Hyphens are dropping out from DOCX files on import

[ras35]

Help! I am experiencing a major bug. When I import DOCX word files I lose all hyphens. If I copy and paste into InDesign they are there, and if I save the Word file as DOC, I can import it and the hyphens remain. This was discovered when an author used non-breaking hyphens surrounding letters (-d e-h), they completely disappeared. We then realized that it had been occurring in all of the URL citations :( It happens across multiple Word files and InDesign files, so it is not a specific document issue. I am on Mac OS High Sierra with CC 2020. Any ideas would be very appreciated. Thank you!

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

I can confirm that non-breaking hyphens drop from a .docx file when imported into InDesign v14 and v15 on my MacBook using Catalina. This is a user-to-user forum so you can log a bug report here:https://indesign.uservoice.com/.

As as work-around, I would use Find/Change in Word to find the non-breaking hyphens and change them to a character you are not using—perhaps an •. Place the file, and then use Find/Change in InDesign to find all the •s and change them to non-breaking hyphens. Or just save the file as a .doc for now.

~Barb

[ras35]

Thank you, Barb. Definitely reassuring to hear that it is a known issue, I will report the bug. I appretiate the work around advice too.