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How to import equations built in Word to InDesign

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
November 30, 2025
3 replies
842 views

hello, I'm working on page layout of a 600 page book that has thousands of equations, some inline and some set on their own line(s). The author has created the equations in Word using the Word Equation Editor (I think). The equations do not import into InDesign at all when I place the Word doc, not even an empty space or box. There are thousands of these equations, and some of them are very simple, so the author could have just formatted them with local styles like italic or subscript, but he didn't do that as I requested. Sigh.

I think there might be a way to save the equations from Word as PDFs or something, but there are SO MANY. There is no way I want to risk the error of missing some, or placing them into the wrong part of the text.

Is there ANY way at all to get these equations to import into InDesign and maintain their formatting? I'm happy to pay for a plug-in of some sort if needed. I'm using InDesign 2026 (v21.0). Thanks for any advice!

Import and export

Correct answer BumpyDesign

For future issues with the file not unzipping, download "the Unarchiver" and use that. This will work when apples "Archive Utitlity" will not.

oh, cool! Thank you for the tip re: The Unarchiver. That works for me when using the .docx to .zip trick.

P

preya_6605

Hello,

Don't even try to "clean" the Word doc. Go straight to MT-Script. For a 600-page book, the cost of the plugin is significantly cheaper than the hours you’ll spend fixing broken layouts.

E

Ellen31982289jr96

I don't have an easy answer, but this article might shed some light, if it's not too late:

https://colecandoo.com/2025/10/29/indesigns-mathml-just-had-an-upgrade-again/

B

BumpyDesignAuthor

Participant

Thanks for that link explaining how to use MathML in InDesign. Unfortunately, this won't work for me, as all of the formatting drops out (font, color, size, italic, sub/superscript, etc).

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Are they docx files?
If so you might be able to duplicate the file - then change the extension to .zip and unzip the folder. The equations might be in images in one of the folders - works for other things just a thought.

Word to PDF could work too.

Or click the equation in word and see if you can right click and save as an image like a PDF or something directly from the layout.

Haven't seen equations in Word or how they behave.

If you can share a sample of the word file we can maybe try some things and let you know what we find.

B

BumpyDesignAuthor

Participant

hi thanks for your reply! So I tried the .zip trick and my computer won't unzip it. I've noticed this problem awhile back b/c I used to use the trick frequently.

Anyway, my issue is that I really need the inline equations to import into InDesign with the Word doc, instead of me having to place/import every single one as a separate image. The longer equations that are numbered and set on their own line aren't an issue—the author has already supplied those as separate PDFs.

You can see from the attached sample Word file that there are *many* inline EQs that really could have been set as text with local formatting and made my job much easier. The author is already worried about his equations somehow becoming incorrect in InDesign, so I don't want to try and reset them myself or do anything that could introduce errors.

I appreciate any ideas! Thank you!

testEQ.docx

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Currently, the equations won't import because they are not images, so the .zip technique won't work.

Save your Word docx as a 97-2003 version. This will convert all the equations to images.
Place in InDesign with Show Import Options selected.
Select Preserve Styles and Formatting and make sure Import Inline Graphics is checked.

If the quality is not good enough, make the equations larger before doing step 1.

image.png

If you _did_ want the equations as separate images, you can save as HTML.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

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