Overset text problem

Got a short chapter that began life in Word and was placed into ID. It contains a 2-col table, one of those cols is full of Greek I'd prefer not to retype.
On page 3 of the doc (the middle), text persistently shows as overset (that red plus sign). If I click the box to un-overset it, I get a copy of the whole article (six pages or so).
Cannot get the overset text (i.e., the duplicate copy of the whole chapter) to go away.
a) tried adding new blank pages at the end, parking the 'overset' text i.e. the duplicate of the chapter there. And it 'places' fine. But when I then delete those unneeded dupe pages from the project, the box again shows it's overset.
b) tried using the "clear" command on the Edit tab. Similarly, the overset box goes away, but then when I try to make a PDF out of the doc, I get a warning on output that there is overset text on that page, and, when I check the little box, it's again showing overset text.
This just seems bizarre: more like a corrupted doc than anything ID is supposed to do. Thoughts? Other times I've had overset text elsewhere in the doc, the text has behaved itself.
Thanks in advance
CS3, ID 5.0.4

Several brand-new concepts to me in your post.
Re story editor, parked my cursor on the offending page, clicked View / Story Editor, everything is grayed out. Not so sure what the SE is for, must confess.
"Text content tool" -- I don't see anything named that in my normal panel using float-over tool tips. Do you mean the Type tool?
Not sure what exactly I'm clearing: I've used the Clear command elsewhere w/ good effect, in that overset stuff vanished. Am guessing I'm clearing frame, not text, given it keeps reappearing.
Have seen idea of export to INX in other threads; it looked complex so I did not pursue.
Sorry, you've got a newbie here.

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Problem deleting overset text

I have a 40 page document with some extraneous overset text at the end that I want to delete, but I cannot get to the overset text for some reason, I just get blank text box after blank text box with a little red plus sign in the corner. Is there a way to delete the overset text without actually highlighting it?
I'm working in CS5 on a Mac OS 10.6.7.

Two ways, actually.
The better way is to open Story Editor (Edit > Edit in Story Editor or Cmd [Ctrl] + Y while the cursor is in the story). That way you can see what you're deleting.
The other way is to put the cursor at the last place you can, then press Cmd (Ctrl) + Shift + End to select to the end of the story.
Most likely the problem is there is something about the next line that makes it too wide for the frame -- possibly no break applied to too much text or a series of words separated by non-breaking spaces and hyphenation turned off.

False Overset Text in Links Panel

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CS5
This is the problem I'm encountering: When I export to .pdf, Indesign Crashes. I've been able to narrow it down to one specific file and actually specific pages. But here is something I've noticed and cannot figure out. I've got three .psd linked files that are showing up as overset (OV) in the links panel, therefore when I click on them ID says it can't show me them because they are in over set text. But my live preflight says there is no over set text. ID jumps to pages still when I click that link but that whole story has no overset text. (i.e. not red overset in the outbox and no overset text in story editor mode. I can't figure out where those three linked objects are or how to select them to delete them. Any thoughts?

I would suggest running through the same steps as above (which it sounds like you've done) to see if you can isolate a problem, and in addition you might want to try exporting the stories to InDesign Tagged Text, then create a new file, move over the master pages, and place all the exported stories.
Also, be sure everyone is updated to the 7.5.3 patch.
dcald wrote:
The links panel indicates that the images are in overset text but we know for a fact that they are from a previous issue and are no longer in the ID file. Also, preflight indicates that there is no overset text in the file. It is one flow thoughout the entire file. Attempts to create PDF fail consistently. Each time someone has had to build the file again from scratch which for a file over 60 pages long, is not good for feelings towards the ID/InCopy.
This implies to me that you "recycle" document instead of building a template. ID is pretty stable, but no layout program is perfect and each time you do a save you introduce the possibility of small errors in the file. Somnetimes those small errors become big problems.
You can reduce the risk of problems on recurring publications by creating a template that contains your master pages, color swatches, styles, and any "static" content that might not be on a master page but still does not change from version to version. Each new version should be made from the template, so it is always a fresh second-generation copy.

