What is overset text and how do I remove it?

[pioneerjlab]

I use ID to format and design my high school's newspaper, so I'm not familiar with a lot of features and aspects that it entails; I have a rather basic understanding of the program.  I was trying to export books of the pages into PDF format in order to send the files to the publisher, and when I was exporting them, I kept getting notifications about overset text.  So, what is that and how can I resolve that problem? Thanks for your help.

[Jongware · Accepted solution]

InDesign has an online help function; searching for 'overset text' yields this:

http://community.adobe.com/help/search.html?q=overset%20text&hl=en_US&lr=en_US&l=indesign_product_ad...

Try the following experiment to see how it works: draw a text frame, fill it with Placeholder Text, then toggle to the black arrow and make the text frame a bit smaller. Hey presto, Overset Text.

In summary, 'overset text' is simply Too Much Information. Text that has not been placed. Text for which there is no room allocated in your text frames.

You can best delete it using the Story Editor (look in the help for that), which helpfully shows you what part of a story is overset -- but, would you really want to delete this? (Perhaps you would, since you never noticed it was missing in the first place.) Another way of getting rid of it is placing your text cursor at the very end of the last visible sentence in the last text frame -- the one with a glaringly obvious Warning Signal Red Plus in its lower right corner -- and press Cmd+Shft+End keys to select everything up to the end of the story, then press Backspace.

[pioneerjlab]

Okay, thanks for your help.  Sorry it seemed to be a stupid question, I'm really new with this program.

[BobLevine]

Standard newbie advice:

1. Purchase Sandee Cohen’s Visual Quick Start Guide: http://amzn.to/pA7gqd

2. Check out Lynda.com. Here’s a link for a free one week trial: http://bit.ly/fcGpiI

Bob

[Jongware]

Well, no it's not a stupid question, but ID handed you the exact terms to look up in the Help.

How long does it take to learn InDesign?

Don't let the "This question is Not Answered." tag put you off, there are some good answers in there.

[SallyjaneArtist]

Hey, I am probably a little late but here is the link to how to use the story editor via, Edit > Edit in Story Editor... Wallah! Actually with just the info here you should be able to figure out how to use the story editor and to get rid of the overset text. There is a world of videos and tutorials on Adobe, and they are available to you without having to pay anything more. I realize you are in High School and paying for video lessons may not be a top priority.

Good luck with your school newspaper and hope you got it all fixed.  Quick Tip: Using the Story Editor in InDesign CS5

Smiles

Sj

[Graphitect1]

what is a end key on the Mac?

[Migintosh]

If you have a full-size keyboard connected to your Mac, it will have an end key:

If you have a mini keyboard, holding the fn key will give different functions to the keys.

I don't have a mini keyboard to confirm this, but I Googled it, and you could try hitting the right arrow key while holding fn.