Anchored Objects Stuck in Text Frame

Hello,
I have updated from CS4 to CS6 and am now having a problem with being able to edit anchored objects from a file that I used to work off of in the CS4 version.
I am working on a catalog that has product assessory boxes that are made up of images and text. In CS4, I created the accessory boxes, grouped all the items and pasted it in the text frame that held the text and photos of other products. I used to be able to edit the text or cut and paste the accessory box out of the text frame it was placed into. Now since I have upgraded to CS6 I cannot edit them at all, when I try to select the box with the selction tool or highlight the text with the type tool nothing will happen. The only thing I can do is hightlight the whole box and cut and paste it into another text frame I create, which doesnt help because I still cannot edit them.
In CS6, I have created an accessory box from scratch, and followed the same process as I have before and I can edit and select like I used to do. The problem only seems to come with the accessory boxes I have created in CS4.
This is a pretty large catalog, and will take a lot of time to recreate all the accessory boxes, so any suggestion to help fix the problem will be greatly appriciated.
Thank you!

Long shot, but go to the application preferences and uncheck the box in the General section that says Prevent Selection of Locked Objects.

Similar Messages

Is it possible to select an anchored object in a text frame in InDesign in a script?

I would like to know if it is possible to write a script to select an anchored object in a text frame. All the scripts I have found so far do not work on anchored object.

Check out this thread.

At my wits end: Placing anchored object inline with text & wrap

Granted I never learned InDesign the way I should. Once upon a time I fared well with Aldus Pagemaker. But I've just spent the last two hours trying to resolve a massive gap in my knowledge and I can't do it. I'm exasperated and desperate for help.
What I want to do: I have a tech manual with lots of text and need to place graphic objects in a way that the text will wrap around the object and if I need to edit the text, the graphic will move with where I inserted the graphic.
What happens:
1. I have a text frame with text. I place the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph and click File> Place, thereafter choosing a graphic.
2. Using the selection tool, I click the graphic and then click the icon "wrap around bounding box".
3. The text shifts a teeny bit but does not wrap around the object.
4. Object is, however, inline/anchored, with text.
OR
1. With nothing selected I click File> Place, thereafter choosing a graphic.
2. I place the graphic on the lower part of the page over a blank space.
3. I move the graphic over the text and then click the icon "wrap around bounding box".
4. The text flows but when I edit the text, it does not flow around the graphic.
Conclusion:
I am retarded. I even went through Lynda's example here: http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0073 I was able to place my object in her document and watch the text flow around the text wrapped graphic.
I read the help docs (I'm a big fan of reading).
The only thing I can think of is I've set my text box up wrong or I have no idea. I'm so frustrated I am seriously almost in tears.
My example document (I'm under an NDA and can't release my original document, but I duplicated what I've done in the previous one) is here for anyone who can tell me what I've done wrong. Thank you kindly.
http://www.xandria.ca/test01.indd

Alrighty, this is bizarre. I couldn't leave well enough alone and I'm still trying to hammer this one out. But I just followed my first method described in the original message and then...
I clicked and dragged the edge of my graphic and the text began to flow around it and it moves with the text.
What on earth?
While I can do this for each image, I'd rather not. What am I still doing wrong, although I seem to have a half baked workaround.
Cheers.

Anchor Object without Modifying Text

Short:
Is there a way to place objects and attach their location to a particular numbered paragraph, without using anchored objects, i.e., is it possible ot make an anchored object without a inserting an anchor into the text?
Long:
I am currently assembling a document where the text is placed from a Microsoft Word document and figures will be placed from a variety of sources (.pdf exports of TeX equations, .ai figures, etc.).
I have explored anchored objects to some extent, and they provide all the functionality I need, with one exception.
I would very much like to be able to insert figures into my indesign project and be able to update my text in Microsoft Word without losing the insertion points. As it is now, when I update my linked Word file, the anchors are removed from the text.
One approach I considered was to complete the majority of the text in Word, then place the text into InDesign, break the link, add my anchors, and complete revisions in InDesign. Unfortunately, this approach will not work, as I am using a reference manager in the text, and reordering/adding/removing references would become exceedingly tedious in a document with dozens of references and nearly 100 citations to those references.
Thanks so much for your help in advance!

Short: No. Longer: Perhaps you should just put the objects on the page, or pasteboard, for now, and do the anchoring when editing is done.

