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Question

Auto Paragraph - Is this possible? please help!

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 5, 2025
6 replies
1818 views

Hey All!

I have a large document I am flowing into Indesign from Word. There are no paragrpah breaks.

My question is, is there a way in Word or Indesign to automatically add in paragraphs through out the wording/document?

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi @Jack35427738tn4n:

I can see that this would be terrifying, but it is also unlikely. If the Word document has returns ¶ at the end of each paragraph, then correctly placing the Word document (using File > Place) will honor those returns.

You can see the returns in Word by clicking the ¶ button on the Home toolbar:

Once the file has been placed in InDesign, you can see the same symbols using Type > Show HIdden Characters as per Robert's last reply.

It's more likely that without first line indents and paragraph spacing, the text appears not to have the returns. Please take a closer look and report back, and include a screenshot with Hidden Characters visible.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

It's more likely that without first line indents and paragraph spacing, the text appears not to have the returns.

By @Barb Binder

Especially, if full justify is ON...

J E L

Community Expert

It's just one continued flow of text or block of text with thousands of words. Nothing to do with invisible characters and there are no paragraph indicators.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Jack35427738tn4n

Show us a screenshot - please turn on "show hidden characters" - last option in the type Menu.

J E L

Community Expert

@Jack35427738tn4n, you could try an AI app, such as ChatGPT, to identify and insert logical paragraph breaks. For example, your prompt could ask, “Please break this text into logical paragraphs based on the main ideas and transitions.” You might need to refine the paragraph breaks after this, but it might be a helpful start.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

I suggest this will be more likely to multiply the workload and time than reduce it. I don't see any automated path (AI, script, plugin, what-have-you) that will eliminate the need for a close reading of the material to get an optimal result. And any "smart processing" is likely to introduce errors or complexities of its own (such as an awkward break in content) that need to be sorted out on top of the fundamental problem.

So I suggest the shortest, simplest, least-effort path to usable content is... clean it up a bit, if needed, as above, and just read and edit it with the wetware that will have to be brought online for the task anyway.

(With the truly efficient path going back to the creator/export of this messy material.)

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@James Gifford—NitroPress

At least "." could be used to separate sentences.

Of course further processing will be needed - but good GREP can limit errors significantly - so "i.e.", "e.g.", etc. won't be split.

But example screenshot would be best.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

If the document has no paragraphs in Word form — that is, it's all one paragraph — then as noted, there's no solution but manually editing the doc into a paragraph structure. IF it's more or less normal text, you might strip all extra spaces, then turn every instance of period-space into period-space-paragraph. It can be easier to edit together paragraphs from sentences than try to find break points in a wall o'text. (Leaving the space is important — it lets you just delete the paragraph and move on, instead of having to insert a space each time). Then strip out all excess space between sentences or at paragraph start/ends.

IF, as DC notes, there is some unique marker between what you want as paragraphs, use that to search-replace with paragraphs.

Or, as he also notes, go back to the author or original export source and see if a better document can be created in the first place.

I do this sort of thing day in and day out, and no other options occur to me. I'd just counsel making sure you're getting compensated for this work if the author or source expects you to complete the project from this faulty material.