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• • November 20, 2009 at 8:21 pm #53865
    keithk

    Member

    We have a long-time disk editor who is going to run through all of our incoming word-proc. files and fix coding inconsistencies, multiple this-and-that, and also start applying styles in the most efficient way for us to take Word directly into InD without our current pass of exporting to tags and cleaning up in a text editor.

    There's currently two proposals:

    1. disk editor uses Word on a PC, we place in InD on a Mac

    2. skip Word, disk editor pulls customer's Word docs into InD on a Mac, and does all the cleaning/styling work there.

    Any thoughts? Pros/cons?

    KK

  • November 20, 2009 at 8:52 pm #53866
    Bob Levine

    Participant

    It doesn't really matter. The end result is going to be the same.

    The only positive I see in doing it in Word is that there will be a clean content file when you're done.

    BTW, Mac/Windows is a red herring. It's meaningless in this workflow.

  • November 20, 2009 at 9:59 pm #53870
    keithk

    Member

    Thanks for that. It started out that our disk editor would take on some tasks that our Pagers spend time doing/undoing, in the same way she's used to doing it. By the end of this lunch/meeting the plan had changed quite a bit. My boss is going to lean on me to decide which route to take. Part of this is (of course) the cost of buying a mac, the cost of buying InD for the PC, what if she quickly becomes quite comfortable and skilled with InDesign and expands into a bigger role (in which case buying the Mac now would have seemed like a good idea).

    Is Mac/Windows not an issue, even if we're using different PostScript fonts, and ligatures and such?

  • November 20, 2009 at 10:18 pm #53871
    Bob Levine

    Participant

    The Mac can read Window TrueType and for Adobe apps they can be placed in the Adobe/Fonts folder. You can't use Mac fonts on Windows. All that said, OpenType is the current standard and is completely cross platform. Additionally, it allow for thousands of glyphs eliminating the need for expert sets.

    Stick with Opentype and it won't matter what platform you're using.

  • November 21, 2009 at 12:51 am #53874
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    Bob–While OpenType is definitely the way to go, there are still a lot of postscript fonts that have not been converted to OpenType. Any ideas of if it's okay to use something like Font XChange to convert? I was wondering if it may possible violate some rule some rules so far as the font manufacturers.

    To the OP–I personally would keep the clean-up process in Word. I personally wrote a few macros and at my work they are installed on all the machines. There is no need for one person to clean up files. With the macros anyone can do it.

    doc

  • November 21, 2009 at 1:23 am #53875
    Bob Levine

    Participant

    doc, It might work but I've never been a fan of doing that for anything important.

    There are two issues. First, there's no assurance it will be totally accurate. Second, it may well violate the font license. If it's a high quality font, I'm sure there's going to be Windows and Mac versions available. If not, use the Windows version.

    If this is a new project, I would certainly be looking for some pro OpenType fonts. It just makes the job much easier and finding a font with all the goodies (small caps, swashes, old style figures, ligatures, etc.) makes for a much more attractive document.

  • November 21, 2009 at 1:59 am #53876
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    Bob–I agree. I've only mainly used it when a true type was problematic and I made it postscript, or vice-versa.Or if I had a font and it was damaged and I had to fix. Or where I had the printer font, but missing the screen font.

    I've seen a lot of good fonts that were switched over to OpenType, but it was basically the same as the Postscript. No added characters or anything. Just the manufacturer resaved it or converted to OpenType with no real benefit to the users.

    As as an aside-in my field (book publishing), we don't have a choice so far as the fonts being used. The designers and authors decide what fonts are being used. I do, though, always recommend using the OpenType font if there is one for it.

    Thanks for the reply and apologies to the OP for taking this off topic.

    doc

  • November 21, 2009 at 7:42 am #53878
    Adam Jury

    Member

    keithk said:

    Any thoughts? Pros/cons?

    ---

    I'd stick with Word as that format is easier to transfer to other users in the case of an emergency (Editor is ill, someone must pinch-hit) or in the case that the files are sent outside the company for some other purpose (licensed to a foreign-language publisher.)

  • November 21, 2009 at 7:54 am #53880
    Adi Ravid

    Participant

    As for the fonts issue, you can alway use identical style names in Word and InDesign, which when placing the text with the Preserve Style and Formatting option, enables you to force InDesign to re-style the text according the her style attributes.

    Another thing to consider is getting InCopy into the process.

  • November 23, 2009 at 3:14 am #53904
    Alan Gilbertson

    Participant

    I'd stick with Word for the reasons Adi outlined, but InCopy would definitely be a very strong contender if the workflow is big and there's any chance of copy round-tripping from ID to editing and back. If it's a one-way proposition, you've less learning curve and a shorter ramp-up time using Word. The key to making that really efficient, as Adi indicated, is naming the styles in Word so they map directly and immediately to the InDesign styles you're using.

  • November 23, 2009 at 3:14 am #53905
    Alan Gilbertson

    Participant

    Fonts in this workflow would not likely be much of an issue, but no question that OpenType is the way to go if it's feasible.

  • November 24, 2009 at 5:12 pm #53951
    Raphael Freeman

    Member

    I would definately prep in Word. Then I would typeset in InDesign but not sure why you would only use a Mac. InDesign works very well on a PC. Of course you should only use OpenType so that you can be crossplatform in case you decide to switch between Win7 and Snow Leopard, but in terms of Word it's irrelevant. You don't need to be using the same font in Word that you are using in InDesign.

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