Importing Pages Documents into Indesign

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Level 1

4 points

Importing Pages Documents into Indesign

Having invested in a Mac Mini as my second computer for home use I decided to have a go at iWork instead of just another license for Office for Mac. Great was my disappointment when I realized that 01) Indesign (CS6) doesn't accept Pages documents, 02) subsequently quotes the converted-into-Word Pages document for using a Pro59 or-the-like font which does not accept attribution of character styles meaning the text has to be formatted individually. This may be an Adobe- rather than an Apple issue but I thought I'd rather ask my fellow Pages users first.

Any experience?

Adam, DK

Posted on Jul 25, 2012 10:21 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PeterBreis0807

Level 8

41,164 points

Jul 25, 2012 10:45 AM in response to Adam Pade

1. Why should Indesign accept Pages documents? The formatting is so different. Indesign will accept Pages exported as Word .doc files, so use those. Personally I always prefer clean text files for my DTP, nearly everything else tends to be rubbish.

2. Can you translate this please? It seems to be English but not as we know it.

Peter

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Answer 2

Adam Pade Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 25, 2012 11:50 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Thanks for your input! Re. 02): Wen I import a doc into Indesign I format the text by means of selecting it and applying a predefined paragraph style. This is usually no problem with Word docs originally created in Word, but when trying the same thing with a doc converted to Word from Pages, I cannot make the paragraph style apply. It seems there are codes or attributes migrating from the Pages doc into the converted Word doc that Indesign won't override.

Yes, "clean text" without irrelevant formatting codes is fine ... in theory, when you don't have to exchange text documents with or receive documents from external sources who live in a Windows world.

Anyway - of course I can export my own Pages docs into a text doc so that's what I'll do.

Thanks again,

Adam

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Answer 3

Jul 26, 2012 12:26 AM in response to Adam Pade

I'll experiment with my IDCS6 but can't see the point of going via Pages.

If you are creating text based material, what is the point of using a DTP application to ultimately move it to another DTP application?

One of the best features of Text Editors is the non-page layouts, speed and flexibility within simplicity.

iText Express is free, fast and fits nearly all the requirements for just writing. There are many other applications on the Mac all very reasonably priced or free that I would pick over Pages any day. In fact I think Pages makes a horrible Word Processor, but a good basic cheap DTP appliaction.

Peter

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Answer 4

Adam Pade Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 26, 2012 12:40 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

You're quite right if you consider Pages as a simple DTP application. I confess my idea was to find a suitable replacement for Word which still enabled me to exchange documents with Word users AND, finally, to import into Indesign.

I'll have a look at iText Express.

Thanks again: Always interesting to hear how other people do things!

Adam

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Answer 5

Jul 26, 2012 1:06 AM in response to Adam Pade

If you just want an equivalent of Word 6 (last time I saw it as useful), even TextEdit will do, as will Bean, both are free and will save/open in Word .doc format.

btw I am not disparaging TextEdit as it is a mean SoB of a word processor if you want it to be. iText Express is actually a super set of TextEdit.

Peter

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Answer 6

Adam Pade Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 26, 2012 1:18 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

I've already been there - iText seems just that bit more refined than TextEdit, and docs seem to open in Word without problems.

Adam

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Answer 7

Dec 9, 2012 5:37 AM in response to Adam Pade

If you change the extension from .pages to .zip you can extract all the contents of the "pages" files including all graphic files on a Mac or PC. Look in the QuickLook folder for the "preview.pdf". Either place the PDF pages into ID as formatted pages or insert your cursor into the text of the PDF and do a select all, copy, then paste into ID - most of the formatting stays intact and the contents of the .pages file is now fully editable text in ID CS 4-6.

thks

joe

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Answer 8

Mar 17, 2013 4:43 AM in response to Adam Pade

Unless you have an extremely long document, the simplest solution is to select all text in the Pages document, copy, then paste in InDesign. I find that I always have to format in InDesign, anyway.

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