Placing one indesign file (all text) into another AS TEXT

[stu_6563]

Mac M4 running OS 15.3..1
Indesign 19

Let's say I'm putting together a book of poetry and I have individual poems in individual InDesign files. It's all text.

I want to put together a master file, with all the individual files in there, so that I can generate a booklet.

When I try to "place" a poem into the master file, which is just another InDesign files with lots of pages, it places as a graphic. When this happens, obviously, I can't edit or format the text anymore.

I've looked at all the various "place" options and, it seems to me, no matter what I do, any time I "place" another file, it's a graphic.

Is there a way to import/place one file into another, again it's all just text, and have it come in as text?  I know I can cut and paste but that's seems like an incredible waste of time and would force me to open/close 50-60 files at once.

Thanks for your advice - Stu

[Peter Spier]

Short answer is no, not directly using File > Place.

You can put your text cursor in any story and choose File > Export... and have a choice of exporting as plain text or .rtf (formatted text). That exported file can then be placed into a new document as editable text. This will not be faster than copy/paste, but will leave you with an editable text file you can use multiple times later.

[stu_6563]

Thanks so much for your quick reply. It's kinda ridiculous that you can't use place this way, especially since you used to be able to do it. Don't remember if it was an early version of InDesign or a late version of Pagemaker but it worked, it was quick, and you didn't have to go through all the extra steps. Sigh!

[Peter Spier]

I've been using InDesign for 20+ years and I can't recall ever being able to do this using the Place command.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Both PageMaker and InDesign can place their respective files as "graphics". You can right-click and edit original. They never had the ability to place just the text flow. Perhaps you are thinking of Adobe FrameMaker, which has that ability?

[Dirk Becker]

See the bottom section on ICML of https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/sharing-content.html  – could be you remember that.

[Peter Spier]

Thanks so much for your quick reply. It's kinda ridiculous that you can't use place this way, especially since you used to be able to do it. Don't remember if it was an early version of InDesign or a late version of Pagemaker but it worked, it was quick, and you didn't have to go through all the extra steps. Sigh!

By @stu_6563

@Dirk Becker's comment reminded me of Snippets, and perhaps that's what you were thinking of?

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/reusing-graphics-text.html

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Also assets in a Library can be used to transfer contents between documents. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@stu_6563

You can also use Book feature. 

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

In addition to useing the Book function. based on what you are describing, youu can also probably use the Move Pages function (In the Pages panel) to import the pages from the individual files into another comprehensive one.  The caveat here is dealing with potential Style conflicts, but if you have designed each file similarly, it might not be too much of an issue.

[Eugene Tyson]

=

Mac M4 running OS 15.3..1
Indesign 19

Let's say I'm putting together a book of poetry and I have individual poems in individual InDesign files. It's all text.

I want to put together a master file, with all the individual files in there, so that I can generate a booklet.

When I try to "place" a poem into the master file, which is just another InDesign files with lots of pages, it places as a graphic. When this happens, obviously, I can't edit or format the text anymore.

I've looked at all the various "place" options and, it seems to me, no matter what I do, any time I "place" another file, it's a graphic.

Is there a way to import/place one file into another, again it's all just text, and have it come in as text?  I know I can cut and paste but that's seems like an incredible waste of time and would force me to open/close 50-60 files at once.

Thanks for your advice - Stu

By @stu_6563

Gave me an idea for a script

This should bring in text from an InDesign file

Not sure how to add more functionality just yet, let us know if it's ok as it is or if you need more things to happen

it's quite basic.

var sourceFile = File.openDialog("Select an InDesign file to import text from", "*.indd"); 

if (sourceFile) {
    var sourceDoc;
    try {
        sourceDoc = app.open(sourceFile, false); // Open in the background
        var extractedText = "";
        
        for (var i = 0; i < sourceDoc.textFrames.length; i++) {
            extractedText += sourceDoc.textFrames[i].contents + "\r\n";
        }
        
        sourceDoc.close(SaveOptions.NO); // Close without saving
        
        if (extractedText) {
            var targetDoc = app.activeDocument;
            var textFrame = targetDoc.textFrames.add();
            textFrame.geometricBounds = [10, 10, 200, 200]; // Adjust as needed
            textFrame.contents = extractedText;
        } else {
            alert("No text found in the selected InDesign file.");
        }
    } catch (e) {
        alert("Error: " + e.message);
    }
} else {
    alert("No file selected.");
}