To Copy and Paste or Not

[mswritersavii]

Hi All. I want to know if copy and paste will suffice when creating a new document within the software or is it better to type the whole thing out within the software. It has been a while since I used this tool and it seems like I remember typing word for word the last time I used it. It makes editing easier this way, right?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

What is the reason that you are afraid to copy&paste?

[mswritersavii]

I am not afraid. I am simply looking for the most effective method.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

I am not afraid. I am simply looking for the most effective method.

By @mswritersavii

It depends on what / how much you need to copy and what will you be doing next.

It's like you are asking "I need to go from A to B - what method of transportation should I use?".

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

You can do any. I've written books in Word and imported them, then done extensive rewrite and edit, and I've written books starting with a fresh InDesign doc. About the only thing I would suggest is that you avoid actual "cut and paste" except to add smallish amounts of content to an existing InDesign project — if you write in Word or whatever, using Place to import the file with some degree of filtering. style management, etc.is a MUCH superior method.

As for process, it depends on how much you're writing. Word is a stronger writing/editing/text management tool, so if you want to be able to write without limitations, have better spelling/grammar check, not have to fuss with a rigid style hierarchy, etc. — I'd write in Word.

If you write fairly slowly and want to shape the pages and layout as you go, and perhaps expand and polish the skills and techniques InDesign demands for a high-quality result, writing in ID might be the right option.

The one snag is that while it's trivial to go from Word to ID, it is not very easy to get text back out of InDesign. It's not a wholly one-way process, but with few exceptions all you can get out is a fairly rough "manuscript" that will need to be reworked and formatted. So working in Word, knowing you can keep moving to ID and (if appropriate) just abandoning the export if things aren't working yet, might be better if you aren't a consistent enough writer to be sure what goes into ID will be happy there. 🙂

[Peter Spier]

When you say "within the software" do you mean copy/paste from one .indd docuemnt file to another? if so, there is no reason I can think of that you wouldn't want to do this other than possible changes due to different definitions for same-named styles in the two files. You can avoid that by loading the styles from the source document before doing the copy/paste.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I read the OP as asking about cut and paste from another app into ID. There is of course no reason not to cut and paste among, or within InDesign docs.

I am not sure I'd use ID as a writing platform with the notion of moving the material to another ID doc. But I suppose that, or writing in InCopy, is an alternative. I just think Word as a standalone writing tool is hard to beat (especially after you beat it into submission with a little customization for the purpose).

[Peter Spier]

I was thinking along the lines of reusing text from previous files, but the question seems a bit vague to me.