What is overset text and how do I remove it?

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.

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_adobelr&site=indesign_cs5_all&self=1&filter=0
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.

Overset text in Table of Contents

Indesign version = CS2
API = javascript
I'm having a problem getting overset text to appear in a TOC. I am passing true for the "includeOverset" param in the call document.createTOC() but the overset text does not appear. This is happening on both the CS2 desktop and CS2 server. If I open the generated document and re-generate the TOC then answer yes to the dialog asking wether or not to include overset text the missing text will appear.
Are there known issues with using the "includeOverset" when creating a TOC in the javascript API. Or are there other properties that I'm missing that need to be set.
Thanks Mike

Mike,
I also include overset text in my TOC that is actually off of the viewable spread. At first, it didn't work (even though I asked it to include the text). Then, I moved the field to be a few px within the viewable spread but left the text still off of the edge and it worked.
I am doing this through Javascript with CS3.
You may be having an entirely different problem... but I hope this helps :)
Eric

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I am producing a 32-page theatre program. I try to make a PDF of it and it says three pages have overset text. I cannot find any overset text, though. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Also, if you zoom to a low percentage with the view set to Normal you'll see the overset marks for any visible text frames. 5% view:
If the problem text frames are hidden you'll have to use preflight

InDesign CS6: preflight & non-existent overset text in my document.

Hi,
I’m using InDesign CS6. The preflight lists overset errors. When I click on the page icon and go to where the overset txt is supposed to be…there is none.
I deleted EVERYTHING in the entire document, then did a SAVE-AS a new name; restarted InDesign; opened the empty document...and it still says I have overset text. I’ve had this issue before with other documents and just ignored the errors after hours of trying to fix the non-existent overset text - but other people have to use my documents. Having errors is an issue with shared documents. I started a chat with an adobe tech support person, but they had no idea what the problem is. Is this a bug? More importantly, is there a fix?
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I have a document with a similar issue. I just opened it just to check. When I click on the overset and click somewhere else, I get an empty text frame. I guess that's what happens to you as well. I turned on Show Hidden Characters and noticed that somehow I had at the bottom of the page a paragraph sign (probably I hit enter at the end without noticing it). I just deleted it and now is fine. Turn on the Show Hidden Characters and see if something shows up at the end of your document.

I can't edit overset text in InDesign CS4

I have spent the last several hours trying to fix the overset text. Every time I click on the little red overset text in the lower right hand corner, another text box pops up. I have deleted it at least 150 times. I just cannot get it to work. I tried editing in story editor, but I've never used it, so I can't figure out how to do it. Ready to rip my hair out. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

As Kath says, the story editor is probably the place to start since you can at least see the text. It operates a lot like a low-end word processor.
It sounds like there is a problem in a line that prevents it from fitting in a frame. One common problem is that No Break has been applied to an entire paragraph or something similar (turning off hyphenation in narrow columns can do the same thing if you encounter a long string like a URL). Another common problem is that keep options are set in such a way that a paragraph cannot break. You,ll see style tags to the left of the text which can help you identify what styles are applied so you know where to start looking if the keeps are defined as part of a style.
Tables can also be an issue. ID will break a table between rows, but not mid-row. If a cell is too deep to fit the frame height it will exhibit the behavior you see. I think I've also seen a case where an entire table was set up as header rows, but I believe that caused ID to put one row per page, not to just go into overset.
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How to autoflow overset text in script?

Gurus,
I write a script to import xml and place it in text frame but I had my overset text, i know that it just a shift+doubleclick in outport of text frame to autoflow text, the problem is how can i write it in a script? please help! Thanks in advance!

