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Caroline5FD8
Participating Frequently
January 17, 2023
Answered

CAN ANYONE HELP WITH IMPORTING a Word document into my ID book?

  • January 17, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 22867 views

Hi Community

I am compiling a book for a friend and have a large contributing Word document (.dotx) with many pages with jpgs and tifs embedded into it. 

I was cutting and pasting the text and photos page by page from the Word document into my ID book setup, but realised it would take ages. 

I searched here and found that I could import it and and even better create threads that would make it all flow beautifully from page to page when I import it.

Well, I can't get it to work!  I will try to explain the best I can, but I am not a designer so apologies.

 

I made an ID book with a Parent 2-facing page spread and 200+ pages (also showing as 2-facing pages in Pages panel); the Parent has the threads for flow and page numbers - as instructions I followed from ID Help.

Each page of the book (showing as 2-page spreads) is based on the Parent and has the threads going in and out of each page's text box (this took too long to do also - the Adobe help pages are very confusing). 

So far so good.... I then used Place and the import options to keep everything.  After a long while, I get a tiny page icon on the cursor waiting for me to Place my document.  But if I click in the first text box of the page I want it to start from I just get a black thin border across the top of the spread.  Its part of the text box as I can move it around, but the text boxes on each page have been locked together by this black border.

I tried clicking and dragging right to the bottom of the document - this time I don't get the black line but its as if I just have a slightly larger text box on the page (i can see the first lines of imported text but it has just created its own text box) and me dragging to the last pages did nothing.  

There is a red + showing text going outside the box (oh really), so it seems everything has been pasted into just one text box rather than flowing and filling up my book page by page which is what I am trying to do.

 

What am I doing wrong?

And can anyone tell me what the threads should look like please?  On the Parent spread there is a thread line from the bottom right of the LH page into the top left of the RH page, but also a line spanning the whole spread from LH top left to RH bottom right - is this correct?

Subsequently, all the other pages in the book have this plus a line coming in from the page before (diagonally left into the bottom of the first page and diagonally right from top left all the way to the bottom right of the facing page).  

I am going to continue pasting into separate text boxes for now, because I have wasted hours on this and could have gotten much further with the cutting and pasting! LOL.

I am using Windows 11 and have Adobe CC student subscription so latest version of ID.

I would welcome anyone with time and patience on their hands that can help with this at all. please.

Correct answer J_G0067

It looks like your Word file is corrupt or damaged. I think most of this is covered in the thread above (and others), but try this:

 

  • Save the Word file as RTF. Use a new filename to avoid confusion.
  • Open the RTF file and save again as DOCX and DOC.

 

In a completely fresh and empty InDesign doc — set up the page size. margins, facing etc. and use a Primary Text Frame, and then save it "blank" — use the Place command to dump first the RTF version. If that succeeds and has no obvious format or content flaws, you're done.

 

If not, try again with a fresh copy of the blank ID document, using DOC. Works? Good. No? Try it again with DOCX.

 

If you keep getting this format fault, go to the start of the faulty pages, and look for a specific element such as an anchored image, a table or other "not simple text" element that might be broken. In a COPY of the RTF file, delete that element; try again.

 

If none of that works, report back.

 

Note that this assumes you're using some recent version of Word and not a clone. Docs exported from Google, Pages and other clone/equivalent tools often have their own faults. The RTF/DOC/DOCX cleanup process is best done in a "real" copy of Word, and ideally not a web version of 365, which has yet more quirks that can cause problems.


I think that it worked! I had to remove the Primary Parent page for some reason; it stopped halfway through with the end notes, but when I expanded them, it worked. How do I become an expert book design InDesign?

Thank you! 

3 replies

Randy Hagan
Community Expert
Randy HaganCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 17, 2023

The flowing text part I can help you with easily. You don't even have to make a 200 page document.

 

  • Create a 1-page document with master pages based on a facing pages/2-page spread setup.
  • Get your Word text using the File>Place menu command
  • When you get your text cursor, hold down the Shift key and then place the text

 

When you do that, InDesign will fill the first page of the text. If there's more text, it'll automatically create a second page and fill it with text ... and a third ... and as many pages as you need to place all the text.

 

Now the bit about the graphics, as other folks here have said, will be much harder. Trying to place them directly within the Word document isn't going to work well for you. You'd be better off first separating the art from the Word document, then placing the text, and then placing the art separately. You can learn more about how to place those graphics separately through this link.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Randy

C
Caroline5FD8Author
Participating Frequently
January 18, 2023

Wow, thanks James, Uwe and Randy for your generous time and help. It seems I made it more difficult for myself. haha

I would like to start again but I already have 6 pages done and want the Word document to continue after.  Am I right in assuming that your instructions should still work if I select the page I would like the import to start from (and only have that 1 extra spread in my Pages Panel)  because as you all say ID should create those extra facing pages, right?

Thank you for the mention of graphics - I need them there so I know which photo goes where, and I can re-jig them around after. 

Unless you think it would be easier to place them separately once I have formatted the text?  I am easy either way - I will have more time now if this works..... I will let you know.  Thanks again so much. C

J
J_G0067
Inspiring
March 4, 2024

Thanks so much.  It worked! 


When I import my docment It is making my file in to a spread and can not finish loading. Do you know why?

Thank you!

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 17, 2023

Hi @Caroline5FD8 ,

you said that the Word document contains images as well…

 

This could be problematic when the images are cropped in the Word document and you flow in the whole document.

InDesign's Word Import filter will ignore all cropping and the images will flow in with sizes and especially wrong aspect ratios you probably do not intend.

 

So my first suggestion would be to uncheck the option to import inline graphics with the Word docx document.

You will do that in InDesign's Import Options that you can enable in the same dialog where you choose the file to import.

 

Screenshots from my German InDesign on Windows 10:

 

 

 

Well, just ask if something unpredictable happens.

Don't be afraid, there are solutions and workarounds.

 

All step by step…

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    January 17, 2023

    It is very easy to flow a Word doc into an InDesign document template.

     

    You may want to completely start over, or at least try this with a new INDD doc. Set it up with the page size and margins you want, and Facing Pages (checkbox), and Primary Text Frame (another check box) selected.

     

    On that first page, click the text frame. Go to Files | Place and select the Word doc you want to import. You will get a little "manuscript" icon as your cursor. If you Shift-click in that first text frame, it should load your whole Word doc and flow it to as many pages as it needs.

     

    There are more sophisticated options that let you select and remap styles and do other things that can simplify the formatting tasks to follow, but that's the basic first step. Ask away if you have (more) questions!

     

      K
      Kayla375147642kys
      Participant
      May 24, 2024

      Mine is only uploading the first page... is there anyway to have all 127 pages in Indesign?

       

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      May 24, 2024

      Read the above. Your document should have "Primary Text Frame" enabled on your Parent pages. Use the Place function, not cut and paste. When you have the "loaded" text cursor, click in the first page text frame, and it should flow to as many InDesign pages as needed.

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