[JS] Anchor object to overset text

Is there any way to anchor a graphicLine or textFrame to overset text without using app.cut() and app.paste()?

I wasn't clear enough. I have an existing textFrame or graphicLine that is not anchored and I would like to anchor it to text that is overset. The reason is because I need to set the geometricBounds, so I was thinking I could set it and then anchor it, but I don't see any way except for app.cut().
Ah, I see now Harbs did give a solution. First anchor it to the begining of the story and then move it to the overset insertionPoint. Perfect!

[AS] How can I move an object, specifically a Text Frame with Applescript?

I'm converting some old Quark 8 scripts that we used to use for pagination over to Indesign and I'm stuck on how to move one of my elements.
This is the WORKING script in Quark 8, which uses the "Origin" command.
set origin of bounds of Ad_Box to {Position_Height, Position_Width}
Is there a quick and easy way to do this in InDesign CS5? I've been searching Google and these forums and have had no luck.
I played around with the Set geometric bounds function, but had no luck.
Thanks!

move Ad_Box to {Position_Height,Position_Width}

Images are pasted as anchored text in a text frame.

Whenever I paste an image I copied with ctrl+c from another software, its pasted into indesign as an anchored object inside a text frame.
What should I do to have all images pasted with ctrl+v always be pasted as a graphics frame?
ps: I have no object styles created or assigned to anything.

The images that are in-line in Word are likely actually in a table.
Try these settings in Word--a pita I know in graphic heavy Word docs, but they should then paste into ID in image frames.
Change from In line with text to In front of text.
Then switch to the Position Tab and uncheck the indicated checkbox--assuming it is checked...
The "handles" on the picture will change to look like these below. You should then be able to copy and paste.

Make anchored text frame after it is move in to story

Hi,
In my document have 4 stories. and one text frame
this text frame is make of anchored text frame and it move in story 1
It is possible ?
please help me...
my coding is shown in below
tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2014"
        set storyofset to story offset of myElement-------------->myElement is particular xpath
        tell storyofset
            set anchored position of anchored object settings of text frame 1 to anchored
            set horizontal reference point of anchored object settings of text frame 1 to anchor location
            set anchor xoffset of anchored object settings of text frame 1 to 0
            set anchor yoffset of anchored object settings of text frame 1 to 0
            set text column count of text frame preferences of text frame 1 to 1
        end tell
    end tell
thanks in advance.
by, John Peter.

I copied text & paisted it and then draged the 3 photos from the file...then clicked on the photo then clicked the inline boxon tool bar nexed to floating one and that is how I did it
I do not know what you mean "cut & paist" how do I get the photo in from my picter folder if I do not drag it to the page in Pages?
I went to my photo folder and copied a photo and paisted the photo on the top left part of the page and it went there but there was no text to the right of photo...I could crop the photo to what ever size but no text to the right of photo...
This is just too big of a mess of a program as it should be easier then this,,,I hav e 300 photos in this project and would have to re-paist them all...that is nuts...
I see the button to the right of inline and floating that has 6 [lace to have the photo but the text does not float around the photo...
If this is what your talking about this very little freedom in my page layout as I need it to let me place it where I need it to be and the wrap the text...
There has to be an easier way to get my books ready for other formats other that Apple's iPad...iBooks Author was way eisier to make ready for iTunes...Love that program!!!
Want my books for sale on all the other formats and was told by Apple Pages whould do it...
I must be be out to lunch or the designers at Apple are ???

Inconsistent placement of anchored text frame in data merge document

Just writing up this bug so that anyone else who encounters it can find out what's going on with less head-scratching.
It seems that InDesign's data merge feature gets confused when there are anchored objects in a text frame that's anchored inside another text frame, which can result in:
exported PDFs that don't match the InDesign preview when viewed in Acrobat (so, nasty surprises on some pages after exporting)
InDesign previews that - bizarrely - show differently depending on whether you navigated to the preview by hitting the arrow keys in the Data Merge box or by entering a number.
(sadly I can't provide a file for confidentiality reasons - but the problem point had multi-line data merge entries, a text frame that was anchored in another text frame of equal width, and anchored images and text frames in this anchored text frame)
There were certain entires where, if I navigate to them in the preview using the 'next' and 'previous' keys, there was 4mm less space between the nested text frame and the previous line than if I navigate to it by entering the number. Exporting as a PDF through data merge used the variant with more space.
Re-working the area in question so that the nested text frame wasn't needed seems to have removed the problem (but loses the ability to vertically align these elements in a fixed size frame that is in the text flow).

