New to InDesign, have simple question about type strings?

[Nohjekim]

Hi

After a zillion years of using PageMaker I have finally switched to InDesign and while it is going reasonably well I have one very basic question.

That is how I break the link between text blocks?

I have read the instructions and I can click on the link box and get the “Break Link” cursor. But when I click in the text box I want to separate it disappears and the plus sign reappears in the link box and it is still there. I have tried clicking in both boxes and about everything else I can think of but I can’t get them to unlink.

What am I doing wrong; I finally had to go back to Word and separate them and place them separately.

You are probably going to hear a lot from me for a while, until I get the hang of this software.

Thanks for the help

Mike Hawthorne

 

[MarcusStringer]

What happens when you do this, and it makes sense, is that when you break the link between two text frames, the type which populating two frames is now only populating one, and because there is now more text then will fit in one frame you get the red overflow cross.

You simply have to relink that frame to a new frame to see the rest of the text, or make the frame bigger to allow for the overflow of type.

Or cut the text before you unlink the original two, then once you've unlinked the original two frames simply paste the text back into the unlinked frame.

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Nohjekim]

Hi

I still don't get it.
Let me be clearer about what I am trying to do.

I have two columns side by side. The second is the overflow from the first.

I want to be able to separate the second column from the first so that they are no longer linked. I.e. if I pull down on the text frame of the first column the text will not reflow back into it from the second or anything?

They are just as if they were placed separately to start with.

When I do as the instructions say, (click on the link box to get the unlink cursor and then double click in the text frame that I want to unlink) the text frame disappears and the link box of the first column is now loaded.

No matter where I paste the text it is still linked to the first column.

I want to be able to paste it in and have it no longer linked to the first column.

In PageMaker it was only necessary to cut and paste the second column using the selection tool (not the type tool) to have it become a separate block of type no longer linked to the first.

I want to know how to do that in InDesign. Can anyone tell my step by step how to accomplish this?

This is driving me buggy since it is such a simple thing to do. The instructions make it sound simple, but I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong.

I have mastered the styles pallet and most of the other functions (that I have attempted) but this still eludes me.

Thanks for the help…

Mike

 

[jeminee]

Hi Mike,

Unlink the two columns like you did.
In the first column go to where you would like to end the text. There press Control-Shift-End to select the rest of the text.
Next press contol- x to cut that text.
Finaly past the text in the second column.
Does that do what you want?

Antoon

 

[Nohjekim]

Hi Antoon

Thank you a lot!!!

I have it at last.

The part that I was missing was the fact that you must cut the copy in the frame so that the frame is empty before you unthread it so that no copy is replaced in the first frame.

Now it works like a charm. I do think that it wouldn't hurt to just have an option when you right click in the thread box that says "Unthread text". It would be a lot easier.

Mike

 

[Nohjekim]

Ps.

I now see that Marcus gave me the right answer in the last line of his explanation as well, I just didn't get it.

Mike