You need to add the frames and thread them yourself. Search the forum
for past discussions. you should find sample code to do that.
Harbs
http://www.in-tools.com

Paragraph going to overset text when it shouldn't

InDesign CS Version 3.0.1 (2003) for Windows - I've been using this software on an HP desktop 5 days a week for about 2 yrs now, and I've never encountered this problem before. (I am by no means an expert.) I've got an 8 1/2 x 11 document, 1/2" margins, one text box starting 1 1/4" down the page running to bottom margin. I'm typing, typing, typing, then I start a new paragraph about 2/3 down the page (nowhere close to my bottom margin), full justification. At the end of the first line, as I type I notice the text disappears to overset text. If I delete part of what I just typed to bring the line back, then hit return at the end of the line (the one with the rest of the alpha keyboard, not in the number pad), the text stays on this page. Obviously I shouldn't have to hit return at the end of every line to type this paragraph. I've read several similar posts on this problem and no, it's not my keyboard, I'm not on a laptop. I tried resetting my preferences but it still happens. I've looked at every possible setting I can think of and cannot find anything odd. I've compared settings to my other documents and they're all good. I'm not using paragraph styles. I've looked at leading, paragraph keep options, hidden characters (no breaks appear), and story editor. I've deleted half the text in the text box and retyped it, but it still happens. I really don't want to recreate this whole document unless that's my last option, I want to know what's wrong with it!!
I zipped the document but I can't tell how to attach it to my post. I don't know anything about putting the document on a server so people can see it. If someone can tell me how to attach the zip file here (if it's possible) I'll do that. Or I'll email it to you. Otherwise, does anybody have a clue how to fix this? What am I missing?!!

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/940188199/c743b96c476f76c6ca07f048e919e720
this came in the email i sent myself.
or would it be this one from the yousendit webpage after i sent it?
Here's the link to your file:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/UFVyeW41TlE5eFh2Wmc9PQ
Sorry, i'm new to this. My information services division has a block on it so i couldn't open it myself using either link. Let me know if it doesn't work and i'll try something else tomorrow, i've got to leave for the night. (Only allowed 8 hrs a day here thank goodness!!) Oh and i've got my hyphenate box checked. I would think that no break or nonbreaking spaces show up when you view hidden characters?
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URL creates overset text

I'm pulling out my hair. I've been using InDesign since before it was InDesign, and I've never seen this problem before.
I imported a Word 2007 document into InDesign 5.0. The flowed text includes URLs, and that's not a problem...until I get to the one that creates the overset text. With a full-page text frame, I have two lines of text at the top, and I can't even get to the end of the document. The text is overset to infinity.
I've looked in story editor. I always work with hidden characters turned on. I've stripped out all Word styles. I've copied all the text into Notepad and pasted it back into a new IDD doc. I've made sure that "No Breaks" is turned off. In short, I've done everything I know to do.
One interesting thing is that if I turn on hyphenation in this paragraph, the rest of the URL appears, but the rest of the overset text (additional paragraphs) does not. I can't have a random hyphen in a URL, though. And where's the rest of the overset text?
Any ideas what is going on? I'm creating a reference page for a dissertation, by the way, and I've done this same thing many, many times (I'm an editor).
Save me before I'm completely bald...thanks for any help!

Oversets like this can be caused by several things. Most common is text that is unbreakble and too wide for the column, which can be due to No Break applied to a long string, no hyphenation allowed and a long word (or URL) or the use of non-breaking spaces between words, or left/right paragraph indents that leave inusfficient space (these can be in styles or built into the frame). Also possible is some combiantion of Keep Options that is impossible to honor.
You can insert a discretionary line break or a zero-width sapce in your URL to make it break at the point of your choice, but ID typically will break a long URL at a slash or dot.

How to cure "overset text" ?

I've read a lot about the subject of overset text, but do not understand it at all.
Is there a maximum amount of information that can be placed in a single ID document? I cannot add one word to my text without it going into the overset mode.
Now then, I tried deleting all pages to the end of the document, then re-flowing.
The way I understood re-flowing is that the frame would simply be expanded.
What appears to be happening is that a new frame is created that overlaps the first frame a bit on the end.
Do I have to create a frame for each page? That does not seem intuitive, especially when a long chapter.
I've read Adobe's help on frames over and over again, but just do not get it. Is there some way to enlarge the original frame so that everything flows together or is there a memory restriction and creating multiple frames is a work around?

