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• • January 27, 2011 at 4:39 pm #58525
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    Hey Gang

    This concerns importing “Adobe InDesign Tagged Text” files. This is sort of related to my rich text format thread, but I thought I’d best start a new thread.

    And I’m on a Mac. And this issue definitely occurs in CS5, but I have not tested too much with earlier versions.

    I have an issue with the file formats of importing the “Adobe InDesign Tagged Text” files. As background, we key a lot of jobs for clients, and they are using InDesign. We have it keyed with Quark tags and use XTags to import into a new ID file. We then export out as “Adobe InDesign Tagged Text” and send to them. Pretty basic stuff.

    The Mac OS saves it as a “Text Edit” app file, with the .txt extension.

    Many of our customers have no problem importing those files into their InDesign files, and everything (stylesheets, italic, bold, etc.) comes through. But some others have a problem and and it imports as a plain text document and all the ID coding appears.

    The ones with problems say that if they open that .txt file in word and resave as “text only” they can then import the file okay. But here’s the thing that gets me. When I do that, I can’t import the file. It comes in with the codes.

    Are you confused? So am I?

    Why will ID mistake a properly-tagged file (with header info) as text only on some machines, and on others it will properly import as a tagged text file? Is it an OS thing? An ID thing? My boss wants it fixed, and is telling me to contact Adobe directly and get a fix, but I don’t think it’s that simple.

    I think it’s an OS thing, or maybe ID just gets confused sometimes. I don’t understand why some folks have to open that “Text Edit” file in Word and resave and then it works. But others don’t have to do that.

    Ideas?

  • January 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm #58526
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    NOTE: I just tried four different files that I exported as ID tagged text files and tried to import. 1 out of the 4 wants to import as a text only document (i.e., untagged). If I opened it in Text Edit or Word and typed something and deleted it, and then saved, it then imported fine. Why do some files import properly, but some need that extra step?

  • January 27, 2011 at 6:24 pm #58528
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    I recall from a similar post on the InDesign User's forum that the secret lies in the line endings.

    Try https://forums.adobe.com/message/1304548 (it's not the one I was expecting to find, but there you go. Seems the Search Post functionality on Adobe forums is broken. Again.)

    (After remembering the Magic Keyword to Google For:) This one was it: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/746804

    In another related post I found a tip of myself ( :) ):

    “I did find out something new, tho' (for me). If you select “Show Options”, you can see right away if ID recognizes any text file as Tagged text — even though you selected it with the “All files” type. ID shows an ASCII options dialog for plain, and Tagged Text options for recognized stuff.”

  • January 27, 2011 at 7:32 pm #58530
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    Thanks Jongware for the links and stuff. But i don't see that option. I have selected “show options” in CS4 and CS5 and I don't see the “all files” or the others.

    Tomorrow I will show the different dialogue boxes.

    Thanks

    doc

  • January 28, 2011 at 3:04 am #58532
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    I meant the “Show Options” button in the “Place” dialog. The “All files” is in the file type filter list, but you won't need it if the file extension is just “.txt” as this already qualifies as an “Importable file”. (I think I added “any files” because I also tried with non-standard file extensions.)

    My main point was, if InDesign properly recognizes the file you selected as Tagged Text, it shows this dialog:

    

    rather than the Text Import Options where all you can do is mess with character sets and hard returns. If you get the plain text import options, you can hit “Cancel” right away, instead of waiting for ID to load a useless file.

  • January 28, 2011 at 5:02 am #58538
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    Jongware–Normally I do get the proper dialogue box as you have shown. But some folks can take that exact same file and when they try to import it, ID does not recognize the file as Tagged Text, and instead get the plain text import options. Then they have to hit cancel, open the file in Word, and re-save as a plain text file again. Then ID will recognize it.

    My confusion is why ID will recognize the file as Tagged Text on some machines, but not others. Or why out of the four I created, one was not recognized. They were all done the same way.

    Thanks.

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