*** From the Archives ***
This article is from May 25, 2011, and is no longer current.
PR: Recosoft ships ID2Office — A new InDesign to Microsoft Office conversion tool
Osaka, Japan — Recosoft Corporation, the developer of the PDF2Office family of products, PDF2Office for iWork utility, PDF2ID tool for Adobe InDesign and PDF converters ships ID2Office for Mac OS X and Windows.
ID2Office is a new InDesign plug-in to convert InDesign files to the Microsoft Office file formats. ID2Office converts InDesign files to the latest Microsoft Word/PowerPoint 2007-2011 file type while maintaining the layout.
ID2Office converts the text, associated fonts and styles, paragraph structure, corresponding property information, frames linking information, tables, graphics and other InDesign object and document properties to the matching Microsoft Word/PowerPoint object and file properties; converting every page into an equivalent page in the resulting Word/PowerPoint file.
ID2Office has been engineered from the ground-up integrating seamlessly with Adobe InDesign. ID2Office eliminates the need of recreating the contents of an InDesign file in Microsoft Word/PowerPoint resulting in enhanced workflow automation.
Key Features
- Supports InDesign CS4/CS5/CS5.5: ID2Office operates as a plug-in for Adobe InDesign which allows converting InDesign CS4/CS5/CS5.5 document to the target Office format.
- Convert to Office 2007-2011 formats: ID2Office converts the InDesign file to the Microsoft® Word/PowerPoint 2007-2011 type.
- Accurate Conversion: ID2Office maintains the layout of the InDesign document when converted to the Word/PowerPoint type. Paragraphs, Tables, Graphics, and other object property information are converted appropriately.
- Detailed Controls: ID2Office provides precise control over the conversion process. Options for image type, image resolution, frames linking, paragraph spacing controls exist designed for fine-tuning the conversion result.
Availability
ID2Office is available immediately from the Recosoft online store in the following configurations:
- ID2Office v1.0 for Mac OS X annual subscription license US$199.00
- ID2Office v1.0 for Windows annual subscription license US$199.00
System Requirements
Macintosh: Intel-based Mac with a minimum 1.4 GHz processor; Mac OS X 10.4.11 and above; and as per InDesign CS4/CS5/CS5.5 requirements; Application Software: Adobe InDesign CS4/CS5/CS5.5
Windows: Pentium III @ 800 MHz or higherWindows XP, Vista, Server 2003/2008, Windows 7, and as per InDesign CS4/CS5/CS5.5 requirementsApplication Software: Adobe InDesign CS4/CS5/CS5.5
About Recosoft
Recosoft Corporation is the developer of PDF2Office, the de-facto PDF-to-Excel, PDF-to-Word, PDF-to-PowerPoint conversion utility; PDF2Office for iWork, the only PDF-to-Keynote and PDF-to-Pages conversion application; and PDF2ID® the PDF-to-InDesign conversion tool. The company is a leader in designing and delivering PDF converters and PDF file conversion software solutions enhancing workflow automation and productivity. For more information on Recosoft PDF converters, visit https://www.recosoft.com
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This looks pretty interesting! Have anyone tried it?
URGH! I can’t believe they don’t have a trial version immediately available. I won’t buy it unless I know how well it works with my files. I had to submit a “case-by-case” request for a trial.
I haven’t tried it on my own files yet, but they did detailed demos of this at the Print & ePublishing Conference this week and it was very impressive. Text (even multi-column and weird layouts) comes out very well. Images are all rasterized (converted to PNGs, if I recall), but perhaps that’s good enough for most Office users.
In Response to Hill.
I’m representing Recosoft. The reason we ask you to fill in a form to request for a trial is so that we understand your workflow and requirements. We try to work with end-users as much as possible. Without understanding your needs, we will not be able to address issues nor enhance it to better suit you work flow. All major software vendors (including the makers of the Creative Suite) now ask you to “Register” just to obtain a trial version.
We do the same – but not to spam you. Just to understand your requirements. If something isn’t working we work with the end-user in addressing the issue at hand.
We have another InDesign product – PDF2ID. PDF2ID is now v3.0 and has evolved over the years simpley because we were able to work with end-users.
@ Paul, any response on the pesky subscription pricing model? We don’t have to buy InDesign or PDF2ID like that, and frankly that’s going to make it too hard to sell this to my boss.
@Stix Hart – I’ve been flying around quite a bit and now have a chance to respond. At present Recosoft is only offering ID2Office as a subscription license. Subscription licenses are not a new thing. if you look at 3-4 of the largest application software vendors they have subscription policies for quite a few of their products. This is a first for Recosoft.
@ Paul Chadha – well thanks for responding anyway, that’s a point in your favour. I get where you are coming from, in the end my point is that it’s fairly expensive I suppose… I’ve got a trusty old CS3 PDF2ID v1 license I paid for with my own money.
I purchased a copy of PDF2ID a few days ago and it paid for itself within 24 hours.
I’ve used it already on a couple of projects and I am very impressed with it.
It’s a clever utility.
The only complaint I have and it’s just a small niggle is that the PDF instructions including in the download cannot be opened in early versions of Acrobat.
Ken.
I got a trial version of this to see how well it would convert a table-heavy INDD file, and sadly, it didn’t do a great job. Color swatches changed color, table heights weren’t always correct. Tables showed up overtop of images and not centered on page, and it kept turning Calibri (a standard Windows font) into MS Mincho. The product worked very well on simpler INDD files, but not so much on tables. Bummer. I have one conversion left on the trial, so I’m going to play around with the table and see if I can make it simple enough that it will convert, because I’d really love to be able to use this product.
@Karen – Anything that isn’t converting properly, please send it to [email protected] (InDesign files with images and fonts). We’re addressing issues with ID2Office constantly.
@Paul Chadha – I emailed the packaged INDD file and the resulting Word document to the address you specified.
@Karen – Thank you. The issues you mentioned with the fonts being mapped to MS Mincho and the layout of the table being displaced doesn’t occur from what we’ve seen. The only thing we’ve clearly identified is a Tint being applied for the swatch color. We’ll get this addressed in a pending update. There also are inherent limits to Word – we can’t make Word do something its not supposed to. Instead of making multiple separate tables (that are continuous) in a Text frame, its best to make 1 table. Again, we can’t make Word do something its not supposed to.
Ran a simple one page test. I dislike word, but much of our department uses it for everyday correspondence so I thought this might be a simple solution to get my InDesign brand styled templates to them with formatting intact. However, to insure styles are part of the word doc, I had to recreate them in word, InDesign split paragraphs do not translate to word columns and the flattening of the graphics created other issues. So for what I need, I guess I will have to break down and deal with word.
Has anybody used this?
These things always look too good to be true, but we have a job coming in that this may be perfect for.
ID2Office impressed me enough that I purchased it. For a text only, simple layout, it’s working great. Now I have a slightly more complicated file, very few graphics. All is well until we get to the sidebars. These are 3″ wide x 11″ deep, color in the background, overlay of text is a different color with a header that is reversed. Once I make the export, some of the sidebar text disappears. The sidebar stays in place but no text is visible…any ideas?
@Kandy: I know the folks at Recosoft, and I know they value feedback like this, and the chance to make their product better. Definitely contact them and find a way to send them your INDD file and the Word file you created. They may have a quick fix for you! (I have seen sidebars work great in conversion, so perhaps it’s just something about your particular setup that is problematic.)