You didn't say what version of ID, or whter a single or multiple record per page merge, but the Preview is known to be buggy for multiple records since CS5 and might be for single records as well.
I have an annual directory that is built by data merge with one section in each listing as an anchored frame, and I've never had a problem, but it's not as complex as your description, nor do I ever merge to PDF (though I've heard here from several users that it's more reliable).
One thing you might want to try is merging without the preview step, but do it from a "fresh" file by copying and pasting your placeholders into a new document. If the problem is with the preview it seems that it "infects" the file and even merging without touching the preview button may not work.

How to specify character style to anchored objects markers depending on the objects formats?

I have a long document contains much of anchored text frames with custom positions and want to delete them by aplying character styles to their markers.

Create a new character style to apply it. And change the character style name in this code to yours, then execute it.
main ();
function main (){
    app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "~a";
    var objectsArray = app.activeDocument.findGrep();
    for (var c = 0; c < objectsArray.length; c++) {
        if (objectsArray[c].textFrames.length > 0) //The anchored object is a text frame
            var targetTextFrame = objectsArray[c].textFrames.item(0);
            var textFramePosition = targetTextFrame.anchoredObjectSettings.anchoredPosition;
            if (textFramePosition == AnchorPosition.ANCHORED) // the object have custom position
                //Create a new charater style and change the character style name to yours.
                objectsArray[c].appliedCharacterStyle = app.activeDocument.characterStyles.itemByName("Delete");
Then make a GREP search for this character style, and if you want delete them all by Change All button.

Header affixed to a text frame, repeared with autofill, Indesign CS3

Hi,
Can I affix a text-header to a text frame such that when I use autofill, the text frame will be repeated into the auto-added-pages with the header attached on its top, centered?
Can I do it on the Master Page?
Best regards,
Mickey

Hi Peter,
See my other message.
Basically I have 3 text sections on my page. On every page.
And I want the middle and bottom to have a header.
If I affix the headers on the master page they will indeed appear on every page AT THE SAME PLACE.
Then, assuming I was successfull in filling all 3 sections with text, I need to play with the frame size on every page so that the proper texts between the 3 sections are properly content-alligned.
(imagine that the top frames contain and article. The middle frames contains commentary on the article. The bottom frames contain word dictionary. And I do not want to use footnotes. So I have to align the page-section-contents by adjusting each frame size.)
When I do so, I wish the headers to move with the frames and remain in the same relative position to the frame.
I tried Anchored Objects affixed to the frame, but when the Anchored Object is a text frame...the silly thing attaches it to the OutPort of the frame. And it is "automatically threaded". Which is not what i want.
Maybe if the Anchored Object would be a Graphic Object it could work.
I was hoping there is a more direct way.
Best regards,
Mickey Cohen

Images as anchored objects in text

I use CS4 on a Mac. I'm working on a book with photos of my art in the text. Before I've used Place to insert all images. (I use Picasa to straighten and crop my photos, they are all jpgs in high resolution, the photos are in a separate folder on my Mac).
To make the pictures anchored objects in-line, I first place the graphic, then according to the instructions I cut, then paste in text, select image, then set the anchored object above the text etc.
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0073
My question is what happens to the image when you cut and paste. Does it retain it's placed format, like file size and resolution? It seems my InDesign file should be bigger with the added images.
Should I be worried?

When use File>Place to insert an image to InDesign - InDesign creates a low-res thumbnail to act as a "placeholder" to the original image.
It's very cumbersome on the computer when viewing the images in full resolution within InDesign. As it could be displaying 10mb for each image and 10 images would 100 mb per page, quite a lot to render; for example.
Anchoring objects has no bearing on the file size (well maybe a little).
The file size and resolution is not affected when you place an image. But the Resolution is affected if you SCALE the image any amount.
If you go to the Window>Info panel and select an image then you can see TWO options ACTUAL and EFFECTIVE PPI.
Actual refers to what the original PPI of the image is (ppi = pixels per inch and refers to resolution)
And Effective shows the the PPI after the image has been scaled.
For example if you place a 72 ppi image and scale it 24% it will now be Effectively 300 ppi (100/24)*72=300
For printing you should ensure that the image quality is 300 ppi (it's a general rule of thumb and it's not entirely accurate but that's what most printing places operate at as a standard).
For the record - you should resave images as JPG if you make ANY alteration to them (as a rule of thumb) saving as JPG over and over can add jpeg artifacts to the image which will degrade the image over time, as jpeg is a lossy format (information is removed with each save). A better way would be to save as TIFF as this is a LOSSLESS format - in that no data is removed upon saving.
I wouldn't recommend Picassa for your image editing. You should get Photohsop or failing that a free open source program like GIMP.

