I have an illustrator (.ai) logo file that I have place successfully in previous documents. It has not been modified. I am trying to place that .ai file into a new InDesign document. The image on the file is white so that it contrasts with the green background (the background is part of the master page). I am placing the file onto the document page, not on the master page..   When I place this .ai file (using File | Place | select file | click), it defaults to being placed as a PDF. The Acrobat logo appears during placement. This PDF fills the page from margin to margin. Hitting ctrl-Z, the file appears to return to the cursor for normal placement, but when I click it on the page, the image becomes invisible (even though I can move it off the page to a color block on the pasteboard and see that it is white. This really is NOT the behavior I expect or have experienced in the past. I have successfully placed this very .ai file in other documents. In the Links panel, it gives the filename correctly as .ai, and then says that it is an Adobe PDF file format.   To be sure, I have re-saved this file using Illustrator as an Illustrator CC file with a different file name, but the same thing happens.   I am mystified. I'm not a newbie to ID, and I've never run into this before. ID updated recently (between projects for me), and I'm wondering whether I've run into some kind of new bug.   Thanks for any help. ... View more

I'm working on a book for a client. The book comprises 14 files plus a file at the end that I'm using to accumulate changes to the original template as I encounter and interpret various situations in the original copy. That last file will become the final template at the end of the project. What I want to do is look at the stylesheet definitions for each chapter and make sure that they all match -- more accurately, I want to see where they DON'T match. I realize that I can pick one of my files and propagate its settings into every other file, thus assuring that all files will be the same. I do this frequently while working, and propagate my changes out to the other chapters. But because of various office interruptions, phone calls, lunch with co-workers, etc., I can't guarantee that I've saved EVERY single change from each chapter and propagated them out to all the other chapters (and to that all-important last file). Picking one current file and propagating its definitions across all files might erase a valuable change elsewhere that I've simply forgotten I've made. These differences are not  easy to spot (otherwise I'd rapidly notice them), but I'd like to review and compare before I package the book and hand it off to the client. I already know that ID does not have a method where a stylesheet simply can be printed out in text format -- which would make this type of comparison absurdly easy, as well as making even the most complex stylesheets self-documenting. I've looked at the contents of IDML files, and they are not (or certainly not easily) human readable. I have tried exporting a file as xml, with no success (since I'm not mapped to definitions). I have tried exporting as HTML and looking at the automatically generated CSS files, but InDesign attempts to generate an HTML page that "looks like" the ID page... but I can't guarantee that everything is included or not simply approximated and cascaded. A CSS ultimately is not the stylesheet of the chapter; it is only "like" the stylesheet of the chapter. Can anyone suggest a reasonable way for me to review the contents of the stylesheets as they are implemented in the various chapters, or am I just SOL and best advised to soldier on as best I can, have a nice day? Thanks. -jw ... View more

Hi. I have a simple table, 4 columns by (about) 15 rows. The cell text is defined by a paragraph style, the cell is defined by a cell style, and the table is defined by a table style. The table style references the cell styles, and the cell styles reference the paragraph styles in the way I believe they are meant to. (One may always be wrong in this assumption.) I have made tables in the past, and generally, they have behaved. Left this out: Using most current InDesign CC for Windows (Win 1809 build) The table formatting is simply not obeying the settings. There are no obvious overrides. I have restarted InDesign twice, and reloaded the documents that make up the book. Here is a portion of my table: I want to have a gray line under each row, so I open the Table Style Options dialog. Note that the cell styles are referenced. I move to row strokes in the Table Style Options: In Row strokes, I ask for every other row (although I actually want every row -- but I figure I'll deal with that later). I set the weight of the line to 1 point and the color to 10% black. I click Okay. This is what I get: That is, no underline. Perhaps I am missing a technique, here. I've tried fiddling with the cell definition (that can fill all cells, and put borders on all four sides of cells, but won't obey when I want only the undersides of the cells to have a line (I'm aware of clicking the blue lines on the box in the cell definition). I have tried fiddling with the paragraph definition, but that only deals with the text, not the cell. As I say, no obvious overrides are at work -- but that doesn't mean that there aren't any overrides hidden somewhere that are not obvious. Any advice? Thanks in advance for help. I've been at this a couple of hours, trying various combinations of settings. -- JW ... View more

