Unthreading text frames for Idiots

I know there is a quick way to unthread text frames but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is. I know I can copy the text from the thread & start a new thread. But that seems like the slow way to do it. I swear I held the shift key down and double-clicked but can't seem to get this to work.

Do you want to break the story into two separate frames? If so, use the Break Frame script in the Samples.
Do you want to suck the story back into a frame. Click the outport and then click inside that frame. That breaks the story and doesn't leave you with a loaded cursor.

Similar Messages

How do I unthread text frames in CS4 InDesign Mac?

I've looked everywhere and tried what I found in Adobe help. I can't FOR THE LIFE OF ME figure out how to unthread text frames in InDesign CS4 [Mac].
Please help. I know it must be simple.
Thank you,
Margot

Run the SplitStory scipt thats in the samples in the scripts panel.
A waord of caution, though. Splitting a threaded story caused ID to treat the text at the top of each frame as a new paragraph, even if it was caninued from a previous frame. This can result in unwanted changes like an indent, if such is called for in the paragraph style, or an extra number or bullet item in a list.

Unthread text frames indesign

hi
i develop an indesign extension with CS extension builder 2 and flashbuilder 4.6.
how to unthread text frames ? i don't find any method or property in textframe class...
thanks
Simon

hi
thanks for your reply but it doesn't work because i want to keep the text in all textframe. I found a solution in 2 time duplic and remove :
function unstory(qui:Document){
for each(var stori in qui.stories){
   if(stori.textContainers.length>1){
duplic(stori);
remov(stori);
function duplic(myStory){
                              var myTextFrame;
                              //Duplicate each text frame in the story.
                              for(var myCounter = myStory.textContainers.length-1; myCounter >= 0; myCounter --){
                                        myTextFrame = myStory.textContainers[myCounter];
                                        myTextFrame.duplicate();
function remov(myStory){
                              //Remove each text frame in the story. Iterate backwards to avoid invalid references.
                              for(var myCounter = myStory.textContainers.length-1; myCounter >= 0; myCounter --){
                                        myStory.textContainers[myCounter].remove();

Unthread text frames

hi
i develop an indesign extension with CS extension builder 2 and flashbuilder 4.6.
how to unthread text frames ? i don't find any method or property in textframe class...
thanks
Simon

This is a discussion for the scripting forum, however you can achieve what you want using the following code.
tFrame.nextTextFrame = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
This is a sample code in JS, i am not very proficient in AS, but you can converet this easily into AS.
In the above code snippet "tFrame" corresponds to the textframe which you require to unlink from the one it is linked to.
Hope i made the point clear, and please try to post your questions on the right forum to get good response and also help people searching help on similar issues
Manan Joshi
- Efficient InDesign Solutions
- MetaDesign Solutions
http://metadesignsolutions.com/services/indesign-development.php

What is the best way to import a graphic? & How do I create a text frame for a figure caption?

Hello all! I've been working from the FM book for almost 2 hrs trying to figure this out, so now I need your help. I am almost to this point:
Problem I: Importing a graphic
First of all, which is the best way?
-Insert an anchor frame and then import the graphic into the frame OR
-Just insert the graphic and get the anchor frame by default
Here’s my importing and sizing problem:
I hit ENTER to make a new paragraph line (side note: the book says make a new paragraph by hitting ENTER, import the graphic, and then ESC m+p to shrink wrap so that you can avoid the graphic overlapping the above text. I do exactly this (I believe), but my graphic still overlaps the above text when I shrink wrap. What the...?)
I insert an anchored frame with position Below Current Line and alignment CENTER (I chose to the insert anchor frame, since this way I have control over its alignment, correct?)
Anchor frame is selected when I import my image file
In the Imported Graphic Scaling box, what do I select if my file is HUGE (3072x2304)?
-Fit in selected rectangle (when I choose this the image imports small and fits in the anchored frame with lots of white space around it)
-72 dpi
-75 dpi
-150 dpi
-300 dpi
-Custom dpi: 96 (I’ve tried changing this to a smaller number (20) and I get a message that says “cannot handle a bitmap of that size.”)
I’ve had the best luck with selecting FIT IN SELECTED RECTANGLE, and then I just scale the image with my shift+click. If I choose 72 dpi or Custom, my image imports HUGE, and I just can’t manage it. I don’t have a method for resizing these images outside of FM.
Problem II: Creating a text frame for a caption
Once I have chosen FIT IN SELECTED RECTANGLE, I try to insert a text box underneath the image (and inside the anchor frame) to type a caption in it.
In Create New Text Frame box, the default is Number 1 and Gap 0.25. I click SET.
Next, I double-click inside the text frame to begin typing, but the cursor is OUTSIDE and UNDERNEATH the text frame! What the heck??? I’ve done this before and it has worked just fine. Then I had another problem where when I did get the text inside the text frame, I would select the text frame to move it, and it left the text behind! (I moved the frame but the text was separated from it and left behind.)
THANK YOU in advance for your help. I hope I wrote this out clearly enough. I appreciate those who respond. P.S. I'm in FM 10.

