Importing Text Files
What preparation do you possibly need to do for your word processor files? They should just load into InDesign as is, right? Not necessarily , even if your word processor supports one of the InDesign text-import formats. Actually, the key to preparing text files is to not over prepare them.
Most of today's major word processors include basic graphics and layout features to help users format single-document publications . Avoid using these features in files you intend to bring into InDesign. Do your sophisticated formatting in InDesign ‚ that's one of the reasons you invested in such a powerful tool. This approach also enables you to do formatting in the context of your layout, rather than in a vacuum . Much of the graphics and layout formatting you do in a word processor is all for naught anyway because such nontextual formatting does not import into InDesign ‚ you're importing text, not documents.
| Tip ‚ | Limit your word processor formatting to the type of formatting that enhances reader understanding or conveys meaning. Such formatting may include using italic and boldface to emphasize a word, for example, or using style sheets to set headlines and bylines in different sizes and typefaces . (See Chapter 20 for tips on using style sheets in word processor text.) Let your editors focus on the words; leave presentation tasks to your layout artists . |
One type of file preparation you may need to do is to translate text files into formats supported by InDesign. InDesign supports just Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format (RTF), and text-only (ASCII) formats. If you use Corel WordPerfect or AppleWorks, you'll need to save in one of those formats. Where possible, you should save in Microsoft Word format (up through the new Office 11 version), since InDesign supports more Word formatting capabilities than it does RTF capabilities, and the text-only format preserves no formatting.
| Note ‚ | InDesign also imports InCopy files. InCopy is an Adobe text editor available only from publishing systems integrators who set up entire newsrooms, magazines, and other companies with large numbers of users to base their publication operations on InDesign. Appendix F covers InCopy in more detail. |
Preserving special features in text files
Today's word processors let you do much more than enter and edit text. You also can create special characters , tables, headers and footers, and other document elements. Some of these features work when imported into a publishing program, but others don't. Table 14-1 shows which character formatting is preserved in Word.
| ‚ | Macintosh Word 98 (8.0), | Windows Word 97 (8.0), 2000 |
|---|---|---|
| Character Formatting [*] | ||
| All caps | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Boldface | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Color | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Condense/ expand | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Double strikethrough | Double strikethrough is converted to single strikethrough. | Double strikethrough is converted to single strikethrough. |
| Double underline | All underlining is converted to single underlines. | All underlining is converted to single underlines. |
| Character Formatting [*] | ||
| Emboss | Embossed text is made into paper color (usually white). | Embossed text is made into paper color (usually white). |
| Engrave | Engraved text is made into paper color (usually white). | Engraved text is made into paper color (usually white). |
| Font change | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Hidden | Hidden text is deleted. | Hidden text is deleted. |
| Italics | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Outline | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Point size | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Shadow | Imported as plain text. | Imported as plain text. |
| Small caps | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Strikethrough | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Subscript | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Superscript | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Underline | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Word-only underline | All underlining is converted to single underlines. | All underlining is converted to single underlines. |
| Other Features | ||
| Annotations/ comments | Cannot import into InDesign. | Cannot import into InDesign. |
| Bulleted lists | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Drop caps | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Footnotes | Footnote text is placed at end of text. | Footnote text is placed at end of text. |
| Indents | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Numbered lists | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Page breaks | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Pictures | Can import into InDesign only if pictures are in an InDesignsupported format | Can import into InDesign only_if pictures are in an InDesign-supported firnat |
| Other Features | ||
| Redlining/ revisions | Revisions are converted to underline for additions and strikethrough for deletions. | Revisions are converted to underline for additions and strikethrough for deletions. |
| Section breaks | Ignored during import. | Ignored during import. |
| Special characters | Can import into InDesign. | Can import into InDesign. |
| Subscribed/ OLE items | Cannot import into InDesign. | Cannot import into InDesign. |
| Tables | Can import into InDesign. Borders are not converted. | Can import into InDesign. Borders are not converted. |
| [*] Note: Not all formatting listed may be available in every supported version of Word. | ||
Tables
Word processors have developed very capable table editors, letting you format tabular information quickly and easily ‚ and often rivaling dedicated spreadsheet programs. InDesign is rare in the world of page-layout programs in that it can import tables created in Word or Excel, as well as tables in RTF documents.
| QuarkXPress User ‚ | InDesign does a good job of importing Word tables and Excel spreadsheets as tables, unlike QuarkXPress. |
Headers and footers
Headers and footers are a layout issue, not a text issue, so there is no reason to include these elements in your word-processor document. Because page numbers will change based on your InDesign layout, there's no point in putting the headers and footers in your word processor document anyway. Note that if you do use them, they will not import into InDesign. Chapter 5 explains how to add these elements to your layout.
Footnotes and endnotes
If you use a word processor's footnote or endnote feature and import the text file, the notes are placed at the end of the imported text. The superscripted numerals or characters in the notes usually translate properly.
Hyperlinks
Modern word processors like Word let you include hyperlinks in their text, so when you export to HTML or PDF format, the reader can click the link and jump to a Web page or to another PDF file. When you import text files with such hyperlinks, InDesign will retain their visual formatting ‚ hyperlinks usually display as blue underlined text ‚ as well as the actual link.
