InDesign v13.0.1 crashes while placing .docx format file

[amanm5143]

Hello,

I am using Adobe InDesign CC 2018 v13.0.1, which crashes whenever I try to place a .docx format file. Regarding the docx format, I had created the file from a html page by opening the html page in word and saving it as a .docx format file. Whenever, I try to place the docx format, the software crashes. However, if I change the word format from .docx to .doc and then place the file, it works fine. The problem being whenever you try to form word document from html source, and try to save it under .doc format, it does not absorb all the capabilities and shows compatibility issues. Therefore, it becomes necessary for me to save it in .docx file fomat and work accordingly, to preserve formatting and other things.

I have already tried deleting the preference settings but the solution did not work. I would be grateful to any one of the experienced members for assisting me in the matter.

Regards,

Amaan

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

A few things you may want to try:

1) Create a simple word processing file in MSWord. I generally use the typing drill "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." because it uses every letter in the English alphabet. Depending on where you're located, you may want to choose a local equivalent. Save the file as a .docx file and try to place that into InDesign.

If that works, and I suspect it may, your problem might be in translating html code into an MSWord document. You may or may not see it, but one of the functions of .docx file formats is that it allows submerged coding to be embedded in the document file. Which is one reason why converting the file into a .doc file format, which effectively strips out/deactivates that coding in the document (depending on the specific instance). If that's the case:

2) Take your .doc file and re-save it as a .docx file. You may find that your complication is gone.

3) If not, old-school cut-and-place may get you around your problem. Pay close attention to differences in text styling, because if there's different styles of text in your desired page (say headings or bold subheads in the text) copying that wholesale may reintroduce that submerged coding (not only h2, h3 etc. text styling, but any associated placement code for that styled text on the html page) and cause you problems. Similarly, if you're including graphics from the webpage into your .docx file, you want to copy those graphics separately and then place them independently into your InDesign document.

Hope this helps,

Randy Hagan

[amanm5143]

Hello Randy,

Firstly, thank you for taking out the time and replying to the thread. However, I regret to inform that the solutions that you suggested might not work.

Because I am not copying the html code to word, rather I am opening a web page in the word to extract out the content on the webpage along with its formatting so I do not think that embedded html code is the problem.

Your second option seems plausible but going through the same poses threat to content quality. as I mentioned earlier, I am not using .doc format because it shows compatibility issues with few portions of the content and I would like to get the complete in exact form.

I tried the third option of good old Cut-Paste however, upon doing the same the formatting of the content goes away which is not desirable as I need the webpage formatting.

I wish it could have solved the problem but I am grateful to you for taking out the time. Thank you!

[BobLevine]

Did you try RTF?

[amanm5143]

Hey Bob,

Thank you for replying. Yes, I tried RTF version but it does not preserve the formatting style of content on the webpage. Thank you for hte suggestion.

Regards,

Aman Mittal

[Laubender]

Hi Amaan,

are you using sections in the Word document?

If yes, it may help to do every section as single docx file and remove the last paragraph character from every docx files.

If no, remove the last paragraph character of the docx file.

Usually the last paragraph character can store some extras that may or may not lead to crashes when importing to InDesign.

Just some questions:

Will the crash occur before loading the place gun?
Or will the crash occur when you are trying to unload the place gun?

Or do you place to a selected insertion point of a text frame?

Regards,
Uwe

[amanm5143]

Hey Laubender,

Thank you for taking out the time and providing few suggestions. With regard to your first suggestion, I am not using sections in Word. This is what I simply do:

1. Go to link and hit 'Ctrl+S' and save the complete webpage.

2. Then I go to Word and use the 'Open' tool to open the webpage saved and then, save it as '.docx' file.

Doing this helps in preserving the formatting of the webpage. However, the moment I try to save it as '.doc', it shows compatibility issues for a few reference just giving a brief that there might be these many number of issues which poses a threat to the credibility of exact content saved.

With regard to your questions, the crash takes place just after I select the file to be placed and hit 'Place'. It shows reading attributes dialog box for a second and then crashes.

I wish your suggestions could have helped. But, thank you for taking out the time. Appreciated!

Regards,

Aman

[Randy Hagan]

Actually, Amaan, I'd suggest that perhaps the underlying html code is exactly the problem.

Opening the webpage in Word also applies all the underlying formatting in the MSWord file. This may not allow you to do the thing you want to do -- mirror the original webpage layout with its original formatting -- but it does introduce the issues you're reporting.

Have you considered creating a screenshot of the webpage (or compositing multiple screenshots to simulate an entire, longer webpage) to get the representative layout you're looking for with InDesign? Sometimes the best response is to work around the problem rather than keep attacking it head-on.

[amanm5143]

Hey Randy,

Thank you for replying back. Underlying html coding might or might be an issues because InDesign is accepting the .doc version of the same webpage but, not the .docx version. I could take the screenshots of the webpage but going through the same leaves a big task of going through the formatting of a large number of pages which is a lot time consuming, and the reason I was trying it to do the other way around was to save this amount if time.

You need not apologize for misspelling. It is perfectly fine and I respect your gesture. Thank you for helping.

Regards,

Aman

[Laubender]

Hi Aman,

I could imagine that one or more special characters in your docx file would lead to a crash with InDesign.

The problem now is to detect the ones and filter out the ones before placing.

You said you tried to copy/paste the contents from Word to InDesign and formatting was lost.

There are several preferences to control this. Did you allow InDesign to paste text as formatted text?

That's one of the preferences you can set with InDesign.

Maybe after successfully pasting formatted contents to InDesign we could make out special characters even if the result is not perfect.

Regards,
Uwe

[amanm5143]

Hey Laubender,

I tried your other suggestion of changing the preferences and copy pasting the content directly from website to InDesign. Although the suggestion worked, but the copied content formatting was so out of line that it could be compared to unformatted text content leaving me with the same problem of going through the complete formatting in a go, which is gonna be too time consuming.

Regards,

Aman

[Laubender]

amanm5143  wrote

… directly from website to InDesign. …

Hi Aman,

I did not meant from website to InDesign, but from Word to InDesign.

Just as a test, if some unusual special characters are showing up with InDesign.

Regards,
Uwe

[amanm5143]

Hey Uwe,

I tried your suggestion and it brought me near to a mid point. The text didn't lose all its formatting but half of it. however, all the images lost their sharpness. So, it left me with a task of formatting every page, again. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

Regards,

Aman

[Randy Hagan]

Amaan. My apologies for misspelling your name in the previous response. Normally these responses are editable, but for some reason the forum isn't allowing me to correct my misspelling in this instance.

Please accept my sincere apologies.