Importing Word docs with lots of symbols

[Susan Culligan]

I'm working on a book about Quantum applications, and it's filled with mathematical symbols. When I import the Word doc into Indesign, at least half of the symbols (usually in Symbol or Cambria/Cambria Math) aren't recognized, so I have to go through and apply the fonts manually. 

I don't expect InDesign to recognize fonts I don't have, but is there a way to get it to recognize the ones I do have and import the symbols correctly?

Thanks!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Use the same font in InDesign, at least as a starting point. Or are you saying that content in Cambria/Word is not importing to Cambria/ID,. etc.?

I am pretty sure glyph to glyph mapping is the same for both apps; I would look at sloppy Word formatting (using spot formatting instead of character styles) as a source of problems and a path to correction.

[Susan Culligan]

You're right, the authors have used some sloppy formatting, and it's my job to clean it up in ID. They certainly haven't set up character styles in Word (I didn't even know you could do that), so characters often come in as the little  boxes. However, some do come in as Cambria/Cambria Math or Symbol, so it's hit and miss. Plus they use some fonts I've never heard of, but if I style them as Symbol or Cambria/Math, 99% of the time they display correctly. Then there are the one or two that come in as a different symbol altogether. 

But is there a step I'm missing when I import that at least would work for the fonts I do have (Sym/Cam)? 

Thanks!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Yes, it's surprising how may users don't quite realize Word has character styles. (Looks up, whistles tunelessly... it's a long story.)

But fundamentally, anything in the Word file should come through in the ID file if the fonts match. I'd start by checking the missing glyphs against the glyph panel in ID, to see if they're mapped the same as the source. If things are being changed in the import... I dunno. To the best of my knowledge, nothing in Word import is that "smart" and text is just imported as text, oddball characters and all (by unicode, at least).

So step 1: can you format the text the same in ID? do you have to change any characters to do so?

Step 2 is almost certainly some cleanup of the Word file, with as much search and replace of spot formatting with a few character styles as possible. You might be able to do that in ID more easily, though.

If there is some fundamental breakage between how Word and ID handle the same fonts... I'm not sure where best to turn.

[Susan Culligan]

Thanks James. I'll just struggle through. Much rather work it out in Indesign than in {shudder) Word. 🙂

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Susan Culligan

Not sure how much time it would save you - probably a lot if it's for more than one INDD file - but macro in WORD (*) could replace those symbols with their UNICODE code, then, for those that are missing, you would've to find a replacements and even Find&Change by List script included with InDesign could replace one to the other in bulk.

(*) To make your life easier, you could first run macro on all WORD docs, together with converting symbols to UNICODE numbers it could make a list of all symbols, as a table with 3x columns: 

Symbol as is | UNICODE value | place for a substitute

[Susan Culligan]

Hmmmm. I might try this just for kicks. If it works, I'll have learned something new as well as solving a problem.

Thanks!!

[AlanGilbertson]

In a situation like this, I would take some time out and set up a set of custom import options. If there's any pattern to what you're having to deal with, you can probably make it work to your advantage. Styles and fonts are both selectable in the import options:

This can be a painful process, but might save you a ton of time and aggravation in the long run.

Another greatly underestimated tool is Find/Change by List, which you can customize to swap out evil Klingon glyphs for proper Federation ones, or anything similar.

Finally, you might find it useful to create and save custom GREP Find/Replace operations to run after you've imported the manuscript. (Simple case in point: For one ongoing project I have a query that finds all text set in italics and applies the Italic character style.)

I also highly, highly recommend Wordsflow as a way to tame (aka "beat into submission") wayward Word docs in general.

[Susan Culligan]

Wow! Thank you, Alan. I'm going to save this answer and, if I get another 300-page book on Quantum physics (oy!), I'm going to try these tips. I've never heard of find/change by list, which looks interesting, and I'll definitely look into Wordsflow, as I have heated arguments with Word on a regular basis 🙂

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Susan Culligan

I've mentioned Find&Change By List script a few days ago - in exactly the same context 😉

[Susan Culligan]

My apologies for not seeing it there!

[AlanGilbertson]

Find/Change by List is in the Scripts panel. Good intro here here and on CreativePro.com (where you'll find InDesign resources galore, including scripts).

[Susan Culligan]

Thanks so much!