Instructions to clients on how to set up Word docs

[jonathangledson]

Does anyone know of a set of instructions to provide to clients on how to supply a long and complex Word file in such a way that it is easy for designers to process? 

Is there a YouTube video or a step by step lesson anywhere?
I feel I would come across as more helpful and less annoyed if I was pointing them to some accepted protocol instead of seeming to demand that they do everything my way!

I'm doing yet another job where the client thought they were doing us a favour by "designing" it in word and have simply made the job harder by filling it with anchored objects and style overrides etc.

[Derek Cross]

You might set up Word Paragraph and Character styles for the customer to use for their manuscript and then use the InDesign Word Import Options facility to match Word Styles to InDesign Styles. Perhaps do a short practice document between each of you first.

LinkedIn Learning has a useful tutorial https://www.linkedin.com/learning/word-and-indesign-integration/converting-word-docs-to-incopy-for-f... (you can get 30-days free access.)

[J E L]

@jonathangledson I deal with this constantly and have written my own instructions for authors and clients to prepare their manuscript for design, including providing a Word template, or I charge them to do the work myself. You can find some online guides to point them to but, from my experience, few want to deal with this type of work and don't know Word's features enough to spend the time to learn them. I'm not sure there is a definitive authority on the steps because there are so many types of manuscripts and everyone has their own way of doing this. Seems I always end up doing prep work on the Word document anyway. I use the time to examine the manuscript's nuances and to prepare InDesign styles ahead of mapping. But it would be helpful to have a few accepted methods to point people to! Maybe we'll get some suggestions here.

[Derek Cross]

I believe Anne-Marie is working on upgrading her tutorial I mentioned in my earlier post.

[J E L]

That's great! I would imagine most author clients don't want to sign up for a free lesson trial since you have to give a credit card up front and then cancel for a one-time video. Plus, they probably don't know anything about InDesign and will never be mapping Word docs into the program themselves. I think a document with steps outlining how to format a Word document only that a layperson can understand on their own is what the OP is looking for. Something like this: Manuscript Format: Create a Professional Manuscript (inc. Template) (reedsy.com)

Disclaimer: I am a Reedsy editor.

[JonathanArias]

have you considered making word templates for them to use?