*** From the Archives ***
This article is from March 10, 2008, and is no longer current.
Find Overset Text Fast
Sarah wrote,
Just wondering if InD (CS3) has anything that will search for overset text? I know when you export it to a pdf it will notify you, but is there a search within InDesign?
There’s a way to search for overset text in an InDesign file, but it’s not on the surface … that is, there’s no user interface for it, like a checkbox in Find/Change or anything. (Maybe in CS4? Fingers crossed.) For now we end-users have to depend on plug-in and script developers to give us a solution. And there are many out there.
[Editor’s note: Note that this is much easier in CS4 and later. See this post.]
The plug-in company RogueSheep, for example, has a free Javascript called RSCheckForOversetText you can download. It’s for CS1 and CS2 (Mac/Windows), so for CS3 you’ll need to store the script in a Version 4.0 Scripts folder you create within the program’s Scripts > Scripts Panel folder. To run it, double-click it in your Scripts panel which you open from Window > Automation.
If the script detects any overset text frames, it puts a rubylith-like box under each one to help you quickly zero in on them:
By the way, the pink boxes are placed on a new, bottom-most layer called RS Overset Markers which the script creates, as well as the RGB color that fills the box. Nothing touches the actual frames in your document.
Since the box markers are on their own layer, you can hide that layer before printing or exporting to PDF. Also, once you fix an overset and run the script again, it deletes the marker it had placed behind that overset frame.
I should note that RogueSheep offers this free script and others (on the same page as the link to the script above) as examples of scripts that can be run with their commercial InEventScript plug-in, which gave CS1/CS2 users the ability to associate any script with an InDesign “event” (command) automatically, such as printing or saving. Adobe added this functionality to InDesign CS3 scripters, so RogueSheep ceased development of InEventScript.
There are overset-related plug-ins available, such as DTP Tool’s TextCount and SoftCare’s Overset Manager. They aren’t free, but they offer a lot of neat features that go beyond the simple detection of overset frames. You might want to download their free trial versions to see how those additional functions might help your workflow.
 |
If you export to PDF, InDesign will bark at you and tell you there is overset text and give you the page number too.
There is from a swiss company a free scriptcollection called moonbox. There in is a script called “moonOver” which let you jump direct to the overset text.
The only problem: it’s german…
Direct download-link
https://www.ulrich-media.ch/downloads/dokumente/moonbox.2-0.zip
>The only problem: it?s german?
That’s a problem only if you don’t know German :)
Just for information.
I’m Austrian! : )
Austrian, eh?
G’day mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie!
/End awesome movie reference
To find overset text without using a script, select the text box, type command-Y, and the story editor will show the overset text below a red line.
Having said that, we here use SoftCare’s Overset Manager, which will display the overset when you click on a text box. The overset displays in the same column width as the text box you select. It’s not perfect but it works pretty good.
Steve
One other option: Make sure you’re not in Preview mode, then zoom way, way, out. The red overset marker will appear at the same size regardless of zoom level so at a very small zoom size it should be quite obvious.
Um… Ellis – he said Austrian, not Australian.
Anyways, I just export to pdf – works like a charm.
He was quoting Dumb and Dumber. Speaking of dumb, can someone please explain to me how to save a CS3 document as a PDF overriding that brain grindingly irritating ‘overset text’ thing…but as if you were talking to a three year old. Every time I export my work it appears with all of the logos missing. I am hopelessly technically inept and really need to know this stuff for my job, and I currently feel like hurling my computer out of the window or running around the office with a paper basket on my head.
@Suzy: Hm. The overset text alert shouldn’t affect whether your graphics are showing up in the pdf. That is odd and perhaps unrelated. The overset alert comes when there is more text than can fit into one of your text frames, and you’ll get that little red + symbol in the lower-right corner of the text frame.
The graphics not showing up… that could be all kinds of things. When you go into Preview mode (press W while you have the Selection tool chosen), do the logos disappear?
Along these lines OH GREAT OVERSET TEXT EXPERTS…please help me with this if you can. I received CS3 Indesign files from a printer. We have to relayout the elements so we have to copy and paste into new file. Upon doing this…all the text becomes overset!!!! Whether its a headline or a paragraph…as if the font changed/text got larger/boxes got smaller!!! We tried everything but to no avail. So we have to manually open each and every text box to see the copy. Any suggestions?
You might check to see if the styles of the overset text are based on other styles. That’s often the cause of this kind of problem.
https://creativepro.com/copy-and-paste-without-the-pink.php
If it is, then either redefine the parent style in the new document, or delete the parent in the old document and replace it with [No Paragraph Style] + Preserve Formatting.
https://creativepro.com/five-random-tips.php
(see tip # 4)
If you’re copying and pasting the frames (and not just the text inside), check that it’s not an object style applied to the text frame in the old document. Try making it [None] before you copy/paste.
Hey Mike: Thank you very much for the suggestions. I tried both ways and naught. However…it is definitely the “styles based on other styles” thing. I selected text boxes and clicked on “BREAK LINK TO STYLE” and alot of other text boxes got overset! ARGH! And I changed the Paragraphy Styles and “kept the formatting” option. But in so doing, I still have to end up opening the text boxes before I copy and paste. I looked for something in PREFERENCES to see if I can stop it, but nothing there either. As for the OBJECT STYLE , I tried that also and the text format changed completely (including FONT). So that’s a nono. [sorry for the long extensive reply]. When you say “redefine the parent style in the new document”…do you mean copy/load the CHARACTER & PARAGRAPHY STYLES from old file to new? THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!
Hey Mike: Another thing I noticed about the text boxes is that the bottom of the box is completely abutted to the text…as if it’s BOTTOM-ALIGNED. But it’s not, it’s top aligned. So it seems like the text was “forced” to fit somehow. Just can’t figure it out.
Sherine-
If you’re still seeing the problem, then yes, try loading the styles from the old document. Specifically what I was thinking of is that the paragraph styles were based on [Basic Paragraph] which might have a different definition in the new document. But if you load them all, you’re sure to eliminate styles as the culprit.
The only other thing I can think of is if the style calls for being aligned to a baseline grid. That can make the text stick to the bottom of the frame, even though it is top aligned, and it can cause overset when all you do is you move a frame.
Good luck! I’ll be interested to see what the answer is.
Best you could edit the page title Find Overset Text Fast | InDesignSecrets to more catching for your content you write. I enjoyed the blog post nevertheless.
Another fast way to find overset text that doesn’t require plugins is to use the Preflight option (CS4). The default generally finds this, but if you have any preflight profiles set up to look for overset text, when you double-click it in the window it’ll jump right to where the issue is. I was getting strange markers that I didn’t recognize so that wasn’t helping much.
Excellent point, Monica (though there was no preflight panel back when Anne-Marie originally wrote this article). I just wrote this up as a blog post: https://creativepro.com/how-to-find-overset-text-in-indesign-fast.php