the text as displayed, separated by commas, without any other characters:


    Follow up sales calls re renewals for 2017,Macintosh HD:Users:Michael:Documents:Quarterly Report:assets:complete.ai,Set up of Data 3 main sign off meeting,Macintosh HD:Users:Michael:Documents:Quarterly Report:assets:complete.ai,Sales Brochure for mentoring program finalised,Macintosh HD:Users:Michael:Documents:Business:Quarterly Report:assets:complete.ai,

    What suggests that I have XML tags?

    2. Did you try a 2-column text frame instead of 2 text frames threaded?

    No. To be honest I'd love to find a good resource which explores/explains columns in ID, and in particular when to use multiple threaded text frames, and when to use a single text frame with multiple columns.

    I (try to) shall give it a go…

    Thanks for your reply.

    J
    Jeffrey_Smith
    Adobe Expert
    May 10, 2017

    Are there any GREP styles used in the paragraph style? One possible GREP scenario I see: a no break character style applied to text with .com, so URLs do not break. The line you show where this occurs contains "belindabrosan.com" and prevents text flowing into column until frame is stretched.

    P
    puffmoikeAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 11, 2017

    Jeffrey_Smith  wrote

    Are there any GREP styles used in the paragraph style? One possible GREP scenario I see: a no break character style applied to text with .com, so URLs do not break. The line you show where this occurs contains "belindabrosan.com" and prevents text flowing into column until frame is stretched.

    Intriguing question.

    My initial reaction was to flatly rule it out, because

    • I rarely use GREP (would love to speak GREP but suck at it).
    • When I've extended the text frame I only did so vertically (so "belindabrosan.com" isn't getting any additional horizontal space)

    But I checked the paragraph style just in case. It doesn't have any GREP. However it did include 'Balanced Ragged Lines', which seemed to be in the same ballpark as your suggestion, so I switched that off and tried running the data merge again.

    The overset text report was identical. But all the data was displayed! Even if this is as far as I get, at least I'll only manually have to check each instance to see whether there really is overset text, and not have to resize the text frames. Thank you Jeffrey!

    Still leaves me scratching my head as to why ID thinks there's overset text. Here's the same example, untouched after the latest data merge. As you can see the data is now displayed in both columns, but the overset text icon is still visible the bottom right corner of the text frame (even though the data clearly fits and the empty placeholders indicate that even if there were 39 pieces of text data it would still likely fit).

    Studying the overset text report also revealed that my claim in my first post that "The overset test error is not produced if all the data fits into the first column (i.e. the person has completed ≤25 Actions)" was incorrect.

    Here are two really similar examples from the same data merge that easily fit within the left hand text frame, but InDesign reports that the second example has overset text. Both have:

    • less than a dozen Actions (so easily fit in the left text frame)
    • at least one Action which goes over two lines

    Trying to work out why InDesign thinks one is overset and the other isn't is driving me nuts!

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices