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• • October 4, 2017 at 8:20 am #98551
    Ross Jackson

    Member

    I’m new, hello all. Sorry for such a basic question, but I’m still in the early learning stage.

    I’ve written few book using another programme and saved them as pdf’s. Is it possible for pdf’s to be imported into InDesign?

    Many thanks

    Ross

  • October 4, 2017 at 8:47 am #98555
    Michele Jarosz

    Member

    Absolutely, just drag it in. or place it using file/place or command D

  • October 4, 2017 at 9:21 am #98557
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Ross: As Michele mentioned, you can simply place it as a graphic.
    Or… are you trying to import it as editable objects and text? InDesign cannot import PDF files as editable objects, but there are some tools that allow you do this, such as PDF2ID from Recosoft and DTP2ID from Markzware.

    • October 4, 2017 at 3:29 pm #98593
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      David–I’ve used the Markzware one–and it does a decent job, though I admit I’ve only used it a handful of times. And the success depends upon what program was used to create the PDF.

      And the end result won’t be perfect. But the main thing is that the keystrokes are there.

      But that’s like any conversion program–the main objective is to get the text and whatever styles you can.

  • October 4, 2017 at 11:05 am #98566
    Bonnie Britt

    Member

    You could also save the PDF as a Word file and clean the file there. Then place the fully editable file into InDesign as usual.

    • October 4, 2017 at 3:24 pm #98592
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      It is a nightmare trying to clean up a Word file exported/saved from a PDF. Total nightmare. Believe me–I’ve tried it.

      And then you either have to tag the file with ID taggging, or style the Word file to import, or style the entire thing by applying style sheets on individual items in Indesign.

  • October 6, 2017 at 9:28 am #98650
    Bonnie Britt

    Member

    ‘Nightmare’ is hyperbole.

    Saving a PDF to .docx or even plain text is a useful option for someone with no access to the originating file or its software, someone with a need to revise and republish.

    Is there clean-up? Sure. Can revisions be entered? Yes. Will the file need to be styled? Certainly.

    • October 6, 2017 at 9:39 am #98652
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      I don’t think “nightmare” is hyperbole. And I don’t disagree it is a useful option for some folks.

      Sometime it’s cheaper to have it double-keyed instead. There is a lot of work that has to be done with those Word files. The running heads and folios need to be deleted throughout. Hard returns at each page break. Discretionary hyphens that turned into hard hyphens when exporting, soft returns turned into hard returns, etc.

      If there is no other option except to export that PDF into a Word document is the only solution, then that what has to be done.

      I’m just saying that the Word file will need a lot of work

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