When text overflows a text frame, InDesign displays a red plus sign (+) in the frame's out port, which is located near the bottom right corner of the frame. However, there are times when it may still be difficult for you to locate text frames that contain overset text. If you are having difficulty finding overset text frames in a document, you can use CopyFit to find these.

CopyFit is a feature of the DesignMerge software. In addition to providing the ability to adjust text automatically to fit with a text frame, CopyFit also provides the ability to find overset text.

To find overset text, simply open the document. Enlarge the view of the document to improve your view of the document's content.

Then, open the CopyFit panel (DesignMerge > View > CopyFit Panel) and click the Find First button on the panel.

CopyFit will find the first frame that contains overset text in the document and this frame will become the object that is currently selected in the document.

Also, if CopyFit did find a frame that is overset, then the CopyFit panel's Find Next and Find Previous buttons will become available to find additional frames that contain overset text. If the Find Next or Find Previous buttons do not become available after you click Find First, then there are no overset text frames in the document.

You can also locate overset text frames in a document before it is merged by running an Overset Text Report merge session, which will scan a document and report any overset text frames located within the document. A sample of the overset text is displayed in the report, and the user can select and identify the frame by clicking the Show Me button.

Additionally, you can review whether any frames that contain DesignMerge variables may overset by running a Longest Line Test merge session. Moreover, a Data Preview merge session can detect overset text automatically. To enable this Data Preview feature, select the DesignMerge preference called Show Overset Text Info. When this preference is selected, DesignMerge will scan for overset text frames during a Data Preview session and then will report on the bottom of the Data Preview panel the number of overset frames that were located.

For more information about CopyFit, see DesignMerge Documentation.