We have hundreds of MS-Word docs to convert to InDesign (ID). If anyone out there has experience doing this – which of the following approaches would you recommend:
1 – Place the formatted Word files directly into the ID document file – and then clean up and standardize the styles and delete the MS-Word styles that were imported from placing the Word docs.
2 – Or, first convert the MS-Word files to plain text (without formatting), import the unformatted text docs into ID and then go thru and apply all the proper formatting – place the pictures - re-do the tables, etc.
I did a test with one document using the Place command - it came into ID fairly clean and my preference would be for #1 above so that we do not have to re-do tables, replace pictures, and re-format all of the text etc. However, I do not know what issues may arise down the road if the Word doc styles are imported into ID in option #1.
1 – Place the formatted Word files directly into the ID document file – and then clean up and standardize the styles and delete the MS-Word styles that were imported from placing the Word docs.
2 – Or, first convert the MS-Word files to plain text (without formatting), import the unformatted text docs into ID and then go thru and apply all the proper formatting – place the pictures - re-do the tables, etc.
I did a test with one document using the Place command - it came into ID fairly clean and my preference would be for #1 above so that we do not have to re-do tables, replace pictures, and re-format all of the text etc. However, I do not know what issues may arise down the road if the Word doc styles are imported into ID in option #1.