Placing Word doc Text & Master Page text

[DMConnon]

(I've only recently started using InDesign)
(1)
Placing a Word doc in InDesign
Every time I attempt to place a small Word doc (a 2007 calendar) into InDesign, it crashes & says “InDesign is shutting down. A serious error was detected”.
I suspect that it may be the formatting in the doc. Nevertheless, to get the job done I had to take a screen grab, save it as an image, & then place that! The job’s done, but the question is still unanswered. Why could it not handle the Word doc?

(2)
On my Master pages, I have positioned a text box ready to take text for my subsequent normal pages. But when I go to place text in the normal pages, I can’t type in the text box unless, in the Pages palette, I “Override All Master Page Items” otherwise I have to create a new text box. Is this the only way to place text in the same position all the time?

 

[DMConnon]

For issue 1, I have also saved the Word doc as a pdf & placed that. This worked out fine & is probably the best solution for a Word doc with columns & tables.

 

[jmgalvin]

If it's only one particular Word doc, there's a problem with that particular doc. If you can maintian the formatting by saving as RTF, try that.

When you place any Office doc, make sure you check the Show Import Options on the Place window. Sometimes that will help.

On the master text thing - Create the box on a master page and make sure to leave it blank. When you want to enter text, nake sure that you're working on one of the actual pages and not the master. If you type in a master, it will go to all pages. Use the section on teh INDD window bottom to jump to pages.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[DMConnon]

Thanks JM
Yeah, I had the blank box on a Master Page & then moved to a normal page. What seems to work is then selecting a box with Ctrl + Shift (PC) & selecting “Detach Selection From Master” on the Pages palette.

Regarding the Word doc, yes, it seems it was just that particular document as I’ve since learned that InDesign seems to have a little difficulty with columns & tables. Other, simpler docs were placed fine, as did the pdf version.

Anyway, job done!
Thanks again.

 

[Ekwoman]

When you choose "detach from master" you sever the connection between the master page and the document page. If you don't need to make any changes to the master page, that might work.

Instead of "overriding" master page items, then flowing the text in, you can actually place text on your document page using the master text frame. Just roll the loaded cursor over the text frame and when the cursor is surrounded by rounded brackets, click. You can link text frames from page to page in the same way.

 

[DMConnon]

I tried creating a text box on the Master, but it just will not let me type into that on a document page unless I override it. And it seems that if you don’t select Master Text Frame when creating the document, you can’t select it later?

What I eventually did was type the days on the Master, & then override it on each page to add the dates (I couldn’t use threading because of the layout & sequence).

The main problem is that I’m new to InDesign, as my field is screen graphics [web, animation] & not print (I found the printing process even more frustrating).

Anyway, the job is done now, I found a way around it to just get the job done, so I’ll leave it at that…& consider buying an organizer next December instead, he he!

Thanks again for your suggestions & help, all.