I've read that section over and over again for the past hour.
What is strange is that I've one line that when I add text to it, it causes this condition. I can add text to other lines, and it won't.
I have now deleted 3 lines and retyped them from scratch and the document seems to be behaving. There was absolutely nothing unusual that I could see about these lines but something about them kicked in the problem.

InDesign CS5.5 Crash - Overset Text & Footnotes

Hey Everyone,
I've been experiencing a few problems with InDesign CS5.5 (WIN) where placed Word documents with no apparent corruption (approximately 25-30 pages in length max) will crash InDesign whenever I go to move the overset text into a new frame or whenever I apply a paragraph style to a footnote. I was able to mostly correct the first issue (overset text) by creating enough frames to hold the entire text before placing it (as opposed to generating individual frames on an "as needed" basis by clicking on the overset text button.) I am still having trouble though when I am applying paragraph styles to the footnotes. Here's what happens: I will select a particular footnote, go to paragraph styles, select the Footnote Reference style I created that will adjust the font size, leading, and indentation, and then the program will go unresponsive and my cursor will blue spiral forever until I force quit the program. I tried to retype the footnote with the appropriate formatting, but when I went to delete the original text, the program froze in the same way. I even tried saving the document as InDesign markup, which fixed a few of the footnotes, but most of them still are causing this same issue.
I am wondering if there might be some hidden corruption I am missing, as this will only happen on certain footnotes, but I haven't encountered it in reviewing the original Word documents and even saving the original text into different safe formats does not have any effect.
Has anyone else encountered this problem before? Is this just some CS5.5 instability that is telling me it's time to finally update? Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated!
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CM

InDesign CS5.5 currently crashes on launch when launching from the dock or the app direct, throwing up a crash report (http://pastebin.com/8dNiiSWu).
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Sorry, this doesn't really make sense. If InDesign crashes, you cannot continue to work in it. Perhaps you are getting confused by previous crash reporter dialog windows that you have not dismissed or submitted so were still hanging around. Also, sometimes they take quite a while to pop up -- not always contemporaneous with the crash.

Overset text will not go into the text box that is part of the master for the next page

I am trying to (first time user) set up a simple trade-paperback sized book with some photos. Have set up several masters for chapter title pages, chapter inner pages, etc. When I copy text out of Word into InDesign, (copy/paste) the text overset box appears. I load it, then go to the next page, which I have already formatted using one of the masters. But when I select the desired text box ((Ctrl/shft) and click, the overset text forms a new text box, What am I doing wrong? thanks

I have done, this did work right for at least the left side of the spread, but never for the right side -
Make sure the left and right page master page text frames are threaded View>Extras>Show Text Threads. Here I have left and right page text boxes threaded on my A-master spread:
Checking Smart Text Reflow can make adding long text to master frames easier:
With Smart Text Reflow enabled I've released the master page text box on page 1, note the released frame has a solid border, while the unreleased master page frames on subsequent pages are dotted indicating they are still master page items and not page items.
The result of the paste:

Selecting Overset Text In InCopy CS5 [AppleScript]

I am trying to fix the AppleScript I used in InCopy CS3 to select overset text in CS5.
In my old script I tell InCopy to select the overset text in the current story. Simple command:
select text of last text column of myStory
In CS5 it now selects the last column in the layout. So in CS3 the last column was defined as the overset set if there was overset text. Now it is the last column. I admit that I think this was a bug in CS3 but it worked for me.
Now I have no way to select all Overset text. If I run
set myOverset to overset text of myStory
This will get me the number of lines of overset text. So I think, if I know the number of lines of overset set, then I can use the total number of lines of text, subtract the number overset lines, and that will tell me the first line I need to select. Doesn't work. If I try to find out the number of lines in a story, the result is less than the number of lines shown to me in Story View. The amount it is off varies.
Does anyone have any ideas. Also, I have tried to select multiple lines using AppleScript but InCopy doesn't like that.

Most logical answer would be that for some reason your specific text was not exported as InCopt text (you have to do this for every text story you have and want to be able to edit). If you click on such a text frame, does a name get selected in the assignment and/or Links panel? If not, the text is not an InCopy text.

Overset text problem

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