Hi. I have both a TOC and a Table of Figures in my document. I have created a set of paragraph definitions just for TOC use and the TOC works great. I have created a second set of paragraph definitions just for the TOF -- basically a restatement of the header style and a TOF figure definition for use only in the TOF. InDesign generates both the Table of Contents and the Table of Figures like a champ. However... In the Table of Figures the top-level heading and some -- but not all -- of the figure entries seem to be picking up a defined character style and overriding the assigned set of TOF Paragraph styles with it. For example, for my run of chapters, I have defined a character style called figure_number (bold for the figure number). I used this as part of three numbered paragraph styles called figure_caption_one_col_start, figure_caption_one_col, and figure_caption_float -- all of which have Level 1 designation in the TOF. So far so good. They generate as expected except for formatting. When I run the TOF, three of the entries -- the head (Table of Figures) and figures 1 and 2 seem to have picked up the character definition figure_number as an override for the whole entry; otherwise, they are formatted as I decree. I can manually set their character styles to [None] and everything works out normally. I would not like to do this over a whole book, every time I re-generate the Table of Figures. The head Table of Figures is assigned a specific TOF head style right in the TOF styles defnition (I do it the same way in the TOC -- which works). The other two affected captions are in anchored frames grouped with their graphics -- but I have other captions grouped with graphics in anchored frames that are NOT affected. I cannot figure out where the character override is coming from -- especially for the TOF title. Any advice? It will be appreciated. Thanks. -JW ... View more

Hi. The client wants a document consisting of a series of single pages BUT there is one graphic that is so dense and complex, I need to run it across a spread. We are producing PDFs, so this is not going to be a hassle for press printing. Any office printing of the doc can split the image. I have created a bunch of single-page masters with different purposes (for FC, IFC, TOC, Body, Index, etc.) -- and one 2p spread master. But when I apply that 2p spread master to page 29 (in this case) -- expecting that page to magically morph into a two-page spread -- I still get only one page but with a footer from the I-spec_flyout master that extends rightwards out into pasteboard space, rather than the 2-page spread I was expecting. When I add an I-spec_flyout-based spread after p29, ID adds a single page after p29, again using the 2p master, and again with a footer that extends out onto the pasteboard. Most of my work has been on documents that are all spreads or that are all single pages, and I haven't had to combine the two in one doc, so this is a situation that I haven't encountered before. I have seen example layouts using multiple horizontal pages, so I know it can be done. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. My guess is that there is a setting I have set incorrectly somewhere. How do I add one spread to the middle of a stream of single pages so as to accommodate that big image? BTW, the position of this spread is not at the end of the doc. Single pages will have to pick up again on the other side. Any help will be most appreciated. -JW ... View more

Hi. I'm looking for a way to place a graphic (let's say it's half the width of the text column, and placed flush right within the text column). I want the text to flow around it to its left AND I want a numbered caption below it. I can easily put in a graphic that flows with text and has a numbered caption below it -- IF that graphic and caption occupy the text column from left to right. I know about paragraph styles that don't user predecessor styles for the graphic. I use this technique all the time, putting screen shots into documentation. When I go to put in a flush-right half-column graphic, however, and have the text flow around it, things become problematic. It seems that I can put in an anchored graphic and position it flush right in the text column, and the text flows around it just fine... but I can't find a place to put the associated following paragraph that is the numbered caption. I can also put in a graphic (using the full-width column technique) and make that graphic flush right AND I can put a numbered caption below it... but then I can't get text to flow around it. Obviously, I'm missing a crucial bit of technique, here. Thanks for any help. -JW In summary, what I'm trying to achieve: Flush-right graphic occupying ~half the text column Numbered caption below the graphic that stays with the graphic (critical for the cap to be in the text flow so that the numbers adjust correctly) Text flows around graphic and its caption Graphic and caption will rise or fall in the text column along with the text, with added or deleted text above them. ... View more

