Anchored object hiding the text InDesign

Question

I am setting up a book, where I want to anchor some objects to the text. I need to do the custom setting as it shall not align with the text but fill out a whole page. I have put textwrap on the group that is to be anchored. But it is hiding the text above the point where I anchored it in the text.

How can I prevent this??

Kind regards,
Lisbet

Answer 1

Custom anchored objects start wrapping text on the line following the line where the anchor mark is placed. This is InDesign behavior and we can't do much about it.

But my motto is "nothing is impossible" :-)

So here's a suggestion that might work for you. Please note it comes with an important caveat: it will work only if the full page anchored object is followed by a new paragraph.

The idea is to create a custom paragraph style for the anchored object.
You maybe had something like:
<-para style "text"-> blablabla
<-para style "text"-> [anchor]blablabla

Now try this:
<-para style "text"-> blablabla
<-para style "anchor"-> [anchor]
<-para style "text"-> blablabla

1. Make sure the group is wrapping text.

2. Set keep options for "anchor" paragraph style: Start next page (or odd page if you prefer)

That's it...

Now, if you need to keep the text flowing without white space at the bottom of the page with your object, that would be a completely different story. Manual work or scripting would have to be involved then.

Answer 2

(This is sort of a "non-answer" so it might get removed at some point, but what I have to say is too long for a comment.)

I've been trying to achieve this for years and this question made me give it another go. I've tried all sorts of solutions to try to come up with an answer for you. The more I try the more I understand why it's not just a built-in function in InDesign. It might not be such a good idea and it might not even make logically sense!

I guess you want to anchor your full page images in order to make everything dynamic. You want to be able to edit the text, change the font size, change the margins etc. and the full page images should neatly follow the anchor around and help you automatically layout your book.

But there are some logical/geometric problems with this that I don't think it's achievable with anchored objects. Maybe with some complex scripting, but to write such script and set it up to fit each new project might be way more time consuming than to manually choose where to place the images.

I can't easily illustrate these problems since they involve things that aren't physically possible.

Problem 1: If the anchor is on a right page

In the example you are showing we have an achored full page image on the left page of the spread and you want all the text there to move to the right page. Let's assume you have achieved that. What happens if you edit something which moves the anchor to a right page? Then the layout will break. The image can't be placed on the left page and push away the text there since this would move the text from the right page containing the anchor to the next left page and there would be an empty page. The alternative would be to either place the image on the right page and move the text to the next left page or to place the image on the next left page, but as far as I know, anchored objects can only be on the same spread as the anchor. Even if it was possible you would have to have separate styles for anchors on left and right pages which goes against the whole idea of having a dynamic design.

Problem 2: Multiple anchors on one page

What happens if you end up having two anchors to full page images on one page? The two images should be placed on the following two pages. Firstly, as mentioned before, it's not possible to have anchored objects on another spread than the anchor and secondly, if it was possible, you would need to manually change the style of the second image to make it jump to the next page. The problem only grows if you have more than two anchors on a page.

Solution

Make your styles and style all the text. Make sketches, lists, tables of images and try to predict how many pages you are going to need for images. Place your images manually either starting from the beginning working your way through the book or work on individual chapters. Accept some chaos in the process. :-)

Answer 3

The text flow options are frustrating for anchored objects. One trick would be to create a rectangle with the same bounds as the anchored object and have that reflow the text with its text wrap. You can then group the rectangle with the text frame, so they move as a unit.

If you select a text frame containing anchored objects the following script will add the rectangles and wrap the text, then group them altogether with the text frame.

var textFrame = app.selection[0];
var textFrameRectangles = textFrame.rectangles;
var groupArray = [];
groupArray.push(textFrame);

for (var i=0; i < textFrameRectangles.count(); i++) {
        var rect = textFrame.parentPage.rectangles.add({geometricBounds:textFrameRectangles[i].geometricBounds});
        rect.textWrapPreferences.textWrapMode = TextWrapModes.CONTOUR;
        rect.textWrapPreferences.textWrapOffset = [4,4,4,4];
        groupArray.push(rect);
}

var pageGroup = textFrame.parentPage.groups.add(groupArray);