My favorite method is to use a one-cell table for graphics and captions.
Import the graphic by reference into the table cell. Create a "Caption"
paragraph tag and assign it to the table title. (The title can be set
for above or below the table cell. I prefer below.) Now, whenever you
insert this table, it will be ready for graphic and caption. Another
advantage of this method is that graphic and caption always stay
together at page/column breaks.
When you create the table format above, assign it to have a -2.0 space
above. Then, create a paragraph tag, such as "TableAnchor" and assign it
-2.0 pt font size and -2.0 space below. (You can substitute a different
point size, but it must be the same in all three places. The TableAnchor
paragraph will hold the table and these settings let tables fit against
the top margin where necessary. Otherwise, they dip down a bit.
I wrote this from memory, so I hope I remembered all the steps!

Master Text Frame for Page Heading

Hello, I am new to indesign and using CS4. Sorry if this is a newbie question.
I am creating a pdf digital presentation and laying it out. I want to create a consistent header on each page in the top left corner and ensure it is in the exact same location on each page. I also want to make sure the text size, font, and color is consistent on each page. Most importantly, if I need to change anything, lets say a font, I want to only do it in one place and not do it on all 20 pages in my document.
My understanding is to add a text frame to the master page. However, how do I edit the text on each page and not have it show on my cover page which is page 1 of my document?
Thanks!!!!

Create a text frame on the master page (make it wide enough and deep enough for the longest heading)
Insert some generic text like "Heading"
Give it a paragraph style
Adjust the paragraph style to your liking
Go to each page you want to change, and CTRL SHIFT (cmd shift on mac) and double click the "Heading"
Change the text to what you want it to look like.
To alter the text colour/font etc. for all of them - adjust the paragraph style
To edit the text style for each heading so they look different in terms of colour etc. - just change the Character Colour via the swatches.
if you do this, then any changes to the Paragraph style should follow through on all pages - except where you've perhaps changed the character colour (or any other hand-adjusted changes to the text.
Also - if you move the Text Frame on the master page they should all move on the corresponding pages, provided you haven't moved them by hand on the actual pages.

How to resize margins / text frames for a whole book?

Hello, I am new to InDesign, but not Adobe software. I am trying to use InDesign to produce a book I have written for a university course I teach. I have 33 documents all together as an InDesign book. After I printed out some test pages I thought there should be more white space on all sides. I changed the margins by 5mm in the master page on the master document and then synced the book. Now the MARGINS have changed on all the documents, but the TEXT FRAMES remain unchanged. I know that I can change text frame sizes, by hand, but that would take forever. I can't find how I can automatically resize a whole book. Is this not possible?
Craig

Before synching, you need to enable layout adjustment in each document (Layout > Layout adjustment). Since you have 33 documents, you might want to run this little script to do it for you:
for (i = 0; i < app.documents.length; i++)
app.documents[i].layoutAdjustmentPreferences.enableLayoutAdjustment = true;
Open all the documents where Layout adjustment should be enabled and run the script.
Peter

Non-printing text frame for use in exported pdf

Hi everyone,
I have a couple of words in a text frame and I've set the text frame to be be non-printing in the attributes panel. I was hoping that by doing this, that when I exported to pd, it would show in the pdf file but not print, but as it happens it doesn't show at all in the pdf.
Is there a way to mark a text frame as non-printing in Indesign but still have it show in the pdf and not print in the pdf?
Would be grateful for any advice.

It might work to put it on it's own layer, mark the layer as non-printing, so it won't print from ID, but export a layered PDF (you might have to include non-printing layers to get it inthe PDF, but I don't think so). In Acrobat pro you can then change the layer properties to visible, but non-printing. It's a real pain to do this.

How can I sequence non-threaded text frames for localization?

