How do i import a large word document into Indesign CS6?

[Mark_McCracken]

I am a new user to InDesign, using version CS6, I would like to know if there is an easy way to import a MS word document into InDesign. The document is about 1000 pages and contains text, images and tables.

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

File>Place and then shift+click on the first page.

But that is going to result in a very unwieldy file. You might consider breaking into smaller pieces and using the book feature to manage it.

Bob

[Mark_McCracken]

Thanks Bob. I started with a one column document text only and

everything 'imported', I have a bit of editing but looks pretty good.

[qukanghan]

Dear Bob,

I am wondering, as a new test user, your proposed way File-place (Strg+D) is not available. Is there a workaround? I need to test function of integrate word files and sucessfully creating ebooks before buying expensive software.I approciate ny support. Many thanks in advance.

Best regards

Karl

[Peter Spier]

If File > Place.. is not available there is something seriously wrong.

[Anne_Katzeff]

I found that InDesign CS6 couldn't import a MS Word document with the .docx suffix. Save the MS Word file as a .doc or .rtf and you should be able to import into IDD. I import the Word file into an empty text frame in IDD.

[Peter Spier]

ID imports most .docx files fine, but can stumble on just about every format Word is able to save with some files. It's usually related to extra junk in the file left over from editing and a lot of "mini-saves" without a final Save As to re-write the file, or tracked changes waiting to be approved.

I don't think it's possible to predict with certainly if any particular file will succeed or fail, but I don't recall ever having a problem with any word file I resaved in Word before importing to ID.

[Anne_Katzeff]

I hear you, Peter, and that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the insight.

[AM Concepcion]

In my video course "Using Word and InDesign Together" on lynda.com, I have a bunch of videos on troubleshooting Word files that won't import correctly. Whether its .doc vs. docx is immaterial, in my testing.

What Peter said is correct, sometimes there is lots of extra junk. First thing is if there are hundreds or thousands of tracked changes in Word, you (or the Word user) should Accept All Changes (the Zen technique ... hee hee) before importing. A few dozen tracked changes shouldn't be a problem.

The other trick is to de-gunk the Word file, I have a chapter in the video with various techniques. Maggy-ing the Word file, using InDesign RTF, etc.

The one about round-tripping to InDesign RTF is one of the free sample movies, if you're not a lynda.com subscriber.

http://www.lynda.com/InDesign-tutorials/Using-Word-InDesign-Together/122930-2.html

AM

[DLSiev1ng]

Notes on importing from Word to InDesign CS6 and exporting via Kindle Plugin can be found on my blog at:

http://02cafd3.netsolhost.com/blogs/eBookTec/?p=316

To make a long story short, the Kindle Plugin has a long-standing problem with tables and/or more than a certain limit of hyperlinks.  Since these problems have persisted for at least 2 years now, I must conclude that there are organizational problems on the Kindle Plugin project.  The possibilities include too many junior programmers, not enough attention to the project, not enough positive incentive to make the plugin work and any number of possible management weaknesses.  It took our JPL team about 3 years to put Spirit and Opportunity on Mars, so there's no way a technical problem could be standing this long in the way of the Kindle Plugin handling tables or any number of embedded hyperlinks - nor, for that matter, a Word source document of any reasonable size whatsoever.  One might also cite a lack of competition in this new business sector but then you'd have to ask, do they want to play in the eBook market or don't they?  Companies like Apple succeed by ignoring the competition and in this way end up setting the standards for decades to come.

[sasabombasa]

Peter, i have tried saving my Word docx as doc and as rtf, and have resaved as a new doc x file, but everytime i try to place, only the first 10 pages or so (out of 50) come through.  my document is quite simple, just a succession of short stories, no graphics, nothing fancy.  any suggestions?

[Peter Spier]

Is the missing content really missing, as in not there, or is it overset, as in you see a red plus sign in the lower right corner of the last frame with text?

I've seen cases where something about the text will cause a file to go into overset because ID finds it impossible to break the next line. Typically this would happen if hyphenation is disabled and there are non-breaking spaces that prevent breaking between words, or the column is very narrow and there's a non-breaking word that's just too long to fit. I've also seen a case or two where the left and right indents applied to a paragraph totaled more than the column width, or where the specified text size was very large compared to the column width and there was space for only one character. Keep Options can also force a story into overset if ID is not able to resolve a conflict.

The best way to diagnose these sorts of issues is to open the story in the story editor and look at the first few words after the overset indicator.

[sasabombasa]

thanks for the suggestions, Peter.  and yes, it is overset.  whenever i click on the red plus, it only places 1 page at a time--and i have 50 of them!  i looked at it in story editor--but i've never used that function before so dont know what it means.  maybe you can decipher....  note that to the left, everything is "normal"...

[Peter Spier]

Are you holding down the shift key when you try to place the overset text? If it adds a page at a time it doesn't sound like any of the problems I described.

In the story editor, that red line marks the point at which the text has become overset so you can view the part that is invisible, and you can show non-printing characters to easily identify things like non-breaking spaces and forced breaks of one sort or another. You can select text in the editor and then check the styles and paragraph keep options the same as you would in layout view.

[sasabombasa]

i just now tried holding down the shift key when placing.  no luck.

can you discern from the story editor  image i put up before what might be causing the prob?

[Peter Spier]

Unfortunately no. I'd need to see the files.

[sasabombasa]

ok, thanks for trying.  do you think that pagebreaks in Word interrupt the placement flow?

[Peter Spier]

Generally a page break in Word just becomes a page break in ID.

Since the Shift key isn't working, maybe you can at least save some time by adding enough pages to hold the overset, then hold the Alt/Opt key while clicking the loaded cursor on each page to keep the cursor loaded and place one page at a time.

[Colin Flashman]

When an object causes the textframe to display an overset text mark and won't cooperate with the shift+D command, it may mean that there is something wider than the textframe that is trying to be imported, so the process stops. This could be:

• A very long word/series of letters with a "no-break" attribution on it (e.g. a long URL);
• An inline image that is either very large, or InDesign THINKS it is very large and has put it in a ridiculously large frame (even though it wasn't that large in word)

One remedy is to go into the story editor and look at what is causing the text to overflow and carry on no further. Try to cut out the offending line and replace the text using the shift+D method.

[Peter Spier]

Colin, we covered that a few posts back, and sasabombasa says the overset will place page by page, which would not be the case, I think if there were actually something non-breakable. I'm finding this real puzzle.

[Colin Flashman]

Sorry Peter, I must've missed that. However, i'm CONVINCED that's the issue here.

What if the text were placed into a ridiculously large page size (e.g. A0 size) 1 column wide - what happens then when the shift-click method is used?

[SideshowB]

Thanks Bob. That was exactly what I was looking to do with my 300 page Word document.

[guy from NM]

Is there a way to make it automatically create as many pages as needed?

[BobLevine]

Already answered in the first reply. Was there something unclear about it?

Bob

[Please enter another scre]

Obviously there was something unclear or he would not have asked.