Tagged text

[Norman Hathaway]

I need to setup some workflow guidelines for some writers here, and perhaps provide them with some Word templates with established tagged text styles.

No experience doing his, but familiar with it generally...

Any good docs out there that may help me? Tips? Derogatory remarks?

[Michael Rowley]

Norman:

'Word templates with established tagged text styles'

Word doesn't use 'tagging', but you can write a template with given paragraph and text characteristics, so that if writers choose 'Body text' everthing in a 'body text' paragraph is (say) 11/13.5 pt Georgia. Is that what you aim to do? If so, the many templates supplied with Word will give you an idea of what can be specified.

[Norman Hathaway]

I want it so when a writer creates a subhead or caption, when i import his doc into InDesign, her styles map to mine - and I can go home early.

[Shane Stanley]

Originally Posted by Norman Hathaway

I want it so when a writer creates a subhead or caption, when i import his doc into InDesign, her styles map to mine - and I can go home early.

Assuming you're using CS2, the import options allow you to map Word styles to your ID styles, and save the mapping for re-use. It's really just a matter of having her use styles consistently.

Shane

[Michael Rowley]

Norman:

'I want it so when a writer creates a subhead or caption'

That is one of the (few) instances where writers often use 'Heading 1', 'Heading 2', and so on. If InDesign (or any other layout program, as far as I know) has a styles labelled the same, then the imported text conforms to the InDesign style. Consequently, in that case, the Word style doesn't matter: the ID style overrides it. On the other hand, if the style has a label that is unique to Word, InDesign will honour it as far as it can (which should be in all respects).

[Steve Rindsberg]

re Word --> ID styles

That's quite convenient.

How well does ID handle Word files with graphics embedded?

I recently had to help a non-profit group create a directory that had begun life as a Word document years ago and been massaged, manipulated and mauled by far too many hands since.

The new director is agitating for a copy of ID. I'm in favor of anything that even vaguely resembles a DTP app if it means I never have to touch this thing in Word again. If it seems likely that we could import the existing doc into ID, it'd be that much easier to sell the board on paying for it.

[Michael Rowley]

Steve:

'How well does ID handle Word files with graphics embedded?'

I think it copes quite well: Word has a limited range of graphics types.

If you dig down in InDesigns Help (or was it the Tutorials?) there's a guide to the things that can and can't be imported from Word documents into InDesign. Chief are sections, running heads, page numbers, frames, and TOCs; and I think, maybe footnotes.

One snag about Word styles is that there are more than a hundred built-in styles; I don't know how many have the same name as ID styles. The other snag is that people make astonishingly complex Word documents without consciously using styles at all (except 'Normal'); all the paragraphs and text are cofigured by overrides. This of course has its advantages too: with a few keystrokes the whole Word document can be restored to the Normal style.

Most DTP programs, including InDesign, cope pretty well with Word files, though they may lose some of Word's best points (there are some).

[Norman Hathaway]

Helpful to establish styles in InDesign, prior to importing from Word, as you can map the Word styles to InDesign's

[Shane Stanley]

Originally Posted by Michael Rowley

If you dig down in InDesigns Help (or was it the Tutorials?) there's a guide to the things that can and can't be imported from Word documents into InDesign. Chief are sections, running heads, page numbers, frames, and TOCs; and I think, maybe footnotes.

Footnotes are OK, as is the text of TOCs.

Originally Posted by Michael Rowley

One snag about Word styles is that there are more than a hundred built-in styles

But you can tell ID to ignore unused styles.

Shane

[Michael Rowley]

Shane:

'as is the text of TOCs'

Oh; I thought the InDesign wouldn't recognize Word's fields.