Advice for Manuscript/MsWord to InDesign Workflow
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- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 2 months ago by
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Hello,
first of all I have to say that this forum is great and so full of interesting things, even for a newbie such as myself.
I am writing because I was wondering if you could share with me advice to give to writers (and editors), in order to make the InDesign work easier at a later stage for those who are going to prepare the files to be printed and/or distributed online.
Specifically, I have just begun writing on MS Word 365 a grammar dictionary, which will have lots of cross-references and many indexes of various types and I would like to set up things so that the import in InDesign will be smooth and less likely to create problems and/or errors, given that I don’t know the final format yet (apart from the fact that it will be printed+pdf/epub). I am not even sure MsWord to InDesign is the best way to go, so advice in this sense is also welcome.
I have basic knowledge of InDesign because I have done a bit of amateur publishing myself, and I have intermediate knowledge of Ms Word, but the final editing will be done by a professional.
I have to make sure the transition from text draft to finished product using InDesign is as smooth and fast as possible due to limits in time and funds.As Aristotele said: “Well begun is half done.”
Anything, from personal advice to warnings, links, book references, work-flows etc. is welcome.
Thank you in advance for your help,
Alfonso
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No suggestions?
I have just gone through the very informative “Using Word and InDesign Together” by Ann-Marie Conception and it has cleared lots of my doubts, but I am still wondering if I could get some more specific advice, given that my text will have tons of cross references and many indexes.
Thank you,Alfonso
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Hi Alfonso, thanks for the kind words about my Word and InDesign title on lynda.com!
If InDesign is going to have *any* trouble, it’d be with a Word doc with “lots of cross-references and indexes.” If it’s at all possible to write this in InDesign itself, that’d be preferable. Or, use the Word file as final for publication.
Otherwise I’d test the Word > ID import periodically to make sure all is well … check xrefs, mainly. Also, I’m not sure how you’re going to be able to do an index in Word that updates itself in InDesign with the new/correct page numbers. Did I cover that in the title? hahaha … I don’t remember.
AM
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Dear Anne-Marie,
thank you so much for your reply (and sorry for spelling your name wrongly :$)
Indeed, the advice you give me is very important since I was just wondering if it would have been better to do the cross-references on Word or InDesign.
Luckily, at the moment, the docx files have only few of them (the rest are mainly just plain text referring to specific sections, not actual pages) so I will start putting them directly on the InDesign file.
All the best,Alfonso
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