Create a Word Template from InDesign

[wallwall2]

I have an InDesign layout that I would like use to make a MS Word template. I want the graphics to me locked in the Word template with an area for user text. I believe a saw a video one time on how to do this but, for the life of me, I can;t find it. Can someone direct me to a video or document that would show me how to do this?

Thank you.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

This would be better addressed on a Microsoft forum (we know InDesign but not necessarily Word) , but maybe this will help:

https://www.creativetechs.com/tipsblog/convert-indesign-file-to-microsoft-word/

https://www.creativetechs.com/uncategorized/updated-convert-indesign-documents-to-word-files/

EDIT on 11/30/2017: the above links no longer work but this one may be helpful:

https://redokun.com/blog/indesign-to-word

This company offers conversion services:

Convert your InDesign into Microsoft Office templates - UpsideDown Productions - YouTube

[bethdevivo]

I agree with George - export to .pdf, save as .docx (I used Bluebeam Revu), open in Word and insert text boxes where necessary.

Fyi, the "Correct Answer" was completely unhelpful. The blog links are broken and the YouTube video was a client testimonial for a company that wants to sell you conversion services.

[Barb Binder]

Hi Beth:

Thank you so much for pointing that out. The links were posted in February, and websites change. It looks like the website the first two links point to has undergone a complete redesign and the blog posts we linked to at the beginning of this year are now gone. I tried to update the links, but I don't see any evidence that two files are still there. I'll go make a note of this on the original response.

~Barb

[OrionCatConsulting]

Why?  Adobe is an expensive product and if we cannot make our work accessible to those who do not pay for the fancy car, then our work here is useless.  Yes, if designers were the only persons in an organization utilizing the work we create, that would be fine to do all our work in Adobe, but that is not the case.  We build content, create standards, and they let it loose in the world where others must use and interact with it outside the original design.  This is shortsighted by Adobe, Canva is going to cut your business as they grow.  Adobe should "think again".

[Haeme Ulrich]

I tested once the ID2Office InDesign Plugin It's not bad:

ID2Office - How to Convert InDesign to Word, Convert InDesign to PowerPoint

But I ask me if this is a useful workflow for daily business. In my opinion this is more a thing if the customer wants the InDesign document in Office as well.

Best regards

Haeme

[Geоrge]

Export to PDF, open in Acrobat Pro and save as docx, correct some mistakes of this conversion needed.

But if I do this, than I do this fully in MS Word only without InDesign.

[macpawel]

It's nice solution

You can also export inDesign artwork as PNG file and place it into Word Document - but it's heavy

BEST solution is simple - just prepare your tamplate just in Word. I know it's not easy but it works

Pawel

[OrionCatConsulting]

This solution is not Simple, it is flawed and frought with frustrations.  Adobe is being very shortsighted by not finding a way either inside or outside their product to make these transitions simpler and better.  I pay a lot of money for what I can now do in other applications nearly as well.  Adobe is pushing out the content creators to other platforms that play nicer than they do.  

[BobLevine]

This discussion is more than 6 years old and nothing has changed. Furthermore, nothing is going to change and to be perfectly frank, I don't want it to. If you need a Word template, use Word. If you need Powerpoint, use that.

I'm always left shaking my head when people want to use InDesign as a Rube Goldberg tool.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If you can't tell a word processor from a publication app from an online design platform for unskilled amateurs, it's unlikely there's much more that can be said. Three different tools that take three different approaches to achieve somewhat similar ends. Three different and competing companies with little more than nodding acquaintance in the field (although InDesign's extremely powerful import functions make the other two look like calculator-watch apps in that respect).

As noted, this thread probably predates your first acquaintance with InDesign and is thus not much of a place for any useful discussion. But besides the general nonsense of an argument that ID must export to Word compatibility, a function so useless you might as well expect it to output in lead type, the specific lunacy that it must do so because it's so expensive... well. Maybe Canva is where you should be looking.

Now you'll excuse me; I have to go mow my lawn with my Lamborghini.

[OrionCatConsulting]

This is not resolved.  This shows someone how to hire another company to do the work that I need to accomplish.  I just need to be able to create an output that my team who doesn't have or use Adobe can then utilze.  This is not helping.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Then try this: use the actual shared tool to create the template. InDesign to Word is... a pointlessly difficult path.

Put it this way: I work daily in both tools, separately and for Word-to-ID import. I can't think of a truly workable way to get an ID layout to Word that doesn't involve all but rebuilding the imported elements. Just do the layout in Word and optimize it with styles, macros etc. to make it easy for colleagues to use and maintain.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

We export an INDD's text content to .RTF for our clients, and this can be opened in MS Word with the styles retained in Word.

1. Select the content in INDD.
2. Choose File / Export / RTF Rich Text Format.
3. Open the RTF file in MS Word, and you'll see it retained your text content and formatting styles.
4. Tweak the file to turn it into a real Word template.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

By far the best technical answer, but I don't think formatted text alone addresses any of the requested solutions. Each export would be a one-way transfer needing structural reformatting if the layout can't be handled by text flow + styles alone.

I get the impression that what's wanted is a PDF-like export to editable Word format.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

In the original post (from several years ago), the request was to lock down the graphics.

That can be done once the RTF is tweaked in MS Word, which has the capability to lock down its graphics.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I see/saw that. Perhaps this topic has gotten too confused over the years and misdirected complaints to bother extending. But I messed a little with export to RTF, and while yes, you can get loose content from ID into Word that way, it's only about like "Place" in reverse, leaving all but the simplest single-flow layout to be reconstructed.

Which, more or less, is the approach I'd take if for some reason I had an ID document that a client wanted in editable Word form ("locked" graphics or no.) The RTF export speeds thing over simple cut and paste, but it's still all but a manual re-creation of the ID layout in Word. The latter inquiry seems, to me, to be wanting that more or less one-step reverse export.

But maybe I'm the one who's lost the thread of things here. 🙂

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

I think by this time, WTHK is the correct response!

Our clients just want the text stream so that they can quickly update a report's text content (and maybe graphics, too), send it to us, and bring it back into the layout. If done with care, the styles have been retained throughout the process and the new, revised text rolls into the layout fairly seamlessly. Not perfect, but pretty damn decent.

If the exact look and feel is required, then definitely the PDF method is best.

Export from InDesign to PDF. Open the PDF in Acrobat and then File / Export to MS Word and it does a decent job of recreating the page layout as well as the text and graphic content.

But I don't think this in any way could become a Word template. It's such a bass-akwards workflow.

[Emi.G]

I'm sorry, but how do you lock the graphics? Because I personnaly can't do it right now

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@OrionCatConsulting, something like this?

All objects in WORD are a native WORD objects - no rasterized contents and no mess from Acrobat.

And those "stepped" paths - it's one object, not multipe separate lines.