Import PowerPoint document to InDesign?

[Susan Culligan]

I'm working on a book created in PowerPoint (eek!). I know I can make PDFs of all the PPT pages and then place them page by page (126 pages) into a blank InDesign document, but is there any way to export/import the whole PPT doc into InD?

HOLD THE PRESSES! I found https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/place-a-multipage-pdf-in-indesign/td-p/11343293 and it worked perfectly!!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

The endless value of PDF. It can even rescue projects from... from... that app. *shudder*

[Willi Adelberger]

Theee is a way to open PPTX in Word if the structure is observed. You can then import the docx into InDesign. But if the work is not done clean, you are out of luck.

[Susan Culligan]

 Danke schön, Willi. I was able to import using the native script “PlaceMultipagePDF.jsx,” and it worked just fine. 

[Colin Flashman]

I'd make a PDF of it from Powerpoint and then take that PDF and open it with the markzware omnimarkz plug-in, available from Markzware's website. This can convert a PDF to a variety of layout software formats, including IDML.

The multipage placer is great if you are treating the PDF as images, but Markzware's converter will allow the text to be selectable etc.

Full disclosure - I don't receive any kickbacks from referrals - just a fan of the software.

[Laubender]

Hi Susan,

placing a multi-page PDF automatically to InDesign pages, one PDF page to one inDesign page one after another, can be done easily with the ID MultiPageImporter script originally developed by Scott Zanelli and now curated by Mike Edel:

https://github.com/mike-edel/ID-MultiPageImporter/releases

Here a screenshot with various options you have:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Susan Culligan]

Thanks so much Uwe. Ultimately I made PDFs of the book and imported it into InDesign using Srishti Bali's suggestion of the native script “PlaceMultipagePDF.jsx,” and it worked just fine. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker · Accepted solution]

Never tried it myself:

https://www.recosoft.com/products/decksmovein/

[Victoria21935749ya5e]

I've used the trial for DesksMovein which works great if you need editable type and images in InDesign. But the $299 fee is only good for 12 months for the full version, at which point you need to renew the subscription every year. Way too expensive for my budget.

[Jay-Random-Guy]

Oh I have something to add here. So, I recently had a job to do for a company and they had PowerPoint, Google Slide and even Keynote files that they needed to transfer to InDesign. They splurged for the tool. 1600 slide decks in no time were converted to InDesign. With probably a 95% success and no retouch. A little tweak on some unsupported graphics was required but its a life saver. US$299 for 1600 slide decks emanating from Keynote and Google Slides also is a no brainer. We used Keynote and Google Slides and exported/saved the files as PowerPoint. Maybe this toos it can be used to solve some other migration like from Canva? Better than the PDF route.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Since there is a simple, clean, one-step method to get this document into ID (for something like advanced print management, I would assume), I'm not sure any further mucking around with the content is worthwhile. I see two useful paths:

First, a need to get a 'book' done in just about the least appropriate software into a professional print/export management workflow. Done with the PDF import.

Second, a need to turn this 'book' into something that can be edited, updated, managed and maintained in ID. Of the options, all of the wonky three-stage conversion and import and script access is probably more work, to a more frustrating and second-rate end, than just rebuilding the book in ID using the original elements.

Just never been a fan of "convert at any cost" — because other than that simple first case, the cost is often exorbitant.

[Susan Culligan]

I know!! But the author made the book in PPT, so mine is not to reason why! That wasn't the only challenge with the book, but I'm a humble servant of my client, and sometimes our job is to do what other publishers' services outfits don't do. I made PDFs of the book and imported it into InDesign using Srishti Bali's suggestion of the native script “PlaceMultipagePDF.jsx,” and it worked just fine. I can massage it in PPT if necessary and then just import revised PDFs of those pages.

Thank you as always for your wisdom and wit 🙂

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Yes, there's that. It can be difficult to convince such authors that a poorly executed book should only be taken so far (as you're doing), but for future work, the effort to bring it up to a professional level first is well worthwhile. (It all looks the same on the page, right?)

And sometimes they listen. I just now closed out 2022 accounting and reporting on a project that came to me one step short of a random dump truck full of Word pages, and the author was instantly cooperative and appreciative of the effort to rebuild it all (500 pages, 300 illustrations, all kinds of special charts etc.) for a commercial-grade publication. It's my Publisher's Exhibit No. 1 when trying to convince newcomers who, f'rex, have a book "all ready to go in Google Doc."

But then, I am also in a position to decline projects, so... 🙂

[Susan Culligan]

Holy cow! That sounds worse than the worst I've had to deal with. It sounds
like you're your own boss. Good for you!

Happy New Year!
Susan
Production Coordinator

[Derek Cross]

Susan, please delete personal contact information on this public forum.

[Susan Culligan]

Oh, sorry, I didn't think this was going to show up on the forum, I sent is as an email. My bad!!!

[Dgiuseppe]

I'm going to resurrect this topic, because I had this same problem now, and for me what resolved it was saving the .ppt to pdf and then using Acrobat itself I converted the pdf to .docx. because importing the PDF into indesign does not solve the problem as it is impossible to edit the texts and images within indesign. With the converted file I can edit all the elements, even though it requires a lot of work, the client's file has 142 pages, but it already solves half the problem!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Interesting workaround. How much does it preserve anything but text content, though?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Dgiuseppe 

Can you share a sample of your PPT file - can be on priv of course.

I've done INDD->PPT - doing it the other way around shouldn't be a problem - but I would prefer to test it on a "real" document.

[Steven360575564lka]

How did you import the word document so they come into indesign correctly and editable?

Thank you

[Jay-Random-Guy]

OMG! That is like a loss of data 3-times. PowerPoint to PDF. Then PDF to Word. Finally Word to InDesign. For the simplest text only it may work - (may as who knows how the PDF capture and PDF to Word conversion is).

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Check out this PowerPoint to InDesign converter:

https://www.recosoft.com/products/decksmovein/

It's US$299 per year, but if it's critical, it could be worth it.

Another opton would be to go right from PDF into InDesign.

If you need to edit it further, edit the PPTX, re-PDF it, and update link in ID. 

Both Recosoft and Markzware make a PDF-to-InDesign converter. 

[tomr-leguptools]

As well as the Recosoft and Markzware PDF converters, there is the pay-per-use PDF to InDesign converter at leguptools.com (this is my company) - which will be cheaper than the other converters if your Powerpoint file contains fewer than 100 pages, but if your file is larger than 100 pages then the Recosoft and Markzware options are better.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

If we are talking about commercial solutions - my ID-Tasker can handle conversion both ways - but it's PC only or as a service.

[Jay-Random-Guy]

@Robert at ID-Tasker @tomr-leguptools Appreciate both mentioning your own solutions, but I think its more appropriate if someone else mentioned them and you chimed in? Otw it seems odd.