What is my problem importing text to InDesign cc file?

[marti_l_reggio]

It's 400 pages. I copy the entire manuscript and shift D. only the first page loads. I click the red square in lower right and try to pull it into the next page or click. Its a doc export. A pop-up box has told me I need a plug-in. Don't know?

[Derek Cross]

Which version of InDesign and OS?

When you first set up your InDesign document ensure you select Primary Text Frame - that will alow the pages to flow when you Place the MS. You can use InDesign’s Word Import Options dialogue feature to match Paragraph and Charcter styles. (Make sure you select Basic Paragraph Style and No Character styles when you Place the Word file and clean up the Word file as much as you can before you Place it.)

[Jongware]

I'm afraid your description of the problem is too vague. Please clarify.

"I copy .." – you copy a Word(?) document directly out of Word?

".. and shift D .." – shift+D gives a capital letter D. If you mean "Cmd+D" (Mac) or "Ctrl+D" (Windows) to place the document: that does not rhyme with your earlier "copy".

If you did not hold down shift when placing (but not if you were copying!), you indeed get a single text frame on your current page, and you are correct that clicking the red "out" arrow should re-load the Place cursor. But then, "or click"? No, you must click somewhere.

"It[']s a doc export" – what is?

"A pop-up box has told me I need a plug-in" – that is flat out wrong. You should not get such a pop-up box after successfully loading in a document; not at that point. Are you somehow confusing "Open" with "Place'? Which would show such a pop-up because InDesign cannot "open" a Word document. But that is something else entirely than you are describing so far.

Without any more details we cannot suggest any help. Do please make sure to describe exactly what you are doing.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi Marti:

The expected workflow for a new user (not yet using primary frames) would go something like this:

1. File > New > Document. Fill out the page specs and click on Create.
2. On body page 1, File > Place. Select the Word document and click Open.
3. To flow the entire word file on continuous pages, hold the Shift key and at the top margin. The entire Word file should flow through the end of the document, adding additional pages at the end if needed.

If this method produces a red, overset text icon in the outport, then highlight one of the last visible words before the red overset text icon and choose Story > Edit in Story Editor. This will display the Word file in a galley view. Is the rest of the text visible in this view? If so, click Type > Show Hidden Characters and come back and share a screen shot so that we can see what is going on.

~Barb

[GraceCheong]

Hi, I'm also having an issue placing text from a .docx file into my InDesign document. When I place and try to flow the text, I can only flow a small part of the Word doc. I've never had this problem before. I'm using InDesign CC 2018.

I place the file using command D and then shift click to flow it. I remove styles and formatting but preserve local overrides. When the text starts to flow only a few pages are created and part of the text flows in but then stops mid-word before it reaches the end of the last page created. The red plus sign does appear on the last page but if I continue to try adding a page and flowing it, again only three new pages appear and they appear empty but with a new plus sign at the end. Could there be something wrong with the Word doc? Here's where the text stops at the beginning of the table of contents.

[shawnpaikin]

When I have the problem of text suddenly ending like that, it's because the line after that has loads of 'keep' options applied or even a very long web address. If you make the text box wider from bottom right you will normally see what is too long and won't fit on one line. If that doesn't help, the line that is cutting off may have imported a bad style from Word, set the line to default style and reformat the one line again.

[daniele48995203]

Hi,

I had the same problem – only a small part of the text was flowing. I found out that the apaces in the Word doc were actually non breaking spacea (^S). After I replaced all the spaces, all went as smooth as expected.