Excel Spreadsheet Into InDesign

[emmykermie]

I know in previous discussions there have been questions about importing an Excel Spreadsheet into InDesign. I am able to follow those directions to import the spreadsheet correctly, however, my spreadsheet has colorful bullet points on it - they are part of the sheet and need to be color coded for availability purposes.

When I import the sheet into InDesign, it does not transfer the colored dots - they show up as just gray dots. Does anyone have a solution for this? I feel like I have exhausted my options and just wanted to see if anyone else has come across this issue.

Thank you in advance

[Sheena Kaul]

Moving to InDesign​

[winterm]

In  File>Place tick Show Import Options checkbox.

In Options dialog choose

Formatting -

Table: Formatted Table

[Barb Binder]

Ha! Those darn screen shots get me every time!

[winterm]

Argh... I'm so lazy to do screenshots

Barb, I beg Your pardon again

[Barb Binder]

And evidently, I can't ever reply without them!

[winterm]

Very useful habit... for those who learn

[Barb Binder]

Let's start with your import options. (Choose File > Place, click the .xlsx file and then choose Options before clicking on Open.) The default is unformatted table. What is yours set to?

[Bill Silbert]

When you import your .xlsx file into InDesign using the Place command (Command/Control-D) make sure that "Show Import Options" is checked in the Place dialog window and then in the Import Options dialog that appears choose "Formatted Table" from the Table drop-down menu and click OK. The spread sheet should then appear as an InDesign Table with formatting intact. See screen shot below:

[Bill Silbert]

The time it takes to make the screen shot did me in too. Nobody had replied when I began to set it up and now it all seems like an afterthought. Oh well.

[Barb Binder]

Welcome to my world!

[Bill Silbert]

In that case it was all worth it!

[emmykermie]

Thanks for the assistance everyone, I did however already have it set as a formatted table and everything seems to be formatted correctly except these darn dots! Here is a screenshot so you can have a better understanding what I'm working with.

This is the table in Excel

And this is how it imports into InDesign.

I'm not that concerned about the color of the columns being a little off, it's the dots... They signify the colors that the products are available in.

[Bill Silbert]

Have you tried deleting your InDesign preferences?

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: With InDesign closed launch a Finder Window in column view and click on your home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. Within the Library folder find the following two files and delete them: “Adobe InDesign” and “com.adobe.InDesign.plist”. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

After you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, it is a really good idea to create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

For Windows Users: Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset.

If your problem is the result of InDesign corruption, this could help.

[Barb Binder]

How are you formatting the dots? I'm just selecting them and picking a color, and they show up. And what version of Indesign and OS are you using?

[emmykermie]

Bill, I have not tried to reset my InDesign preferences. I will try that!

Barb, I believe I formatted the dots just like that. Did you do that by insert, symbol, and then choose the dot? Then just change the colors.

[Barb Binder]

I'm on a Mac, so I used the keyboard shortcut (Alt •) to add a bullet, and yes, then changed the colors.

Now we are bumping up against my lack of Excel knowledge. When I use Insert > Symbol I get my emojis and if I scroll down I can see bullets. Some must be a font I don't have because they don't show up correctly, but they are in the right colors.

[emmykermie]

The emojis/symbols is the same thing I am doing but for some reason, they are transferring gray. I just updated to the newest version of InDesign, I think I was one behind, but that didn't solve the problem either. 

[Barb Binder]

I'm still playing with this... I created the file on Windows Excel, but that one worked as well.

1. What version of Excel?
2. Are you Mac or Windows?
3. Are you saving it as an .xlsx file?
   
4. And to confirm, you save the Excel file, move to InDesign. Use File > Place and in Import Options you are selected Formatting table.
5. As soon as you place the table, the dots are gray before you assign any paragraph tags or character tags?

[Bill Silbert]

Did you actually delete preferences? Just installing a new version of InDesign will not get rid of corrupt preferences. As a matter of fact CC 2017 seems to have a problem using preferences left over from earlier versions.

[emmykermie]

Barb - I am using Excel 2016, windows and saving it as .xlsx file. Yes, that is how I am saving and importing it and the dots are gray immediately when I place the table.

Bill - I have tried multiple times to reset/delete the preferences but for some reason when I press ctrl, alt and shift when I launch InDesign, it is not giving me the pop up option to reset preferences. I am trying to troubleshoot that now. 

[Bill Silbert]

I didn't realize that you were working in Windows. You can manually delete preferences for Windows 7 and above by deleting the last file in this path: C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version [#].

[emmykermie]

I just got off the phone with Adobe Support and she walked me through resetting the preferences. However, when I just imported the spreadsheet, the dots are still gray.

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

Just for giggles try saving the Exel file as XLS and placing that.

[Bill Silbert]

Did she also have you delete the cache files for InDesign? In this case it's a long shot but you can do it by deleting the last file in this path:  C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version [#]\en_US\Cache.