Trouble Generating Correct PDF from InDesign File (I Don’t Have Access to the Tool)

[coco_6395]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a financial reporting process that involves updating Word files using content controls. Each file is then passed to another team, who manually imports it into Adobe InDesign to generate a formatted PDF that aligns with our corporate layout.

The issue we’re facing is that the layout in the generated PDF is often incorrect — tables appear misaligned or shifted, when content controls are involved. Unfortunately, I do not have direct access to InDesign myself, so I’m relying on the design team’s feedback and can’t test potential fixes on my own.

Here’s what I know:

• The Word document uses content controls (structured fields for automation).
• The formatting looks perfect in Word, but gets altered during the InDesign import.
• The design team mentioned that content controls might be interfering with the table layout in InDesign.
• Even attempts to flatten the Word document (i.e., remove content control structure before passing it on) didn’t fix the issue — the resulting PDF still had alignment problems.

Questions:

1. Is there a known issue or best practice when importing Word files with content controls into InDesign?
2. Would converting the Word file to PDF or another format first help preserve the layout better?
3. Are there specific settings or methods in InDesign that could make the import process more stable or ignore Word’s underlying XML structure?

Any guidance or suggestions would be truly appreciated! Again, I don’t have InDesign on my machine, so I can’t run tests directly — but I’m happy to pass on any technical instructions to our team and report back.

Thanks so much in advance!

[Willi Adelberger]

1. Is there a known issue or best practice when importing Word files with content controls into InDesign?

Work with paragraph and acharacter and table with cell styles without overrides on both sides.

2. Would converting the Word file to PDF or another format first help preserve the layout better?

No. Consider to use InCopy.

3. Are there specific settings or methods in InDesign that could make the import process more stable or ignore Word’s underlying XML structure?

Consider a content manage system or a Word Connector like WordFlow.

[coco_6395]

Thank you so much. Is the .docm extension also a problem? 

[leo.r]

• the resulting PDF still had alignment problems.

By @coco_6395

Can you post some screenshots that illustrate the alignment problems? There were recently some reports of subtle table row shifting in PDF under certain conditions, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with your particular issue.