Making a new text frame on top of an existing text frame is something I very frequently need to do. However, as it is, for different reasons this simple process is needlessly cumbersome.

I have two suggested solutions (I have a dream that both could be implemented, and make a basic upgrade to my workflow):

1. Make the type tool able to draw a text frame on top of another text frame. Explanation: When hovering the type tool above an empty area, the tool turns into a text frame tool, as indicated by the cursor. However, when hovering above an existing text frame all you can do is place the text cursor – no way to make a new frame, unless you switch to the frame tool (see below). But could the ‘text frame tool’ could be invoked by a modifier (alt, fx?), to make it possible to draw a text frame on top of another? (When hovering above text, the alt-modifier is already (somewhat, in theory) occupied by the hand tool. But using alt to invoke the hand tool is erratic: it only works when you are editing text, and not before the text cursor is properly placed, so I always use alt+space instead for the hand tool. Before placing the text cursor, pressing alt currently does nothing. Suggestions for other ways to achieve the same are of course welcome.)

2. Make the type tool stop ignoring empty, unassigned frames that sit on top of text frames. Explanation: When using the frame tool to draw a new frame on top of a (bigger) text frame in the background, and you try the normal way of converting the frame to a text frame, by selecting the text tool and clicking inside the new frame, the new frame will simply be ignored: The type cursor will be put into the text frame beneath. The solution is to first manually go to the Object menu and select Content > Text for the new frame, before clicking inside it with the type tool. But this seems like an unnecessary step. If the new frame has any kind of color or stroke, the type tool correctly does not ignore the new frame, this only occurs if the new frame is completely empty, and it seems like an oversight. There are workarounds, like locking the text frame beneath, or using layers, but all this is needlessly cumbersome for a function that for me at least will be used multiple times a day in multiple new documents.