Converting a Word Document in pdf to InDesign CS6

[Madeleine5EED]

I have a  78 page Word Document.(docx)  which I saved as a pdf file and inported it into inDesign CS6 (updated recently).   I can not insert any text or highlight any text or change font or size of font in InDesgin  I have not tried inserting or placing phtotos yet (which is the point of the whole thing).  So does a pdf file work, or should I use an rtf file? a docx file?  When I tried Adobe Support, they sent me the 3 files I needed to update CS6 for a Windows 10 document.  I installed the files I hope succesfully.  But I am not getting anywhere with importing the file.  I could not use the auto populate the pages and had to do it page by page using the pdf version.  In 2015 I had no problem with this manner of importing a word doc (rtf format) into InDesign.  I have no idea of what to try next.  

[Randy Hagan]

You won't be able to edit a PDF Within InDesign. You can only place it, move it, crop it and/or delete it.

If you want the text out of a PDF file, the best option is to export the content into a Rich Text Format file from Adobe Acrobat, then clean up the result as needed in a word processing program (MSWord if you have it, if not Windows 10 resident WordPad). You can almost count on the fact that it won't create a perfect .rtf file from Adobe Acrobat export, but after you fix it in your word processing application, it should place cleanly into InDesign. Or even better, if you already have a .rtf or .docx file, use that and not the PDF.

So, in short, export a .rtf file from Acrobat, clean it up in word processing, then place it into InDesign. That should get you where you want to be.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Madeleine5EED]

Thnaks Randy. It helps in that a pdf format does not work is confirmed.   However I have the original Word file in a doc, docx and rtf files (cleaned up as best I could) but Microsoft word Support suggested I save it as a pdf file and import it into InDesign. But obviously I cannot place it in InDesign to edit it or place pictures and captions in it from what you say.  

I originally had it in a Family Tree Maker file in 2015 saved from  that program as an rtf file.  I worked on it recently in Word 365 to clean it up and have since saved it in the docx and new rtf files (Version 64 now).  I cannot get it to "place' in InDesign.  It has. 79 errors in Prefilight which means 1 per page since it is 78 pages long.  Text Boxes with anchors appear in InDesgn on the first page.  Only with a pdf can I get it to place on all 78 pages doing the placing one page at a time.  I appreciate your advice, but I feel I have already done what you suggest ie use an rtf file for placing.  Does this explanation clear anything up?

[Geоrge]

>>  Does this explanation clear anything up?

Yes, it is. You are newbie to InDesign. What about some online courses? 

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-2020-essential-training/indesign-learn-the-fundamentals

>>  It has. 79 errors in Prefilight which means 1 per page since it is 78 pages long. 

https://youtu.be/zzqOovSRu58

[Randy Hagan]

I don't know why the MSWord support guys suggested PDFs. Maybe they know something that I don't, but I'd think that would be the wrong way to do it.

If there's a compatibility issue with your RTF files, you may be able to open them in WordPad and re-save them in old-fashioned old-style .rtf(s). Hopefully that'll work better for you. WordPad is fine with good ol' .doc files too. It works with .docx files, but depending on the formatting, not quite flawlessly.

Good luck,

Randy

[Madeleine5EED]

Thnaks for the suggestion Randy

[Madeleine5EED]

The problem appears to be in the Word document.  Somewhere along the way it has become corrupted.  There are many places where there has been insertion of a paragraph break between each word within a paragraph.  When I can figure out a way to remove the paragraph breaks efficiently I will have something I can import into InDesgn in . rtf format.  

E.g.  The  quick Brown Fox jumped over the lazy dog.  Has a Paragraph break shown by when I  turned on  the paragraph mark after each word in this sentence not just a space.  Changing the Style of the document results in the text looking  like the following down the page:

The

quick

Brown

Fox

jumped

over 

the 

Lazy

Dog.

Thus the auto flow into InDesgn is greatly increased in length.  (I cannot show it exactly because there is not a way to show the Paragraph mark in this response.). I think therefore it is not an Adobe Problem but  a Word problem and occurred when I converted it to rtf. Format. Unfortunately there are many passages where this occurred.  

[Derek Cross]

Assuming you can't recover the oroginal Word document and you have to work with the one that has returns after each word, you can use an application such as CleanText to join the words together into sentences (no doubt you'll have to do further work on the Word doc afterwards though).

https://www.apimac.com/mac/cleantext/

[Madeleine5EED]

Thanks Derek.  Is there a similar app for PC's?  The site appears to be only for Mac apps?