Is there a way to mass delete text without deleting the text frames in Indesign?

Question

I'm trying to delete text in non-linked text frames without having to individually click inside each one, select all, and delete.

Is there a faster way of doing this?

Answer 1

Yes -- but since it requires multiple text frames to be selected, it can only work on a single spread. You cannot select items 'across' spreads.

1. Select the text frames to clear out.
2. Call up the Find/Change dialog.
3. Select the GREP tab.
4. Make sure all fields (Find, Change, and formatting) are empty.
5. Type in the top field (?s)^.+, leave the bottom field blank. This is essentially "Find all continuous text".
6. By default, the search range ought to be 'Stories' (it may be 'Story' if you only selected one single frame).
7. Hit "Change All".

This is also scriptable and can be made to work on an entire document, but since a script works independent of any user input, you'd need some way of telling it what frames to clear out.

Answer 2

Nice tip... if you put the text fields you don't want deleted on a separate locked layer you can strip your entire document from text leaving you with a nice blank indesign template.

Same can be done with a script removing all images not positioned on a locked layer in your document.

Answer 3

I just had this problem (at least I think this is what you are referring to).

When I was deleting text I got an alert, cannot convert text frame to line. What I did instead was select first with the Direct Selection tool (A) and then switch to the Selection Tool, (V) before deleting.

Answer 4

I had the same problem just a few minutes ago. I had all kinds of text, icons, and images that I needed to get rid of.

All I did was to go to my masterpage, right-click, and selected: "Apply master to pages..." > "All Pages".

And it all cleared out, leaving me with all the frames from my masterpage clean and ready to fill out once again.