The Mac and Windows both have built-in support for special characters, such as symbols, accented characters, and non-English letters . There are several ways to access these characters:
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On both platforms, using keyboard shortcuts (see Chapter 41).
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On the Mac, using Apple's Key Caps program, which comes with the Mac OS and is located in the Applications\Utilities folder. The following figure shows the program. The two sets of special characters are found by holding Option and Option+Shift (each results in a different set). Some fonts also have symbols accessible by using the Control key. Use the Fonts menu, as shown in the figure, to change fonts in Key Caps, in case a symbol you want is available in a font other than the one currently in use.
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On the Mac, using a shareware utility like G ƒ ¼nther Blaschek's PopChar X control panel. The following figure shows PopChar X. Notice how the keyboard shortcut for each special character is shown at the bottom right as a character is highlighted. (The companion Web site, www.INDDCentral.com , has links to this and other utilities.)
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On Windows, using the Character Map utility that comes with Windows. The following figure shows the program. Just as Key Caps is usually installed in the Mac's Apple menu, Character Map is usually installed in the Windows equivalent Start menu (Start ‚ Programs ‚ Accessories ‚ System Tools ‚ Character Map).
On both platforms, you can use a word processor's own feature for special-character access. Microsoft Word, for example, has such an option (as the following figure shows) via Insert ‚ Symbol or via the toolbar (if you added this command to your toolbar, look for the button with the W character). WordPerfect has a similar dialog box accessed via Insert ‚ Symbols (Mac) or Insert ‚ Character (Windows). (InDesign has its own dialog box like this for when you're adding symbols to your text from within your layout; access it via Type ‚ Insert Glyphs.)
Not all fonts may have all special characters available. Typically, fonts from major type foundries like Adobe and Monotype have all the characters in each font, but custom-made fonts and those from other foundries may use different characters or have fewer. Also, fonts translated from Windows to the Mac, or vice versa, through a program like FontLab will likely have special characters in different locations than a native Mac or Windows font; Windows PostScript fonts generally have fewer special characters in the font than their Mac counterparts.
In-line graphics
Modern word processors typically support in-line graphics, enabling you to import a picture into your word-processor document and embed it in text. Word, for example, lets you import graphics, and InDesign, in turn , can import the graphics with your text ‚ as long as they are in formats supported by InDesign. But graphics embedded in your word-processor document via Mac OS 9's Publish and Subscribe or via OLE (available in Windows and Mac OS 9) will not import into InDesign.
In-line graphics will import as their preview images, not as the original formats. This means that, in most cases, you'll get a lower-resolution version in your InDesign layout.
| Tip ‚ | Despite their limitations, the use of in-line graphics in your word processor can be helpful when putting together an InDesign document: Use the in-line graphics whose previews are imported into InDesign as placeholders so that the layout artist knows you have embedded graphics. He or she can then replace the previews with the better-quality originals . If you find yourself using several graphics as characters (such as a company icon used as a bullet), use a font-creation program like FontLab to create a symbol typeface with those graphics. Then both your word-processor and layout documents can use the same, high-quality versions. |
Avoiding text-file pitfalls
Sometimes, issues not related to the contents of a word-processor file can affect how files are imported into InDesign.
Fast save
Several programs (notably Microsoft Word) offer a fast-save feature, which adds information to the end of a word-processor document. The added information notes which text has been added and deleted and where the changes occurred. You can use this feature to save time because the program doesn't have to write the entire document to disk when you save the file. When you use the fast-save feature, however, text-import into publishing programs ‚ including InDesign ‚ becomes problematic . I suggest that you turn off fast save, at least for files you import into InDesign. With today's speedy hard drives , the time you gain by using fast save is barely noticeable, anyway. The vast majority of file corruption problems and bugs in Word are related to the fast-save feature and its use makes file recovery in the event of a crash problematic at best. To disable fast save, choose Tools ‚ Options, go to the Save pane, and deselect the Allow Fast Saves check box.
Most versions of Word have a default setting that converts two hyphens to an en dash ( ‚ ) rather than an em dash ( ‚ ), which is simply wrong typographically. (Word 98 for Mac and Word 2002/XP for Windows don't have this problem.)
To solve this problem, we recommend that you turn off Word's automatic conversion of two hyphens to a dash (Tools ‚ AutoCorrect ‚ AutoFormat as You Type). Instead, enter two hyphens in the Replace box in the AutoCorrect dialog box's AutoCorrect pane and put an em dash (shortcut Option+Shift+- [hyphen] on the Mac or Alt+0151 in Windows) in the With box, then click the Add button. This will make Word substitute the correct dash when you type in two consecutive hyphens.
Software versions
Pay attention to the version number of the word processor you use. This caution may seem obvious, but the issue still trips up a lot of people. Usually, old versions (two or more revisions old) or new versions ( newer than the publishing or other importing program) cause import problems. The import filters either no longer recognize the old format (something has to go to make room for new formats) or were written before the new version of the word processor was released. InDesign supports Microsoft Word for Windows 97, 2000, XP, and 2003 and Word for Mac 98, 2001, and X, as well as the same-numbered versions of Excel.
