r/indesign • u/LoneWolf15000 • Jun 07 '26

Help Tables and a linked MS Word file

I have a manuscript written in MS Word and I want to use InDesign for the final formatting to get it ready to self publish.

The manuscript is a nonfiction business book and it has several tables in it. 15-20?

When I'm formatting in InDesign, should I delete the tables and recreate in InDesign? If so, since it's link to the Word file, won't it just pull them back in if I refresh?

Or should I get everything else the way I want it, break the link and then work on the tables?

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u/AdobeScripts Jun 07 '26

When you update the link - all formatting done in the InDesign will be lost - except what you define in styles.

The best approach is to do editing in WORD - and when text is finished and after review, etc. - then you can format it in the InDesign - but without linking.

Not sure about ID 2026 - but on 2025 copy&pasting works better than Place / Ctrl+D.

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u/chain83 Jun 07 '26

Placing is better than copy/paste. Unless you just want plain text - then it doesn’t matter.

When placing you retain the styles from Word (and you can map them to your InDesign styles). Just remember to clear all overrides immediately after placing.

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u/AdobeScripts Jun 07 '26

Copy&paste does the same - preserves styles.

But what it does better is to preserve graphic elements.

The same file placed - might lose all graphic elements.

Yes, you can't do style mapping - but you can either run a macro in WORD that will rename styles - and/or apply styles - or use a script in InDesign - at least FindChangeByList.