Printed Book - Distributed Input to Book Revision

[abqmg]

I have a variety of people responsible for updating a printed book done in CS4.  They have Word and I need to get their updates for the revision.  Is there an easy way to download a Word document for them.  At the moment, using the pdf that was used for printing, I lose all the formatting and the images.

Help - suggestions needed and thanks for whatever you can do.

abqmg

[rayek.elfin]

I take it your original layout is done in InDesign CS4?

The way it normally works is that the writers/editors use a word processor to prepare the copy, and the layouter/designer imports these documents into InDesign. Ideally you would 1) synchronize the Word styles with paragraph styles in InDesign, and 2) ensure the images are kept separated from the Word files, because you must be able to import those separately. Having embedded images in Word is a nightmare - avoid that at all costs.

Ordinarily you would provide the original Word text files to the people responsible to update the text files. Those Word files (and templates) would have the correct paragraph styles already added to them, and you would ensure the writers/editors are informed that they should only use those, and forbid any manual formatting.

If you do not have original Word files or templates, you can provide them with exported text files. Better to ignore any formatting done by the writers, and re-do it yourself in InDesign.

Word of warning: the formatting and images are inconsequential for the writers. You are only interested in updating the texts in the InDesign file, correct? That means the formatting, layout, and images ought to be separated from the copy writing stage.

If images must be updated as well you must set up a separate stream in your workflow for those, with proper resolution guidelines.

[jane-e]

Moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to InDesign.

[jane-e]

Your best choice is to use Recosoft's ID2Office plugin:
ID2Office - How to Convert InDesign to Word, Convert InDesign to PowerPoint

[abqmg]

I'm not sure I can get the chapter to buy the software!

[Chad Chelius]

You could just export the stories from InDesign as .rtf files. These files can be opened in Word, the styles and formatting will be retained, and when you place those Word docs back into InDesign for the next version, you can map the Word styles to the InDesign styles and bring the copy in already formatted.

[BobLevine]

And then look at Wordsflow from emsoftware.

WordsFlow » Em Software

[abqmg]

This software looked perfect and I was very enthusiastic, but we would have sell a lot of books to pay for CC and Wordsflow.

[BobLevine]

Well, then. You’ll have to do it the hard way.

Send everyone a PDF and have it marked up. Make the changes manually.

[abqmg]

This is probably the most helpful suggestion especially in the time frame I have and the ability to pay for CC.  I'll check the Export formats in InDesign.

[Chad Chelius]

Yep, it's free and you'll have the latest version of the content. Moving forward, I'd consider some of the suggestions made by other users including WordsFlow which allows you to maintain a link to the Word docs and keep them continually updated. It'll make life much easier for you!

[jane-e]

Keep track of the time you spend doing it manually and try to use that to justify purchasing software. It might work!

When you send the PDF out to everyone, you can import the comments from reviewers into one PDF and create a summary to see them all. You can also copy and paste the text in the Comments panel into InDesign so you don't have to retype. Be sure to use the Comments panel where you can see every comment in order. If they have Reader X or earlier, you have to enable comments.

I don't know how well you know commenting in Acrobat, so I thought I would throw in a few tips. The Acrobat forum has a Commenting subsection if you have more questions.

[abqmg]

I'm a volunteer and so my time is free (???)  The idea of collating the comments in a single pdf from reviewers is interesting.  I'll try that once we finish the updates and I have my "editorial board" review the almost final version.  Thank God for the Internet.

[jane-e]

abqmg  wrote

Thank God for the Internet.

Or thank the Father of the Internet!
Vint Cerf | Internet Hall of Fame

[abqmg]

I do have the images in a separate file, but as the editor, I made my text changes in InDesign so the original Word documents don't match.  And now that the material needs to be updated (7 years have passed and things changed) I want the author of the material to provide it.  Thanks for the suggestions.  Margo