Is there any way to sequence non-threaded text frames? I want the text to appear in order in SDL (translation software).
Thanks all. RR

Last time I checked, the Articles tool only affected reading order in PDF. I know of no translation tools that consistently do a good job harvesting text from PDFs, and SDL's tools only accept IDML. TextStitch is useful because you can just let it auto-stitch the whole document if all frames should be read in a top-down, left-right order.
However, StoryCollector and other SDL tools also collect frames in that order. So, using the QuickStitch function of TextStitch, you can rapidly thread all the frames in a document. Note that you will want to ungroup any group that contains a text frame before you begin - TextStitch gives you visual feedback, "blackening" frames that are going to be included in the threaded story, but it doesn't black out threaded frames in groups, so if you want to be able to see what you are doing, then you'll have to ungroup.

Break two threaded text frames into 2 separate unthreaded text frames

I have the most trouble with this. CS4.
What I'm wanting to do is separate two sections, if this is the same answer. I want my sections stand alone, unthreaded. Thanks!!!!!

In your scripts panel you'll find one under Application > Samples called Break Frame. Select the frame and click that. Done!

How do I create a series of text frames using values from Excel list?

First of all, this is the very first script I'm attempting to write from scratch. I'm completely green at scripting, and I've picked up a few snippets from Adobe's ID scripting guide, but nothing has really stuck yet relating to this particular objective.
My supervisor keeps a master list of ad spaces, with the name of the account, how wide the space is, and how tall the space is, all in an Excel sheet. These spaces can number in the hundreds, and I am stuck manually drawing one rectangle for every space, which takes a very long time.
I'd like to create/have help creating a script that will take these values and "automagically" draw these spaces in the form of text frames, with the width (in columns) and the height (in inches) defined by the values in the master list, as well as the name of each account appearing in the subsequent text frames.
The script doesn't necessarily need to be able to pull the values straight from the Excel sheet; I can transfer the values to a support text file if needed, or directly into the script, changing it as I need it. A big thing (if it is not able to pull right from an Excel sheet) is that the number of spaces changes weekly, and so do the accounts, and the width and the height. Accordingly, it would be ideal if the values from the sheet could be changed easily, so as to create a new set of spaces as needed.
Positioning for each space is not crucial, only height and width. If they all appear on top of each other on the same page, that will be a result for me. The main idea is to not have to draw them all manually, one by one.
To me, this sounds like a tall order, but hopefully some experienced scripters out there can assist me, as I wish to become experienced as well.
So, the TL;DR version:
- Script needs to draw a series of text frames.
- Text frames dimensions need to be defined by width and height values from Excel sheet.
- Text frames must have account name as contents (from account names in Excel sheet).
- Accounts, width and height change every week in the Excel sheet, so must be relatively easy to exchange all of the values.
- The width values are on the Excel sheet as columns. It would be ideal if the script could convert those numbers into multiples of columns as needed.
- (Optional) Script can pull values directly from Excel sheet.
- (Optional) Script can define text frame fill color as gray. (If it works as I think it will, I could just select all the resulting text frames myself and set them all to gray at once... I'm not that lazy )
Thanks in advance to whomever can assist in any possible way, even if it is just a push in the right direction. This script will save 1-2 hours of tedium every week.

Sound like the perfect thing for InDesign Scripting.
I would copy the Excel contents into a text file, to get a format that is easily read from InDesign, and there will automatically be a TAB for each "cell" just using copy/paste.
Here is a piece of code, that you perhaps could go on with (adding variable to change pages and location on page, and other stuff).
The readFileLineByLine function, can be easily re-used with any function using "callback". You simply supply the function to it, that you want to be executed for every line of text that is read:
const COLUMN_WIDTH = 2; // Define the column width in inch
var pageIndex;
var textFramesExported; // not implemented.
// Add a new dokument. Set myDoc to app.activeDocument to use
// the current document instead of creating a new one.
var myDoc = app.documents.add();
// The doSomethingWithTextRow function is called upon for every line of text read.
readFileLineByLine('c:\\test.txt', doSomethingWithTextRow);
function doSomethingWithTextRow(row){
    // We expect the text line to be TAB separated (\t = TAB). We get that from just copying the contents of an
    // excel file into a text document.
    var cells = row.split('\t');
    var companyName = cells[0]; // The Company name in the first slot of the array
    var width = COLUMN_WIDTH * cells[1];
    var height = cells[2];
    // Create a new text frame for every row handled
    if (pageIndex==undefined) pageIndex = 0; // Count up when you have exported a number of texts, I leave this for you to do.
    var newTextFrame = myDoc.pages[pageIndex].textFrames.add();
    newTextFrame.contents = companyName;
    // The text frame is created in the top left corner.
    newTextFrame.geometricBounds = [0, 0, height + ' in', width + ' in']; // Top, Left, Bottom, Right
    // You might want to move the textframes to other positions, keeping track of how many you put out per page.
    newTextFrame.move( [10, 10] );
function readFileLineByLine(path, callbackFn){
    var myFileIn = new File(path);
    if (File.fs == 'Windows'){
        // This was probably added to recognize UTF-8 (even without its start marker?)
        myFileIn.encoding = 'UTF-8';
    myFileIn.open('r');
    var myEncoding = myFileIn.encoding;
    try{
        if (!myFileIn.exists){
            throw('Missing file: ' + myFileIn.fsName)
        var ln = '';
        while(!myFileIn.eof){
            // Read the lines from the file, until an empty line is found [now as a remark].
            ln = myFileIn.readln()
            // if(ln !='' && ln!='\n'){
               // Call the function supplied as argument
               callbackFn(ln);
    }catch(e){
        alert(e);
        gCancel = true;
    finally{
        myFileIn.close();
The file in C:\ in my example was saved as UTF-8 and looks like this (showing hidden characters):
Message was edited by: Andreas Jansson

