Appearance of numbered figure captions vary even though using the same style

[Nedlaw]

Hi. Using ID 15.0.3 CC on Windows 10 currently updated.

I am using a single numbered figure caption style for two captions, and the style seems to produce two different effects. There appear to be no overrides in place. (There is another figure caption style to start/restart numbering at Figure 1. That style is not misbehaving.) Fig 1 and Fig 2 appear correctly; fig 3 and subsequent do not.

Figure 2 -- centered with a small space (tab) between the figure number and the caption. (The tab is used later to align figure numbers in the TOC.)

Figure 3 -- appears left-justified with a large space (tab) between figure number and caption.

Here is the defintion (I think I have included the important parts of the dialog). This one style is selected and applied to both figures above.

There appear to be no overrides applied to the text. I have tried closing and restarting the program. No improvement. I have not saved the doc as IDML or any other intermediate format. The two graphics and their captions are on sequential pages, and I don't see anything (obvious) between the two pages that would have triggered such odd behavior. I have not seen this effect previously. I have not to my knowledge triggered any kind of horizon conditions (like having many different caption number streams or labeling two streams the same).

This has me puzzled. Something has corrupted the interpretation of the style definition between two sequential pages in the document.

Thanks to the community (as always) for any help.

-j

[Steve Werner]

Look to see whether there might be a character style also applied to the text that doesn't match the style. 

[Nedlaw]

No character styles other than those specified in the style -- bold for the Figure number. (ID shows "None|" when I click the bad paragrahs; it shows None when I click the good paragraphs).

I should amplify this: I haven't made any adjustments to the style. In one figure it was correct (and remains correct), in the next figure it was not correct, and doesn't seem to want to be corrected. I have not been playing with the styles and, as a result, I don't think I've made any bad application of an adjustment -- as I said, no overrides are indicated in the Characters or Paragraph style panels.

[pixxxelschubser]

Figure 2 is centered.

It seems Figure 3 is not.

[Nedlaw]

This appears to be an accurate observation. However, both figure paragraphs are the same style, which specifies center, and there are no overrides that would cause one to be centered and one not to be centered. That is, if I click on the Figure 2 paragraph, ID tells me that it is using the style Figure Caption One Col, and that there are no removable overrides. The paragraph orientation icon in the ID toolbar shows both paragraphs are centeredSame for Figure 3 -- but Figure 3 is different from Figure 2. There are other figure paragraphs elsewhere in the document that vary as well -- it's not just these two. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this, and what to watch out for so that it doesn't happen again (never happened before, either).

[Nedlaw]

This is some kind of odd ID bug, I think. The style definitions spontaneously produced different (and incorrect) paragraph formatting that was not in their definitions, AND the differences persisted after multiple program closures and re-opening documents. Eventually I cut out the offending text, deleted it, and re-did the section. In the processes, I re-applied the format... which then worked as expected. So... I think that this was some kind of internal processing bug that I triggered somehow. Apologies to the programmers for not knowing how I did it, but of the five captions, three were odd and two were correct and they were interspersed (that is, it didn't just "start" at point A and then go bad. I had good, bad, good, bad, bad.) I saw no overrides or any way to change the behavior other then delete and start over. That worked. Thanks for everyone's attention and suggestions. It was... just a bug.

[Barb Binder]

There is a difference—it looks like the first caption is in its own text frame, and the second caption is in the main flow. And is text wrap playing a role? If you can share that one page, I'd be happy to take a look.

~Barb

[Nedlaw]

Thanks. There IS a difference... one example (the one working correctly) is in an anchored frame and the one example not working correctly is not... however (a) that's never made a difference previously to the formatting and I've used that same definition from the template for months without modification, and (b) three captions elsewhere in the doc that were not in anchored frames -- and which had existed and been correct and were not being touched -- were both good and bad (one good, two bad). When I deleted and re-entered the text and graphics, the new captions came in correctly formatted. I still think it was an internal ID bug not directly related to any action I took. It if occurs again I'll be sure of it.

Thanks for your kind offer.

-j

[Nedlaw]

This appears to be a bug. I've reproduced it.

I'm creating a doc with a text frame devided into 2 columns. I have a paragraph format called "paragraph place graphic" -- centered, not based on another paragraph type (because an in-line graphic can't be pasted into a paragraph based on another type). The "next paragraph|" setting calls "figure caption one col," which has my figure numbering, and is also centered.

In the text column, I paste in an in-line graphic to "paragraph place graphic." This works. I press Return and apparently get my centered "figure caption one col" paragraph... But while figure caption one col does not show any overrides, and icons in the menu show that it's centered, the automatic figure numbering appears to be entered as flush left even though no visible settings show this, and even though I've used this definition literally for months in my template. If I create a text frame on the pasteboard and tag it figure caption one col... that works properly. I noticed this behavior after the 15.0.3 update. I also see the behavior with my table caption definitions -- none of which have ever given me a problem previously.

Therefore, there may be some invisible override on the previous paragraph or in the column definition that causes this. Something about the column definition makes this change. I can convert the 2-col text frame to 1-col, and the graphic and its following figure caption move to the next page and work properly. By changing the page columns back to 2, the figure caption changes back to its odd format. This did not happen when I tested the same setup in a text from on the pasteboard.

So... bug. It's not me, it's the program. The workaround seems to be to put the table and figure captions in an anchored frame, or to create the caption first and then add the graphic. Will post more if I find out more. Thanks. to all.