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Robert24031313in66
Participant
March 12, 2023
Answered

How to export InDesign document with VinaPala fonts to MS Word?

  • March 12, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 946 views

Hi

I am relatively new to InDesign, could you please help me with the following document export issue?

 

I have approximately 4000 pages InDesign .indd document which uses Vietnamese VinaPala fonts.

 

The document shows all Vietnamese fonts correctly on MAC InDesign 2023, but when I try to export the document to HTML, and open in Safari on MAC, or in MS Word (with installed VinaPala fonts) on PC all characters got scrambled, the text does not show proper Vietnamese characters but instead something like "lø lo¬i mæy bay oanh t¬c chi’n"

 

I have also tried to export on MAC InDesign to XML file, but for some reason the generated XML file is empty ~100 Bytes, obviously it does not show anything after opening on PC in MS Word.

 

Thank you very much for any suggestion or comments.

Robert. 

 

 

How to export InDesign document with VinaPala fonts to MS Word?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Robert24031313in66

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro on MAC to convert from PDF to MS Word, produces a document with the correcly displayed and editable text which uses exactly the same VinaPala font.  However only if open this MS Word document on the MAC.  Moving to PC Windows based MS Word still producing font corruption problem.  Linguists, VinaPala font supplier, explained to me I have to use their tools to convert from the old VinaPala (ASCII based fonts) to new VinaPalaU  (Unicode-encoded fonts), to resolve the problem of crossing the platforms, in addition I will need licensing tool to embed font infortmation into PDF documents.  Thank you very much for all the comments and suggestion. 

4 replies

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 13, 2023

What format is that font? Unless it's an Opentype font you are going to have even more trouble than you're already having.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse
Community Expert
Brad @ Roaring MouseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 12, 2023

It all comes down to encoding.

What versions of the Vina fonts are you using? have you had these for years? or are they a recent purchase (i.e. OTF Unicode versions). If you are using old-school versions that came with a custom keyboard layout common for the day, these will definitely cause the issues you are experiencing.

I had recent experience with a Vietnamese file, and had no end of trouble. But this is what I learned: The company that sells those fonts (LinguistSoftware) has modernized the Vina family, and has a page decicated to Unicode translation issues, including a conversion tool that may help you (it actually is designed to be used in Word). Check with them. They may have better advice for you about this.

 

 

    R
    Robert24031313in66Author
    Participant
    March 12, 2023

    Thank you Brad, I will try the support team from LinguistSoftware, and their conversion tool. 

    The original document is indeed old. 

    R
    Robert24031313in66Author
    Participant
    March 12, 2023

    BTW, I have also tried to export to PDF and then use PDF to MS Word converters (for example online-convert.com), and the text in MS Word does show correctly all the Vietnamese fonts, but the automatically generated font, during the conversion has some strange name "KMDSE+VinaPala", instead of "VinaPala", and as a result I cannot edit the document in MS Word.  Everytime I try to change the fonts from the converted text "KMDSE+VinaPala" to installed "VinaPala" or copy text to new MS Word document many of the characters get scrambled. TIA

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    March 12, 2023

    Yes, as you are no doubt keenly aware, most of the big word tools are very western/Roman-centric and get weird on other alphabets, never mind switching to RTL or needing diacritics.

     

    You might try exporting to RTF, or even saving as simple HTML from Word. That might un-glitch it.

     

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    March 12, 2023

    The only somewhat reliable path to Word is to export to PDF, then use Acrobat DC to export to Word. It's not perfect.

     

    There may be plugins that do it as well; I lose track.

     

    The key is that all apps must have access to a full font set. Font information does not "export" or paste from one app to another. Both ID and Word should be using the same, or similar Vietnamese fonts with the same glyph set.

     

    R
    Robert24031313in66Author
    Participant
    March 12, 2023

    Well I have VinaPala fonts from the same provider for MAC and PC, I did try a couple of other PDF-to-MS Word converters, but so far I was not sucessful to keep the right fonts in the converted document, expect that one online-convert which reproduced all the characters correctly, but the new strange name fonts cannot be changed correctly to the installed original "VinaPala" fonts for furhter editing.  

     

    Thank you the suggestion on Acrobat DC, I will try it again, maybe I missed something.      

    R
    Robert24031313in66AuthorCorrect answer
    Participant
    March 13, 2023

    Using Adobe Acrobat Pro on MAC to convert from PDF to MS Word, produces a document with the correcly displayed and editable text which uses exactly the same VinaPala font.  However only if open this MS Word document on the MAC.  Moving to PC Windows based MS Word still producing font corruption problem.  Linguists, VinaPala font supplier, explained to me I have to use their tools to convert from the old VinaPala (ASCII based fonts) to new VinaPalaU  (Unicode-encoded fonts), to resolve the problem of crossing the platforms, in addition I will need licensing tool to embed font infortmation into PDF documents.  Thank you very much for all the comments and suggestion. 

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