Can you change a story or text frame's index? (re autonumbering)

Does anyone know if there is a way to change the index of a text frame or story without changing the actual visual layout of an InDesign document? So far all I can come up with is to cut the frame and repaste it into the document. You can move a story within the index list of a document, but that visually cuts and pastes the story text.
actDoc.stories.item(1).move(LocationOptions.BEFORE, actDoc.stories.item(0));
I can't see any method to change the index of a text frame (other than cutting and repasting).
I want to put together some tests. I have a bunch of questions. Each question is a single story in a single text frame in an InDesign document. The text frame is linked to an InCopy document. The first paragraph of the question has a "QuestionNumber" style but the para style has no numbering. I want to have only one version of each question (the InCopy story) but to put the questions into different tests in different orders with different numbering. What I do is to create an InDesign template for the tests that has a QuestionNumber para style that includes autonumbering with the "Continue Numbers across Stories" option checked. This works beautifully and the questions are numbered in the order in which the text frames (and stories) are (via a script) copied from the question document and pasted into the test paper document. When the same question/story/textframe is used in two tests it is numbered in the order in which it is pasted into each test paper (but the original stays the same because it has no numbering).
The next step would be to be able to reorder the question numbers within the test paper (if you wanted to, say, swap questions 18 and 20). To do that you have to change the index of the story because the autonumbering across stories seems to depend on the index of the story.
What seems to happen is that stories are indexed in the order in which they are pasted into a document, but text frames are indexed in the opposite order. If you paste a text frame with one story into a new document, it is textframe.item(0) and story.item(0). If you then paste a second one into the document it is story.item(1) but textframe.item(0). The first text frame becomes textframe.item(1). When you cut a text frame and repaste it, it is reindexed as if you were pasting it for the first time.
The autonumbering also seems to be segregated by page. If you have questions 1 and 2 on page 1 and questions 3 and 4 on page 2, you can move around the text frames for 1 and 2 on the page but the numbering stays the same. Likewise for 3 and 4. If you drag 3 across to page 1 it stays as 3 but if you drag question 4 across to page 1 it becomes 3, and the original question 3 on page 2 becomes question 4. It is confusing but makes sense in a weird way once you get the hang of it.
Anyway, I have probably answered my own question and the best way to renumber the questions in a test is to run the script again and create a new document using a new question order.
But any other ideas are welcome.
Thanks.

hi Brian
which version of InDesign you have ?
I have checked these steps on CS3 and CS4:
first I've set ON to option in preferences to preserve links when placing
then I've placed DOC file as AnchoredTF in new Story
then I've copied this AnchoredTF and pasted it on page, and then I've pasted it as another AnchoredTF - each time there was new lick created to the same DOC file
then I've set OFF to option in preferences to preserve links when placing
and even when I again copied and pasted this AnchoredTF with placed DOC file - it still add new link on Links palette
so maybe with InCopy stories there is next bug or next "feature" ...
[edit]
ok - I've checked InCopy file - after exporting TextFrame as InCopy Story
and it's like you've said - pasting on page - new link is created - pasting as Anchored - link isn't created ... no matter if option in preferences is set or not ...
verdict - we've found new bug
BUT ... if you link it again - by CTRL+D method - link is preserved even if option in preferences is set to off so you can have more than one InCopy Story placed as AnchoredTF in same parent Story ...
robin
www.adobescripts.co.uk

