Overset Text

Some background...  If a user types in more text than will fit in a text frame, the frame is said to be "overset."  When you add text at the end of a text frame in InDesign, a small plus sign appears on the right edge of the frame when it becomes overset and you cannot see any text that is overset.  In the PrintUI Flash editor, a small plus sign appears on the bottom edge of the frame, but the text scrolls in the frame so that you can still see and delete the overset text.  In the simple forms-based PrintUI editor, a message appears in red that says "approximate extra text: <the number of characters of overset>".

There are other ways for the text to become overset besides typing.  One way is to make the font too large.  Another is to change the character size.  And yet another is to apply too much line spacing or character spacing.

In the new editor, there are technical reasons that prevent us from mimicking the Flash editor behavior (i.e. scroll the text in the frame).  Given that, what should happen?

1.  Is the little plus sign on the edge of the frame making it clear that the text is overset?  Or should we put a prominent message in the Text panel to tell the user there are too many characters in the frame?

2.  The current behavior mimics the way that InDesign handles it.  The text disappears.  Will users understand this approach?  (Note that in both the new editor and in InDesign you actually can navigate down into the hidden text and then backspace to delete text to make it so that it is no longer overset.  Or you can select all of the text and make it smaller to avoid the overset.)

3.  Or once the text becomes overset, should the editor stop accepting any typing and pop up with a message?   If so, what should happen in the other cases such as increasing the font size?  Should the excess text be deleted?  Or disappear like it does now?

4.  Or once the text becomes overset, should a special edit dialog pop up that shows all of the characters in the frame?  The user would then be able to see and delete characters until the text was no longer overset.  The user would also be able to do things such as select a different font or change the character size.