Preserve List Formatting from Word to InDesign

[Alissa33164033fa89]

Hi Community, thanks in advance for your help! 

Problem trying to solve: I have engineering spec sheets with up to 7 "list thread levels." The engineers formated the information in Word. We are redesigning the info in InDesign and I am looking for an easy way to streamline this workflow without having to manually apply paragraph bullet styles to each part of the document once it's in ID. 

1) Is XML a good use case for this? 
2) Any tips to preserve Word formatting when placing text into InDesign
3) Anything I'm not aware of, or thinking of that would help -- I'm sure this has been solved before, thanks so much!

AE

[Eugene Tyson]

Hard to know without seeing the document structure?
What do you mean by "7 "list thread levels.""?

If you're talking about numbered lists? Like 1.1, 1.2, 2.1,2.2, 2.1.a etc. 

I typically import the word doc using the Show Options - and here you can convert all the document numbering to text so that it imports as plain text. 

Then I typically already have styles pre-built for the numbering - but you can do it as you go along.

Then I'd search the document for the numbering paterns using GREP and apply the paragraph styles. 

Takes about 30 seconds to apply the numbering headers in automatic numbering.

We can help you with this - please give as much information as you can.

[Alissa33164033fa89]

Thank you @Eugene Tyson I really appreciate your help with this! 

Yes, correct. I'm placing and word doc with numbered lists (with 7 different numbered bullets or "levels of the list"). They have A. 1. (a) (1) etc. as seen in the attached Specification Word document. 

I'm hoping to reformat this list in InDesign quickly instead of having to click through manually and apply the different numbered list paragraph styles I've created.

Can you review the attached document provided and walk me through the most efficent way to reformat the list in InDesign?

I have 10 of these documents with varying list levels.

I'm not familiar with constructing a GREP expression and applying paragraph styles. 

Best!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Alissa33164033fa89

I'm on my phone so I can only see text - not the formatting / applied ParaStyles.

If each level has its own ParaStyle applied - you are all set.

You should import this doc into InDesign, make a "template" - blank document with all the styles - you can edit definitions of the styles - but do not change names. 

When you import another document - with EXACTLY THE SAME NAMES - InDesign will use formatting defined in the "template". 

[Eugene Tyson]

Yeh, I have so many issues with numbered lists importing to InDesign that it's just not worth keeping it over from the Word doc as a style.

Of course you can do this - but I prefer to build it myself from the ground up.

Many years ago I asked the same question as I struggled with it and here's a link to the article where my question was answered all those years ago

https://creativepro.com/multi-level-automatic-numbering-in-indesign/

[Brian27472827l5wr]

I'm onboard with building lists from the ground up in InDesign—my template already has all the lists I want with associated paragraph styles—but how do I prevent InDesign from automatically creating hundreds of different new imported lists when place a long Word document (where every paragraph is assigned to a hierarchical numbering system using Word outline lists) into my InDesign template? They are a pain to delete afterward since the "Define Lists" dialog doesn't allow me to select more than one to delete at once. It's a bummer InDesign can't natively recognize each hierarchical level of the Word outline list and allow me to map it to the corresponding paragraph style and InDesign list.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Brian27472827l5wr

There is always a script for that - either free or paid.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Brian27472827l5wr

You pretty much have three options: 

1) clean it up in WORD - macro, 

2) clean it up in InDesign - script, 

3) map styles in InDesign - script. 

[Derek Cross]

If you can set up Word styles that all contributors adhere to, you can then match the MS Styles to InDesign Paragraph (and Character) Styles. Linkedin Learning has an online video tutorial called "Smarter Workflows with InDesign and Word". You can get 30-days free access.