Linked Word doc to InDesign issues

Hello there

I have been tasked with typesetting a large IT manual for a client. The styles are fairly complex for instance, heading levels that are automatically numbered and the numbers themselves are a separately linked Character style (a larger size with baseline applied).

The client is keen to push for a linked Word file approach so any text amends can in theory be automatically updated in InDesign. When testing this workflow however, and linking the Word document (with mapping Word styles to InDesign styles) the heading styles are not applied correctly in InDesign and the ‘+’ overrule is applied in the Paragraph Style. Is this because there is an embedded Character style in the heading styles and is there anyway around this.

I am wondering if Word/InDesign are just not compatible enough to make this workflow option viable?

There are other issues too such as if I manually fix any widows/orphans/runts or make any visual spacing changes these will be lost when I relink the Word document.

Any advice on this and in particular the Para/character style issue I mention, that would be gratefully appreciated!

Rob