Callouts and anchored objects - there must be a better way to do this

I've spent a lot of time in the last six months rebuilding PDF files in InDesign. It's part of my ordinary responsibilities, but I'm doing a lot more of it for some reason. Because I'm sending the text of these rebuild documents out for translation, I like to keep all of the text in a single story. It really helps to have the text in "logical order," I think; when I'm prepping a trifold brochure, I try pretty hard to make sure that the order in which the readers will read the text is duplicated in the flow of the story throughout the ID document.
So, I'm rebuilding a manual that has a 3-column format on lettersize paper, and it's full of callouts. Chock full of 'em. They're not pull quotes, either; each of these things has unique text. Keeping in mind that I'd like the text in these callouts to remain in the same position in the text once I've linked all the stories and exported an RTF for translation, what's the best way to handle them? What I've been doing is inserting an emptly stroked frame as an anchored object, sized and positioned to sit above the text that is supposed to be called out. When my translations come back, they're always longer than the source document, so as I crawl through the text, I resize the anchored frames to match the size and position of the newly expanded translated text, and then nudge them into place with the keyboard.
There Has To Be a Better Way.
There is a better way, right? I'm not actually too sure. If I want to actually fill those anchored frames with text, I can't thread them into the story. I suppose that I could just thread the callout frames and assign two RTFs for translation instead of one, but then the "logical order" of my text is thrown out the window. So, I'm down to asking myself "what's more important? reduction of formatting time or maintenance of the flow of the story?" If there's something I'm missing that would let me dodge this decision, I'd love to hear about it. The only thing I can think of would work like this:
1) Duplicate callout text in the story with a custom swatch "Invisible"
2) Create "CalloutText" parastyle with "Invisible" swatch and apply it to callout text
3) Insert anchor for anchored frame immediately before the CalloutText content
4) Send it out for translation
5) While I'm waiting for it to come back, write a script that would (dunno if this is possible):
   a) Step through the main story looking for any instance of CalloutText
   b) Copy one continguous instance of that style to the clipboard
   c) Look back in the story for the first anchor preceeding the instance of CalloutText
   d) Fill the anchored object with the text from the clipboard (this is where I'm really clueless)
   e) Apply a new parastyle to the text in the callout
   f) Continue stepping through the story looking for further instances of CalloutText
If this really is the only decent solution, I'll just head over to the Scripting forum for some help with d). Can any of you make other suggestions?

In-Tools.com wrote:
The use of Side Heads saves weeks of manual labor.
Yup, Harbs, that is exactly what I was describing. If I use the Side Heads plugin to set up a job, will my clients get a missing plug-in warning when they open up the INDD? Will roundtripping through INX strip the plugin but leave the text in the callout? (My clients don't care if the logical flow of the story is broken; it's just me.)
I'm just curious; seems like a pretty obvious purchase to me. I'll probably try to script a solution anyways, after I buy the plugin; that way I get to learn about handling anchored objects in scripts AND deliver the job on time!

Anchored objects disappeared

My anchored objects inserted into text have all disappeared. All layers are on. The text is there but the objects are not. How can I get them back?

All layers are on
@Annie – this is not relevant, because anchored objects ("inline" or "custom" makes no difference) are tied to the layer of their parent text frame.
1. The objects could be "hidden".
There is a contriol for that to bring back all hidden objects on a spread:
alt + cmd + 3 (for InDesign on Mac OSX)
2. The objects could be set to "No Printing" and you look at your document with the "View / Overprint Preview" checked. You can control the "No Printing" in the Attributes Panel.
3. A combination of 1. and 2.
4. The objects are removed…
Could happen with a TEXT or GREP search/replace action that happens to include all anchor characters in your text.
5. …
Uwe

How to create, place, format and paste the clipboard contents into a text frame

I am new to scripting and need help. I have an existing Indesign document. I need to be able to create a text frame on my current page, the width of my margins with the top of the text frame at the top margin and 1" in height, then format it to be 1-column, and then paste the clipboard contents into it and tag the text with a particular paragraph style. I am using Indesign CS4 on a mac, if that makes any difference. Thanks for any help.