A client is experimenting (or I'm experimenting on behalf of a client) on generating multiple versions of a document from a single source InDesign book. We have gone through a proof-of-concept, and they are convinced that conditional tags will produce the effect they're after. Originally, they specified 12 different tags (4 audiences, 3 levels of reader). All went surprisingly well. They were happy. Now they have approached me to do a substantially larger document with 32 different tags. And they may want many more tags in the future in this single-source document to produce different flavors of output. Many. Setting aside for a moment that there may be another way to accomplish the end result (multiple output document versions sourced from a single document text maintained in one place), the questions are: What is the maximum number of conditional tags that an InDesign document can support? 64? 128? 1024...? Is it memory-dependent? It would be better to be able to ease my collar and say early, "we can't do that because of a program limitation, and must take another path." Even if a document could support 1024 tags (for instance -- and if it were humanly possible to apply them), would InDesign run out of memory on my 24Gb machine trying to render versions of all these documents? Someone will undoubtedly tell me to experiment and get back to the forum, and I will end up doing just that... but if anyone knows (or suspects) up front, it would save a lot of time and frustration and result in a happier client not to go down a doomed path. Thanks. -jw ... View more

Hi, I'm working on an API for a client. Each call is its own file, and I assemble them into a book using the ID book window. I've done this type of thing many times. What's different for me now is that there are so MANY files in the book window -- close to 300. This is far too many files to display even in a long book window on screen. I'm not dealing with a five-chapter manual, here. I would like to print the contents of the book window as a list (PDF, printer, CSV, whatever), so that I can get an overview of what I have and the order in which I have it. There does not seem to be a way to print the contents of this window, however, from the hamburger menu, only to print out the book proper in various ways. I'm not ready for that, yet (and I know how to do it). Any suggestions for getting a list of the book files out of the book window and into some kind of document where I can examine and annotate them? I could print the file directory from Windows, but the directory contains other additional files, and the ID files are in alphabetic or timestamp or size order, not the order I have them placed in the Book window. Thanks for any help. -j ... View more

Hi. I'm working on an API for a client, and keeping change log notes on the pasteboard. When I paste in the programmer's notes to a text box, they cause an overset in the text box (fig 1). There are no nearby graphics or text wraps involved -- pure text box in a wide-open area of the pasteboard. When I look at the text in the Story Editor, the overset is plain (fig 2): I don't think it's Word formatting that is causing the problem. I have pasted the text into NotePad and saved it, and then copied the text from NotePad and pasted the "plain" text into the text box, and get the same result at the same point. I think it's the characters being used in the text provided by the programmer that is causing the overset, but I don't understand why. What do I have to change to get this text to paste into a plain text box? Thanks. ... View more

I'm working with a template developed by a colleague (who is not contactable). She used text in a text box that looks like this: I need to emulate this, but I have no idea how she achieved it. She used the slanted side of a text box to achieve sequential indentation. It's not skewed, which gives a false Italic to the text. It's not a rotated text box. How do I do this? Thanks! -j ... View more

Hi. I'm working with a client on a 300-page book that's loaded with conditional text (one version for Board members, one version for middle managers...). I'm using Smart Text Reflow, and, as I reduce the amount of text in the doc as I go through the different versions, Smart Text Reflow does indeed remove the extra pages. Then I turn back on some of the conditional text. Smart Text Reflow does NOT add new pages to the flow (even though that is the setting). I find that I have to manually click on the output port on each page and flow it to the next page. This is fine for the test chapter I'm working on, but will be a serious bummer for the 300-page book. What am I doing wrong? Here's my preference setup: ... View more