Copyediting in InDesign

[Francis304409529dmu]

I copyedit manuals that have been laid out in InDesign. I am looking for:

a. An InDesign plugin that offers the features that PerfectIt offers in Word. Namely, PerfectIt allows you to locate all manner of inconsistencies and grammatical points, and find departures from a custom style guide that I have installed. Does such a plug-in exist for InDesign?

b. If there is no such plug-in exists in InDesign, is there a way to export a full manual from InDesign into Word, run PerfectIt on the text, and then re-import the text back into InDesign, while maintaining all of the formatting of InDesign? 

[John T Smith]

You need to ask program questions in the forum for the program you are using
To ask in the forum for your program please start at https://community.adobe.com/
Moving from Using the Community (which is about the forums) to the correct forum

[Francis304409529dmu]

Thanks John, I reported in InDesign community

[BobLevine]

Unfortunately, going from InDesign to Word is like putting an egg back into a shell after making an omelet. There are ways but none that won't create a mess of the formatting of things like number/bullet lists, underlines, etc. 

You can link back to Word using Wordsflow from Em Software. The problem with that is going to be it requires you to place the Word files in InDesign first.

[Francis304409529dmu]

Thanks, Bob. Yes, I'm going to explore Wordsflow. Seems like I have no choice but to keep the heavy editorial work in WORD/PerfectIt.  PerfectIt alerts me to inconsistencies in hefty manuals and to text that is out of sync with our house style guide -- would be great if such features could be added to InDesign.  Thanks for your help.

[BobLevine]

Those features would be a better fit for InCopy than InDesign.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Keeping correct style structure - won't be a problem - including CMOS - the rest - as long as it doesn't require too much of  "human decision making" also would be doable. 

Connecting to ChatGPT or similar - for text manipulation / verification - also shouldn't be a problem. 

For just text editing - you could use InCopy.

[Francis304409529dmu]

Thanks. Yes, for simple editing, InCopy is the way to go. I'm going to explore Wordsflow -- seems like I have no choice since I have to keep the heavy editorial work in WORD/PerfectIt.  Thanks for your help.

Francis