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Daria1958
Participant
September 6, 2017
Question

Arabic language importing from word documents

  • September 6, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 789 views

Hi all of you!

I have a strange problem, which occurs when importing word documents (doc or docx, it's the same) into Ind from CS 6 to CC2017 included.

(I have to use  different releases depending on the publisher I work for.)

Noting that my text in some cases absolutely refused to accept any style sheet, I checked and found that some portions of text imported took the Arabic language instead of Italian (while the whole word doc is regularly Italian).

After a deeper exam, I realized that Arabic text always begins from some particular characters, as « » (angle quotes) or accented Italian vowels, which for some reason are also changed in a different font (most Arial Unicode).

Note that:

  • my basic paragraph style is the default Minion pro 12, and my word documents are all already saved in the same font and size.
  • The special characters implicated where typed regularly with keyboard keys o key combinations, and NOT inserted as symbols as sometimes happens by PC users....

So when I import any text, first of all I have to:

  • find/change Arabic language
  • Apply once more my Minion Pro to the whole imported text

and only after this process I can apply my stylesheets, obtaining a good result (almost always...;-).

A last funny thing: the writing direction is apparently correct (left to right), but if I export the text from Ind to rtf it wraps up and becomes unintelligible...

Any hints?

Thank you in advance!

Best

Daria, Milan, Italy

MacOS 10.10.5

Indesign from CS6 to CC2017

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Zaid Al Hilali
    Community Expert
    Zaid Al HilaliCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 7, 2017

    I worked with quite few mixed Arabic/English language MS. Word documents that I File > Place into InDesign. These Word documents usually used to come from PCs while I work on a Mac. I some times place them after stripping out formatting from the Microsoft Word Import Options window as this Adobe filter can distinguish in a very clever way both languages formatting.

    You mentioned "text imported" so I assume you used File > Place your text into InDesign not copy/paste text, right?

    Are you using Middle Eastern version of InDesign? This is essential to arrange RTL and LTR scripts on the same line of your story.

    D
    Daria1958Author
    Participant
    September 7, 2017

    Dear Zaid,

    thank you for your answer. Here my clarifications:

    • Yes, I never copy/paste, but only import (cmd-D): I work on books with a lot of text and formatting.
    • I use a normal Italian version of each Indesign.
    • I don't need to mix arabic texts with other language, as I don't work with Arabic, therefore this problem is so strange.
    • This problems occurs automatically in coincidence with some characters.
    • I have to preserve formatting (Italics, bold etc.), so I can't switch off this option, but as I told before, my word text is a normal Italian file, with standard fonts...

    I hope that the problem is clearer now.

    Thank you in advance.

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