Place RTF while preserving formatting

[devinhalladay2]

Is there any way to place an RTF in an InDesign textbox while preserving the formatting of the RTF file? I have tried altering the RTF Import Options and setting them to "Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables", but as soon as I click OK and place the RTF, all my formatting is missing (i.e. italics are no longer italic, bold text is no longer bold). Any ideas for how to properly link an RTF file to an InDesign text box?

[Test Screen Name]

Did you use fake bold and fake italics, that is choose bold when you have only the regular font, and italics when you have only the regular font? Word will fake bold and italics, but this is considered the enemy of typesetting, and so InDesign won't (last time I looked).

[Barb Binder]

Hi Devin:

This is an RTF file in Word with inline formatting:

In InDesign CC 2019, RTF Import Options:

Results:

I'm not clear why yours isn't working the same way. Does your InDesign document already have styles defined? Are you using styles in Word? If so, try changing the two style conflicts to Redefine InDesign Style to maintain the Word style definitions.

~Barb

[Laubender]

Hi,

what's the source of your RTF file?

MS Word? Acrobat?

Regards,
Uwe

[Derek Cross]

If you run the preptext.jsx script it converts Word Character Styles to InDesign Character Styles.

https://indesignsecrets.com/perfectpreptext-a-smart-way-to-style-local-formatting.php

[Barb Binder]

FWIW, I used paragraph styles in my example, but just the bold/italic buttons for inline formatting.

I normally convert inline formatting to character styles once the files are in InDesign with FindChangeByList.

~Barb

[Derek Cross · Accepted solution]

(Top pic) Here's a Word document without any Character Styles, Placed in InDesign without any Character Styles and (Bottom pic) after running the script – InDesign Character Styles have been applied in one go to the whole document and in seconds for the longest documents.

[PREPRENSA5CC5]

Hi, i have this document from word in PC exported as RTF to be placed in InDesign 2020 in a Mac, I have placed the file but doesn't keep the styles (bold, italic, sizes) I have tried all the options at placing and won't work both in RTF and Word, styles just dissapear, when i place it ask for fonts and I ignore it because they are PC fonts exclusively???? like Leelawade...help pls. 

Best Regards

[PREPRENSA5CC5]

[PREPRENSA5CC5]

If I open the file in text edit, all the styles are there, the problem is when i place it In Indesign,....don't think the "windows fonts" are the problem because i see it in Times Roman and that is ok, and in find font are all there, just those rare fonts i don't know if there is a conflict with it.