The Amazing Master Page Ghost Text Wrap Bug
Here is the weirdest InDesign bug I’ve seen in a while, shown to me by Caleb Clauset while we were at PEPCON: The Print + ePublishing Conference last week. Caleb works for Typefi, and he presented at the InDesign Automation session. Because of his work, he is a lightning rod for all kinds of bugs and oddities from Typefi’s many clients, and often needs to find clever workarounds for problems that Adobe isn’t able to fix quickly.
This bug is simple to reproduce, and I can see how it could easily bite someone unawares. First, create a group of objects on a master page and apply text wrap to the group. (Or, assign text wrap to two or more objects on the master page and then group them.) Next, create a text frame on a document page so that it wraps around the master page item/group:
So far, so good — that looks like it’s supposed to. Now Command-Shift-click (or Ctrl+Shift+click on Windows) on one of the wrap objects on the document page. That overrides them — takes them off the master page and makes them editable on the document page. Okay, ready? Now delete them.
What’s wrong with the picture above? There is no object causing text wrap, but the text is being wrapped anyway! No matter what you do — even if you move the text frame, or delete all the objects on the document page and create new text frames, or remove or add pages — the text wrap remains! Even if you It’s like a ghost that just won’t go away.
In other words, text wrap applied to objects in a group (or to the group itself) affects objects on document pages, even if those objects aren’t technically even on the document page. As far as I know this happens in CS5 and CS6.
What can you do about it? Umm? don’t group objects with text wrap on the master page until Adobe gets around to squashing this bug!
You can also workaround this bug by selecting the group and enabling Apply to Master Page Only from the Text Wrap panel options menu. Another workaround is to enable Text Wrap Only Affects Text Beneath (go to Preferences > Composition).
I could reproduce the bug and fixed it with CTRL + B (Text Frame options) and checking “Ignore Text Wrap”
hope this helps
David Ramirez
Thank you, David. Your quick fix did the trick for me!
Thank you David. You have no idea how long this has been driving me around the bend!! :)
I thpught of this initially, David, but the problem is I want the text to wrap around another object I’ve placed elsewhere on the page. The solution I arrived at is (as I’ve already released all master page items) to set up an additional completely blank master page and simply drop this on top of the affected page in the pages panel.
Wow, just ran into this problem doing a redesign, so of course I’ve got Master Pages out the wazoo. I finally got some real text for my next issue, and came across this ghost text wrap problem! [God bless you for categorizing the blog title in the Common Tongue].
David, “Ignore Text Wrap” in the real text box did not work for me. Caleb, the “Apply to Master Page Only” worked perfectly.
Mac OS 10.8.3, InDesign CS 5.
Thanks!
I got a related problem in Indesign CC:
1) I Created some groups on a masterpage
2) Overrode one of them on a regular page and moved it
3) Exported my document to pdf
In the pdf the group that was moved on the regular page showed twice: once in its ‘regular page locaction’ and a second time in its ‘masterpage location’
This happend only in a multi-page pdf. Exporting just the affected page made the problem disappear (!!??)
My advise: avoid groups on masterpages for now!
HTH
Willem van den Goorbergh
So just an update to this issue, I have encountered this same bug in Indesign CC as well as the latest release of Indesign CC 2014. The fix of making sure no items, graphics included, are not grouped on the Master page. This will alleviate any issue of a ‘ghost’ text wrap or what appears to be an invisible object.
If you try to apply to the text frame ‘Ignore Text Wrap’, it will work but, you then run into the issue of that text frame not able to allow any other graphics further into the document to wrap. By checking your master page and making sure nothing is grouped instantly fixes this.
SALVATION
I’ve spent at least two hours today scouring the internet, then turning on and off text wrap options, making sure items aren’t grouped on the master page, and looking for any other potential fixes but I’m still stumped. I was able to finally have my generated contents to appear where I wanted it by creating a new master page containing the contents and applying it to the correct page. Now, though, I’m having the same problem with text that should appear on my right-hand first pages of a chapter page. I’ve used the “first pages of chapter” master page several times previously within the document with no issues. Now, though, the chapter title appears correctly on the left hand page, linked text skips the text box created on the right hand page of the master title page spread page, and behaves normally on the next page that uses the “running headers and footers” master page. It’s a 48 page book of mostly photographs. This chapter begins on page 42. Chapter beginning spreads using the Title page masters that behaved as expected occur several time previously. This is the last chapter and both my client and I are ready to finish up. Any suggestions welcome. Thank you.
Jennifer: I strongly suggest you post this on the forums (click Forums above; you’ll need at least a free membership to post). That way more people will probably see it. While we do not allow uploading images like screen shots to the forums, you can post images of your problem (I think we’ll need to see them!) on any of the many image sharing sites on the web, and put image tags or links to them in the forum post.
David, thank you for your prompt response. How do I address my e-mail sharing from dropbox to ensure potential problem solvers can access the screen shots? Sorry to ask such a silly question but I’m new at this “sharing with the world” stuff, usually I just try to read enough potential solutions until I’m able to figure it out. Unfortunately, that didn’t work today. Thanks!
Ahhh! Mea Culpa. The culprit was a double instead of single “page break” code in the text. Problem solved. Thanks for the hand holding and concern throughout the discovery process.
So, I just rant into this problem in 2017. Good to see Adobe is staying on top of their products! It’s never a good sign when you look up a solution on the web and see: “just avoid doing it until the bug is fixed,” and then find out that was four years ago. ;)
With my problem, I first tried using “ignore all text wrap” but I also had a pull quote that had to sit on the copy, so that didn’t work since the copy had to wrap around the pull quote, but not the “ghost wrap.”
My solution was to use “Ignore all text wrap” on the offending box, but then I also had to split the copy into several boxes that linked together and went around the pull quote. Probably not the most efficient but it worked.