How To Convert A Word File To Indesign

Would you like to know how to convert a Word file to InDesign ? Converting a Word document to an InDesign document is not a simple task.

Actually, since there are always some operations required when you import a Word document into your InDesign file, I would say that we can't even talk about conversion. Also, if the Word file you want to convert is complex, you will probably end up creating it completely from scratch within InDesign.

Unfortunately, there is no software that can convert a Word file to InDesign, but you can learn how to properly set up both your Word document and your InDesign file so that manual conversion is less painful and time-consuming.

As a side note, if you need to use Word to create an exchange file for your translation, I recommend using a dedicated tool (like Redokun). Your translation agency will be much happier to receive an XLIFF file rather than a Word document, and your in-house translators will love the simplicity of the built-in translation tool.

Here you can learn about: How to Create a Table of Contents in InDesign

In this tutorial we will see:

• How to import a Word document into InDesign
• How to Link a Word File to InDesign
• [Pro Tip] Use Master Pages to Automatically Flow a Word Document (update)

Convert a Word file to InDesign (Import the document)

When you have to deal with a coworker or client who needs or wants to edit the text within your InDesign document, the best solution is to prepare your InDesign file beforehand. You can also link and convert a Word file to InDesign.

Linking Word documents to an InDesign file is great because it allows you to work on your design within InDesign while your coworker, client, or whoever needs to write the content works in much simpler (and cheaper) software, such as Microsoft Word.

This method takes a little work to get started, but trust me, for most jobs it's a life saver.

If you set up your paragraph styles and character styles correctly, all you have to do is watch InDesign automatically lay out your content.

Setting up the source file

When you import a Word document into an InDesign file, the default setting is to also import any styles applied to the text in Word.

This creates the same paragraph styles used in the Word document in your InDesign document. You can take advantage of this feature to override the appearance of imported text and import into InDesign and layout the text very quickly.

However, keep in mind that converting from Word to InDesign may render your text differently than you would do it manually.

• E.g.If you were to create a bulleted list within InDesign, you would use a paragraph style. Instead, the conversion applies the bulleted text characteristics as an inline property.

We have a simple one-page document in Word that we want to import into an InDesign document.

Note that styles in Word were used to lay out the text (yes, you can create your own styles in Word too; similar to how you would do it in InDesign with character styles). As in InDesign, be careful not to set inline properties for text within Word.

In other words, if you need to change the characteristics of the text, you don't do it directly in the text, you change the style properties because those inline properties will also be maintained in the text in InDesign, and if you want to apply a different style within your InDesign document, you will have to manually override each part with inline styles applied. This is very important if you want to have control over your document and design the text quickly.

Here's what happens if you apply inline styles to text in Word (left) and what happens if you don't (right).

As you can see in the screenshot on the left, there's a '+' mark near the Paragraph Style name, which isn't present in the screenshot on the right. Furthermore, the two strings clearly have different styles.

The '+' symbol appears near the paragraph style name whenever the style applied to the text is overridden. This means that the text in the screenshot on the left is not following the paragraph style. In contrast, the screenshot on the right shows the text with the correct paragraph style I created.

Import the document when converting a Word file to InDesign

• Step 1:: In InDesign, click Fileen in the main menu bar and then Place (otherwise you can press Cmd + D en Mac Os or Ctrl + D en Windows).

NOTE : As mentioned above, make sure the styles in the Word document are set correctly in the text.

• Step 2:: Click Options and brand Show Import Options la import window (if not already checked), select the file and click Open to import the Word file into InDesign.

NOTE : In this window, you can customize some settings. Generally, the default settings are correct. However, you should pay special attention to these settings:

• Preserve styles and formatting of text and tables
• Manual page breaks
• Import styles automatically

• Step 3:: If you select «Remove styles and formatting from text and tables«, you will only import the plain text from your Word file (without the styles).

We're going to import the Word file with "Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables" enabled . This will import the text and emulate the styles from the Word file in InDesign.

• Step 4:: Ultimately, we will change those styles created by the import and see what happens when we import the same document again.
• Step 5:: Click Accept and then draw a text frame in InDesign to place the content of your Word file.

Look, the text in InDesign (right) has the same styles and appearance as the text in Word (left).

We are going to override the paragraph styles settings when converting a Word file to InDesign.

As you can see, next to the imported paragraph styles there is an icon showing that the style has been imported and none of the properties are overridden.

• Step 1:: Double click on «Title 1«.
• Step 2:: In Basic Character Formats, sets the option Montserrat as, bold as font Style, 19 pt for size and change Case All in caps
• Step 3:: Then Character Color, establishes C = 100 M = 90 Y = 10 K = 0(this is a color that ships by default with InDesign, if you can't find it, create it or just skip this setting)

• Step 4:: Note that the icon next to the paragraph styles «Title 1» is no longer present.

