Placing word doc with different margins on Different pages

[matthewdee]

I have a task ahead of me which is a bit confusing. I need to place a word document inside a new .indd. The page size is 4.08 x 7.08 top and bottom margins vary and so do the left and right margins.

My first thought was to look through all 88 pages and write down all the margins then make a master page for each different margin setting, am I right? Or is there a better way.

next problem I see is the word doc has some anchored artwork, arrows etc. Below are a few screenshots, its an instruction manual.

[Steve Werner]

Because different InDesign pages can have different margins, creating a master page for each layout is the way to go.

You might also look into using Primary Text Frames. They would allow you to have the text reflow when you apply a different master page to replace a different-sized master page. Read about them here:

https://indesignsecrets.com/indesign-basics-primary-text-frames.php

[Barb Binder]

While I agree Steve's answer on how to set up varying margins in InDesign, I want to point out that most books have consistent margins across the entire book—front matter, body and any appendices or index. You might consider standardizing the margins as you move from Word to InDesign.

~Barb

[matthewdee]

This could be a big mess as I agree the margins should be the same for the entire document. My concern here is also when I paste the word doc on the same size paper that is from word there are some elements that do not come over for instance the headers in the TOC. The TOC is only two pages and I will get to that later so I want to concentrate on placing the rest of the styled text from word into the .indd let me see what I get and will reply back.

[Barb Binder]

Great. In addition to defining the running heads on the master pages in InDesign, I want to point out that you won't want to use the TOC from Word. InDesign will generate a new TOC for you based on which paragraph styles you want to include and will use the correct page numbers from the InDesign file.https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.html

Create a table of contents in Adobe InDesign

~Barb

[matthewdee]

For me I found an easier way, I have a pdf copy of the original word doc. I open in Acrobat, go to each page and select all, choose Edit With and choose Illustrator. The entire page opens up in AI and I copy and paste all the elements in one shot right to a new InDesign doc with the same page size. It also leave the background in a layer so I can turn off the layers when I need to line the new text up as the table lines, frame objects are all in the exact place they need to be.

I set the margins outside of the elements so none will be placed outside. So now I have the layered file page by page in InDesign but now since most of the text is outlines I need to re create text boxes with the original font. The doc is 68 pages so its a lot of work but the good part is I only see 4 styles I need to use so I will create those in ID and take it form there.

If you look at the screenshots the original doc is quite complicated so this way I have what is like a ready made template, now all I add is the text.

Thoughts?

[Barb Binder]

Hi Matthew:

If I were tasked with the job of recreating a former Word document in InDesign from a PDF, I would open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and use File > Export to > Word Document to extract editable text to Word, including the tables. Once I reviewed (and potentially cleaned up the file), I would create a new InDesign file and place the text files into primary frames. I would create and assign the four paragraph styles. I would then return to Acrobat and use File > Export to > Image to extract all of the images from the PDF to a folder. Then I could clean up the images if necessary, and place the images into the InDesign file.

This workflow will allow me to take advantage of threaded text frames, anchored images and all of the other benefits of working in a professional layout application.

~Barb

[hammer0909]

First off, I'd Place the Word document instead of pasting it. You'll gain much more control that way. Also, using the Primary Text Frame is the way to go. By creating several master pages with the varying margin sizes but putting a Primary Text Frame on each Master Page, you'll have the ability to apply any master you wish to each page and the margins will adjust dynamically. I'd use the keep options for the style of the text at the top of each page to force that text to appear at the top of each page in InDesign. Header information will not come over from Word, you'll want to add that header information to the master page in InDesign.