Full-Page Grouped Objects on next page after subheading?

[keithconover]

I'm writing a textbook and doing the typesetting and page layout myself in InDesign. I often have a full page of graphics with captions that I would like to appear on the next page after a particular heading.

For the chapters, I used the BreakText script to divide the text into "stories" by sections. This has improved InDesign's performance with these long chapters greatly. It has almost eliminated InDesign crashes. For one chapter I have a lot of graphics and text boxes that are loosely related to the content of the section, but can appear after the end of the section. I put a page or two without main text frames right after the end of each section, and put the graphics and text boxes there, Grouped. That way, if I add text ahead of those pages of graphics and text boxes, I get an overset text message, and I can then add pages to the end of that section with the Pages panel. That way those pages with text boxes and graphics always stay between that section and the next one without me having to move them around, a great time-saver. 

But I also have other whole pages of graphics and text boxes that I would like to have within a major section (story), where it is not appropriate to break the text into two different stories, as below, with the Protection from Cold subsection of this major section (story) about hand and foot protection.

I keep thinking that if I were more clever about dealing with anchored objects, I could somehow say "put this grouped whole-page graphics-and-text-box set on its own page, the next page after the Protection from Cold subsection" then I wouldn't have to keep moving it with the Pages panel every time I add text ahead of it. I have to admit my experience with Anchored Objects for illustrations for a textbook like this has been unpleasant, frustrating and ultimately abandoned.

Any sage advice welcomed. Thank you.

[Mike Witherell]

What if you made some pages as separate INDD documents, and placed them into an anchored object. It would stay together as if one image, and yet be an editable InDesign document. 

Also, when you make paragraph styles, have you gotten to know Keep Options which sets rules on when a paragraph breaks?

[keithconover]

Thanks for the thoughts, Mike.

As far as putting an INDD document instead of a grouped object in as an anchored object, I'm not sure I see what the point of that might be, it's still an anchored object. Given performance issues I've had, I'm not eager to try editing an INDD document inside another. (I have found it useful to sometimes put an INDD document inside another one, but more commonly I create a PDF and then put the PDF in there.)

As far as the Keep Options for pagagraph styles, are you suggesting I put the grouped object in a paragaph with a style that is set to Keep Options > Start Paragraph > On Next Page? Wouldn't that have the effect of likely an only partially-full page of text prior to the grouped object in that paragraph style?

Instead of that, I would like a Keep Option > Put this Paragraph on the Next Full Page Without Breaking the Text Flow of Other Paragraphs option. Or perhaps this kind of logic conld be worked into the Anchored Object workflow.