• Step 5:: Let's also change the Heading 3 and Body Text styles with the following properties.
  • Title 3: Sans Pro font, bold, 12 pt, color: C = 100 M = 90 Y = 10 K = 0
  • Body text: Source Sans Pro, normal, 12 pt, color: black, tint: 75%
• Step 6:: Now, the text you imported from the Word document to InDesign looks like this.

• Step 7::Let's import the same Word document into InDesign and see how the text looks this time.

Conflict of styles

InDesign tells us that there are style name conflicts. Under Paragraph Style Conflicts and Character Style Conflicts, you can decide:

• Using InDesign style definitions– This overrides the styles of the text imported from the Word file into the InDesign document.
• Redefining InDesign Styles– This removes the setting in InDesign that overrides text imported from Word into InDesign.
• Automatically rename: This imports the text with the styles into Word and creates new styles in your InDesign document.

We selected InDesign Styles Definitions and imported the text from the Word document into InDesign as we did before. You'll see, InDesign automatically sets the new formatting characteristics for the text you imported from the Word document.

How to Link a Document When Converting a Word File to InDesign

Now that we have seen how document migration works when converting a Word file to InDesign, we can look at how to link a Word file to an InDesign document and how this great feature can help us.

Set preferences when converting a Word file to InDesign

• Step 1:: Click InDesign (on MacOS) or Edit (on Windows)In the main menu bar, go to Preferences in the menu that opens and click in File Handling...

• Step 2:: Check Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files in the window File management and click

Place the document when converting a Word file to InDesign

As mentioned above, you need to make sure that the styles in the Word document are set correctly for the text and import the text as we saw before.

• Step 1:: If you have already created paragraph styles with the same style names in Word, InDesign will override the settings for imported text from Word. Note that now, in the menu Enlace, the link to the Word file has appeared.

• Step 2:: Add some text to your Word document and see what happens in InDesign.

• Step 3:: On the menu Link, next to the Word file name, InDesign displays a warning triangle indicating that the linked file has been modified. If we double-click the triangle, InDesign will prompt us to update the content.

Please note that if you update linked content, you will lose any changes made to the same text previously imported into InDesign (whether graphic or textual).

Here is the result of the update.

Remove the link to an imported Word document

In case you want to remove the link to the Word file in InDesign, you need to do the following:

• Step 1:: Double-click the link to the file and then select

Import after converting a Word file to InDesign

You can import a Word file that contains one or more tables into InDesign. However, InDesign does not set a table style for imported tables, as it does for regular text, even when the tables within the Word file have a table style applied. Instead, the inline style applied to the tables in Word is maintained.

Some caveats

• Footnotes:They work, but you can't control the style within InDesign, so be very careful when using them and set up the style you want in the Word file so that it stays that way when you import the Word document into InDesign.
• Images:If you place images inside a Word document, InDesign will import them as embedded images. I strongly recommend that you do not do this because once an image is embedded, you will not be able to edit it. Linking images is always the best solution because it keeps the file size down and makes the work more efficient (allowing you to update the image).
• Shapes: Who needs to import shapes and convert a Word file to InDesign? That's what InDesign thinks. If you use shapes in your Word file, InDesign won't import or convert them.

Use Master Pages to Convert a Word File to InDesign (Update)

InDesign master pages are very useful and powerful, but surprisingly many users don't know their full potential.

InDesign can load an entire story from a Word document automatically, creating pages and threading text frames together. This, combined with what we've just seen together, can save you a lot of time and almost completely automate the process.

Be more efficient with add-ins when converting a Word file to InDesign

Now, let's look at how to be more efficient with add-ins when converting a Word file to InDesign.

Linking cloud documents when converting a Word file to InDesign

WordsFlow is a plugin that allows you to link Word with InDesign. It allows you to edit both the InDesign story and the Word or Excel documents independently, without losing work on either side.

WordsFlow maintains a dynamic link so that it can intelligently merge changes from external documents into the InDesign story content on each link update, rather than simply replacing the story.

• You can find WordsFlow and try it for free here.

Import Word file using automatic semantic structuring

There is another extension worth checking out if you want to import your text from the Word file in a clean and semantically structured way and then apply its styles in InDesign.

The plugin uses Bookalope web services , which work with AI to remove all visual styles and clean up the document automatically, and then exports a semantically structured document to InDesign.

You can also learn about: How to Create a Table of Contents in InDesign

Of course, the InDesign document will have all the styles that you can edit and quickly design the document. Even better, all the styles are already assigned to HTML tags for your eBook export.

Conclusion

As you can see, this is how to convert a Word file to InDesign. We recommend that you follow the steps to the letter, practice and implement the add-ins mentioned. We hope we have helped you with this information.