May this will help you. It will create an anchored object with a text what you desired, with object style. You should create an object style before with the x and y co ordinates. You can choose either para style or character style.
var the_document = app.documents.item(0);
// Create a list of paragraph styles
var list_of_paragraph_styles = the_document.paragraphStyles.everyItem().name;
// Create a list of character styles
var list_of_character_styles = the_document.characterStyles.everyItem().name;
// Create a list of object styles
var list_of_object_styles = the_document.objectStyles.everyItem().name;
// Make dialog box for selecting the styles
var the_dialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Create anchored text frames"});
with(the_dialog.dialogColumns.add()){
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Make the anchored frames from ..."});
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"This character style:"});
var find_cstyle = dropdowns.add({stringList:list_of_character_styles, selectedIndex:0});
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Or this paragraph style:"});
var find_pstyle = dropdowns.add({stringList:list_of_paragraph_styles, selectedIndex:0});
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Leave one dropdown unchanged!"});
dialogRows.add();
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Delete matches?"});
var delete_refs = dropdowns.add({stringList:["Yes","No"], selectedIndex:0});
dialogRows.add();
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Anchored text frame settings:"});
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Object style:"});
var anchor_style = dropdowns.add({stringList:list_of_object_styles, selectedIndex:0});
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Frame width:"});
var anchor_width = measurementEditboxes.add({editUnits:MeasurementUnits.MILLIMETERS, editValue:72});
with(dialogRows.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Frame height:"});
var anchor_height = measurementEditboxes.add({editUnits:MeasurementUnits.MILLIMETERS, editValue:72});
the_dialog.show();
// Define the selected styles
var real_find_cstyle = the_document.characterStyles.item(find_cstyle.selectedIndex);
var real_find_pstyle = the_document.paragraphStyles.item(find_pstyle.selectedIndex);
var real_anchor_style = the_document.objectStyles.item(anchor_style.selectedIndex);
// Check if a style is selected
if(find_cstyle.selectedIndex != 0 || find_pstyle.selectedIndex != 0) {
// Define whether to search for character styles or paragraph styles
app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeFootnotes = false;
app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeHiddenLayers = false;
app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = false;
app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = false;
app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeMasterPages = false;
if(find_cstyle.selectedIndex != 0) {
app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findGrepPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = real_find_cstyle;
} else {
app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findGrepPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = real_find_pstyle;
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "^";
// Search the document
var found_items = the_document.findGrep();
myCounter = found_items.length-1;
do {
// Select and copy the found text
var current_item = found_items[myCounter];
if(find_pstyle.selectedIndex != 0) {
var found_text = current_item.paragraphs.firstItem();
var insertion_character = (found_text.characters.lastItem().index) + 1;
var check_insertion_character = insertion_character + 1;
var alt_insertion_character = (found_text.characters.firstItem().index) - 1;
var the_story = found_text.parentStory;
app.selection = found_text;
if(delete_refs.selectedIndex == 0) {
app.cut();
} else {
app.copy();
} else {
var found_text = current_item;
var insertion_character = (found_text.characters.lastItem().index) + 2;
var check_insertion_character = insertion_character;
var alt_insertion_character = (found_text.characters.firstItem().index) - 1;
var the_story = found_text.parentStory;
app.selection = found_text;
if(delete_refs.selectedIndex == 0) {
app.cut();
} else {
app.copy();
// Make text frame from selection
try {
app.selection = the_story.insertionPoints[check_insertion_character];
app.selection = the_story.insertionPoints[insertion_character];
} catch(err) {
app.selection = the_story.insertionPoints[alt_insertion_character];
var the_anchored_frame = app.selection[0].textFrames.add({geometricBounds:["0","0",anchor_height.editContents,anch or_width.editContents],anchoredObjectSettings:{anchoredPosition: AnchorPosition.ANCHORED}});
app.selection = the_anchored_frame.insertionPoints[0];
app.paste();
// Apply the object style now to "force apply" paragraph style set in the object style
if(anchor_style.selectedIndex != 0) {
the_anchored_frame.appliedObjectStyle = real_anchor_style;
myCounter--;
} while (myCounter >= 0);
} else {
alert("No styles selected!");

Anchored Objects Stuck in Text Frame

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for