Clear Text Overrides from Word Files
WBB wrote:
This is an age-old problem for me… How do I get my Word styles to import nicely into InDesign without having to do all that manual formatting in InDesign to take out the stuff Word left behind? I create a style in InDesign, apply styles in Word, using the same exact name as I do in InDesign, then import the text into InDesign. But the imported text is not how it should look! It still has some Word formatting!
You may not realize it, but you almost certainly have some sort of local styling on top of your paragraph styles. Place your text cursor in some text and look in the Paragraph Styles palette; a plus sign next to the style name indicates local formatting (style “overrides”). Even better, if you hover the cursor over a style with a plus sign, it will show you what the local formatting is in a tool tip window.
localstyles1
As the tool tip points out, you can Option/Alt-click on the style name to clear the local formatting from this paragraph. But that’s not the whole story. If you want to clear both local formatting and any character style applied to the text, Shift-Option-click/Shift-Alt-click.
But the problem with both of these is that you have to place your cursor in a paragraph first, or select that one paragraph, or select more than one contiguous paragraph to clear and apply the style to all those paragraphs. So InDesign offers a better solution: The Clear Overrides button.
Let’s say someone changed the text for an entire story (headings, body text, and so on) by selecting all and changing the font size. That all shows up as local formatting, but it would be tedious to remove with the Option/Alt-click trick. Instead, select all (Command/Ctrl-A) and click the Clear Overrides button (or choose Clear Overrides from the Paragraph Style palette flyout menu).
Or, you can Command/Ctrl-click on the button to clear only character formatting overrides; or Command-Shift-click/Ctrl-Shift-click to clear only paragraph formatting overrides. (Personally, I never use these variations, but I suppose it’s nice to know they’re available.)
Does anyone use QXport? http://www.thepowerxchange.com/ms_word_addins_1377_prd1.html
It is a MS Word addin that can create Xpress tags or InDesign tagged text file. I used to use it in the days of Quark 4 & 5, but haven’t used it with InDy.
Same here: I used it for QX a lot, but I haven’t used it for ID. I really liked it back in QX days. It might be very helpful. Let us know if you try it!
Not sure if this is the same thing but came accross this script that clears all formats while placing copied txt.
it is called PasteUnformatted.js if you would like it email me at mckayk@tin.newsltd.com.au
I found that to clear both local formatting and any character style applied to the text I had to use shift-option-click not Command-option_click like it states above?
A typo or me doing something different?
Sorry, Tom! You’re right, it was a typo. I’ve fixed it above.
Since you asked (in the non-transcribed chat at the beginning of this segment), the paragraph symbol is called “alinea” from the Latin, meaning “of the line”. (Useless bit of information courtesy of Wikipedia)
I’m having a similar problem (I think) in that I’m importing a Word document and I’d like to preserve the italics and bold from that original document. However I want to apply my own paragraph style. I find that sometimes just applying the style works and all the itals and bold stay. However, frequently I need to option + click to get the style to apply properly and then the individual formatting (bold and ital) are obliterated.
Is there any way to apply the style and keep the old formatting? Styles were not applied in Word.
One of the best solutions, Steve, is simply to search for all Italic text and apply an Italic character style to it (you have to define this character style first, of course). Then when you Option/Alt-click, all the formatting is wiped out except the character styled italics.
We’ve had ongoing issues with character formatting. Does anyone know how to get rid of the floppy disk icons in the Paragraph Styles palette? I used to know how to do it in Pagemaker. I think this is keeping a link to the Word styles and is causing problems.
We’ve been having issues with Paragraph styles not always working and can’t seem to find a solution for this. Sometimes it just won’t read the text and other times it puts the wrong point size on the text, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph for just a few words. This is making the editors (and us) crazy. Any help is welcome.
Karen, the floppy disk icon doesn’t mean it’s linked to the Word file. It just means that the style came in from the Word document (rather than being defined in the ID document first). It’s harmless, but just edit the style in ID and the disk icon goes away.
As for para styles sometimes not working… the best solutions are listed above!
OK, I was tearing my hair out with the same issue. But I think there is an easier way. When I was in the Word import options dialog box, I noticed that the “Preserve Local Overrides” radial button was still checked, even though it was grayed out because I had “Preserve Styles and Formatting” checked. What I did was check “Remove Styles and Formatting” so thatI could uncheck “Preserve Local Overrides”, then I rechecked “Preserve Styles and Formatting” and proceeded with my customized style import. For some reason this fixed my problem and the word styles were properly swapped out with my InDesign Styles.
Minh, that’s interesting. The Preserve Local Overrides checkbox shouldn’t matter one way or another when Preserve Styles and Formatting is turned on (because it’s grayed out). I don’t see any difference when I have it on or off. In particular, that doesn’t seem to have any effect on the + symbol overrides for me.
I do an annual project, 100+ page booklet, that is edited by several people in Word before being placed in ID. I have found that the easiest/best way of doing this is to:
1. Make CERTAIN my style names are IDENTICAL between ID and Word.
2. Make CERTAIN my styles in Word are applied impeccably.
3. Use character styles for bold, italic, etc–NEVER local formatting. (This preserves the formatting when you then use Clear Overrides after placing in ID.)
4. Place text from Word to ID; don’t paste.
This year, I placed 110+ pages of text, including a number of tables, in only a couple of hours. It required only minimal clean up; yeah!