Table of contents and the order of multiple text frames flowing across pages

I have a multi-page document,
on each page, there are 2 text frames:
- A text frame for containing a PAGE TITLE
and
- A text frame, flowing from one page to another containing: a MAIN TITLE, a SECTION TITLE, and flowing body copy (on page 1); and another MAIN TITLE, a SECTION TITLE, and flowing body copy; (on page 2)
When I generate a TOC, using the Page, Main and Section Titles styles, the expected outcome would be:
Page Title             1
   Main Title           1
Section Title          1
Page Title             2
   Main Title           2
Section Title          2
But because the Main title and Section titles are all within one flowing text frame and the content flows across multiple pages, and each of the Page Titles are within 2 separate text frames, the actual TOC generated is:
Page Title             1
   Main Title          1
Section Title         1
   Main Title           2
Section Title          2
Page Title           2
...where the TOC lists all the TOC items from the flowing text frame in one grouping first, then the individual free standing text frame title.
QUESTION: Is the only way to automatically rectify this is to combine all the text into one flowing text frame? or is there another workaround?
Have played with the left/right, top/bottom alignment of the individual text frames; also experimented with the object layering, to no avail..
Thanks for any insights.

I ended up using a product called InFlow from EmSoftware. The solution offers a plugin to InDesign that builds pages on the fly when there is overset text. The setup is pretty minimual and it seems easy to use. The only drawback that the plugin MAY have is that it does not remove the pages it built if the pages are not needed from record to record. I could not test this myself since my test data did not test more then one record, but when I turned my proof set off, the pages that were built were still on screen. It does seem to work well for what we are looking to do, so if anyone is looking for something that will build pages on the fly in situations where the "Dynamic Story Handling" is not available, I would suggest looking into this.

How do I create a series of text frames from a list of files?

And I'm back again.
This time, I'm wondering how I can use JavaScript to place a series of text frames from a list of files, preferably with the ability to specify criteria before running the script.
Here's the details: I work for a newspaper and I lay out stories for the pages (in addition to the other part of my job, laying out ad spaces, as detailed in a previous thread, for which I requested another script, thanks Andreas and Jongware ). The file names for the stories are labeled for the section they go in, like L- for Life, C- for Comment, S- for Sports, etc.
I'd like to create a script that asks for a criteria in a text box (where I can type L-, C-, S- or whatever else I need) and then places all of the stories, in a specified directory, whose file names match what was typed in the box, one text frame for each.
I can't rightly tell if this is a simpler or more difficult script to write out, but I plan on putting research into it as usual so I can develop it myself. However, I figured it would be more efficient to ask first, then research, so that while I'm researching, I can refer to the opinions of my fellow forumites, and/or the mods.
Thanks again for any assistance offered.

And I'm back again.
This time, I'm wondering how I can use JavaScript to place a series of text frames from a list of files, preferably with the ability to specify criteria before running the script.
Here's the details: I work for a newspaper and I lay out stories for the pages (in addition to the other part of my job, laying out ad spaces, as detailed in a previous thread, for which I requested another script, thanks Andreas and Jongware ). The file names for the stories are labeled for the section they go in, like L- for Life, C- for Comment, S- for Sports, etc.
I'd like to create a script that asks for a criteria in a text box (where I can type L-, C-, S- or whatever else I need) and then places all of the stories, in a specified directory, whose file names match what was typed in the box, one text frame for each.
I can't rightly tell if this is a simpler or more difficult script to write out, but I plan on putting research into it as usual so I can develop it myself. However, I figured it would be more efficient to ask first, then research, so that while I'm researching, I can refer to the opinions of my fellow forumites, and/or the mods.
Thanks again for any assistance offered.

InDesign CS3: How do i add a new text frame to an existing threaded story?

I have a table that is much too large to be in an existing story (my document is currently formatted in 2 columns, but the table that I need to insert needs to span across an entire page) so I had to create a separate text frame for it. What I need to do is break the text thread and reroute the story so that the table is included. Is there a way to do this?

With the selection tool click the outport of the frame you want before the table, then the inport of the frame that should have the table, then the outport of that frame and the inport of the one that should follow.
You'll need to put the table into a separate paragraph, and that paragraph should be set to start in a new frame, as should the one that follows (you can also accomplish the frame transitions by inserting frame breaks).
Peter

Unthreading text frames for Idiots

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