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Careful Skeptic
Dec 7, 2025 10:03 PM UTC
Answered

Creating a book of dialogues in InDesign

I am planning on creating a (completed) book for publication using Adobe InDesign, importing its sections from Word documents. The entire book is in the form of a dialogue. The style I wish to preserve is such that the initials of the two speakers appear to the left of their respective speech. I've achieved this, in Word, by writing the book in the form of a two-column, multiple-row table: the initials in the left column, and the dialogue to the right, which keeps initials and text separate.

 

MY QUESTION: How can I maintain this style as I import into InDesign?

 

ChatGPT and I have spent ten hours attempting this until I lost the will to live.

 

Can anyone at least point me in the right direction?  Many thanks!

Peter Kahrel
Peter KahrelCorrect answer
Community Expert
Dec 8, 2025 10:57 AM UTC

Indeed, don't give up!

 

When you place your Word document in InDesign the table will be preserved, but a table is probably not the best way yo handle your dialogues. The reason is that unlike in Word, InDesign's table cells don't break across pages, which means all stretches of speech will be kept together. You can end up with pretty gappy pages.

 

But there's a much better way to handle that, using hanging indents. It's easy to change that after you place the table, see the attached video.. All you need to do is to convert the table to text and to set the paragraph's left indent and negative first-line indent. 

 

If you want to style the initials of the speakers you can use a nested style.

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4 replies

Peter Kahrel
Community Expert
Peter KahrelCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
Dec 8, 2025 10:57 AM UTC

Indeed, don't give up!

 

When you place your Word document in InDesign the table will be preserved, but a table is probably not the best way yo handle your dialogues. The reason is that unlike in Word, InDesign's table cells don't break across pages, which means all stretches of speech will be kept together. You can end up with pretty gappy pages.

 

But there's a much better way to handle that, using hanging indents. It's easy to change that after you place the table, see the attached video.. All you need to do is to convert the table to text and to set the paragraph's left indent and negative first-line indent. 

 

If you want to style the initials of the speakers you can use a nested style.

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    Careful SkepticAuthor
    Dec 9, 2025 9:55 AM UTC

    Thanks so much! I originally thought that hanging indents would do the trick, but couldn't  discover precisely how to set this up in the way I wanted. I am away from my computer (unusually) for a few days now, but will have a good look at the mp4 you've linked.

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    tonks_the_auror
    Community Expert
    tonks_the_aurorCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Dec 8, 2025 1:10 AM UTC

    Don't give up, we can help!

    Can you post a couple of pages from your Word file? I'd like to play with it and see if I can provide a simple answer for you.

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