Very Computer

Setting up a 50 page catalog, all in one unit (prior to importing graphics)
so that I keep the styles consistent, and had the following happen:

Many pages I set up the text by importing the text from the old version.
There are many changes, in font, format and writing, but all text has
imported just fine and taken on the new definition of the prior style.

BUT, out of one file holding only 4 pages the following happens:
When text is imported and pasted, either as a text object, or as text within
a block, the style menu adds one or more new styles with the identical name
of an existing style. any attempt to eliminate the offending duplicate entry
causes the other entry to become corrupted. I was forced to revert about a
dozen times and ended up copying the text to a word processing program and
then placing it from there and re-assigning styles.

Why and how does a piece of text corrupt my styles list? This is scary,
especially as the project advances. If I hadn't noticed the extra entry and
gone on with a day or two's work. . . .

Thanks for any input,
Toby Rockwell
Horton Brasses

Toby:

I just posted something about this in the thread about bugs. I have had the
same problems. It's apparently caused by using the styles palette import option
as opposed to the pull-down styles option. From what I've read that will avoid
future problems. But I believe it IS a bug. And once your style sheet in
corrupted there's no solution that I've found short of starting over in a new
file and recreating it all! There are two Adobe documents that address this
issue. I'll cut/paste them here (if it'll take that much copy!) Hope this
helps. Good luck. Sheila

Text Formatting Doesn't Update or "Bad Record Index" Error After Importing
Styles in PageMaker 6.5x
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue
After you replace a style in an Adobe PageMaker 6.5x publication with an
imported style of the same name, text formatted with the style doesn't update
automatically. Instead, a plus sign appears next to the style name. You used
the Styles palette to import the style.

Details
If you attempt to edit the style by choosing Type > Define Styles, PageMaker
returns the error, "Cannot record changes to the style. Internal Error: Bad
Record Index."

If you edit the style by double-clicking its name in the Styles palette, or by
choosing Style Options from the Styles palette menu, the changes to the style
do not automatically affect the text formatted with it.

Solutions
Do one of the following:
Click the style to update the text.

OR: Copy and paste the publication's pages into a new publication, then choose
Type > Define Styles and click Import to import the publication's styles.

NOTE: When you copy and paste text objects into a new publication, they become
unthreaded.

OR: To import styles without error, choose Type > Define Styles, click Import
in the Define Styles dialog box, then navigate to the publication from which
you're importing styles and click OK.

Additional Information
In PageMaker 6.5x, you can import styles from another publication using the
Define Styles dialog box or the Styles palette. When you import styles using
the Define Styles dialog box, styles that overwrite existing styles import
correctly and text formatted with an overwritten style is updated
automatically. When you import styles using the Styles palette, however, text
formatted with an overwritten style does not update automatically and PageMaker
may return errors when you attempt to edit the style.

PageMaker 6.0x and earlier let you import styles only from within the Define
Styles dialog box.

_______________
Error "Bad Record Index" when Editing Styles in PageMaker

FaxYI number 316418
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issue
When you edit styles in a PageMaker publication, PageMaker returns the error,
"Internal error. Bad Record Index."

Solutions
Do one or more of the following:
A. Isolate the paragraphs that include damaged style information assign the
style "No Style" to them:
1. Open a copy of the publication, delete half its pages, and save the
remaining pages to a new name.
2. Open the original publication again, delete the pages not deleted in step 1,
and save the remaining pages to another new name.
3. Try to edit the styles in each half of the original publication. Continue to
divide the publication in which the error occurs into halves until you have
isolated the individual page(s) in which the error occurs.
4. Tag the problem paragraphs with No Style to update the paragraphs with new,
valid style numbers. Then save the publication to a new name.

B. Recreate any styles that generate the "Bad Record Index" error message:
1. Choose Type > Define Styles.
2. Double click on the first style name, then click OK.
3. Repeat for each style name.
4. Delete and recreate any style that generates the "Bad Record Index" error.

C. Perform a diagnostic recompose of the publication by pressing Control +
Shift while choosing Type > Hyphenation. Then save the publication to a new
name.

Additional Information
If style information in a PageMaker publication has become , PageMaker may
return a "Bad Record Index" when you attempt to edit one or more of the damaged
styles.

A "Bad Record Index" error may also occur when you use the Delete key in an
empty text block, which causes existing (default) style information to be lost.
For example, after you click an insertion point to start a new text block, hit
the backspace key several times, and then begin to type. The resulting story
contains a text block with a paragraph tagged with style number 0. Because
PageMaker's styles are numbered starting with 1, there will never be a style
numbered 0. When PageMaker attempts to update the style information, it
encounters the unknown style and generates the "Bad Record Index" error
message.

The "Bad Record Index" error occurs most often in publications that have a few
stories containing very small (e.g., one-line) paragraphs.