Designing tables/text boxes and changing color from word

You can designate the header row in Word and InDesign will recognize it when you import the file.

If you don't, you can select and right+click the header row(s) and choose Convert to Header Row from the context menu. 

~Barb 

I now have a table style with cell styles and paragraph styles nested. This is working on tables created within InDesign.

The next thing then is to make it work on tables from word. I read through this https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-tables-that-wont-accept-table-and-cell-styles/

It's a good description, but I can't make the same thing work. I can remove all formatting at import, but when I apply my table style nothing changes with table that originally came from word - even with all formatting removed.

Anyone with some inputs to possible solutions?

Hi @simon5CD0 :

Yes, you have to design the cell and table styles in InDesign. Did you read how to nest (automatically apply) the cell styles within a table style? For example, you can design a cell style for the header row and then tell the table style style to assign it automatically. The alternating teal colors can be assigned through the table style, so you don't need cell styles (based on what you showed us) for those row.

When you place the Word document, you can enable the Show Import Options checkbox, and the can choose the existing table style that you want the tables to use, so that they are assigned the table style on the way in. Alternatively, you can assign table styles once the files have been placed but sometimes—and I think this is what you are saying in your second post—the ignore you. This is because InDesign tries to honor the Word formatting as overrides. You can remove the overrides on the way in—again using the Show Import Options dialog box, or your can removed them after. Since the InDesign Helpx file I linked to first doesn't address this, here is a post I wrote for my students that may be helpful. 

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-tables-that-wont-accept-table-and-cell-styles/ 

~Barb 

HI @simon5CD0:

An alternative, included-with-the-software option is to define paragraph styles, cell styles and a table style. You gave us a very small sample table—but it looks to me like the table head is dark blue with bold, white text and then you have a row of text with a light teal background followed by a row with a darker teal background. If these two colors repeat in the body rows, then this can be done within InDesign's feature set. 

You will want to read up on nesting paragraph styles in the cell styles, and nesting cell styles in a table style. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/si/indesign/user-guide.html/si/indesign/using/table-cell-styles.ug.html

~Barb 

Simon asked: "Is there some way to easily set up a lot of tables in the same format?"

Hi Simon,

look into the SmartStyles plug-in for InDesign by Woodwing:

https://www.woodwing.com/en/smart-styles-adobe-indesign-plugin

There is a 30-days-trial version.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )