you could convert the design to Acrobat PDF and make the text editable in Acrobat Pro. I don’t know how to do it myself, but check on Adobe’s site

You could probably just subcontract producing the word templates out to someone who specializes in desktop publishing with Word.

Have the person who is setting up the InDesign documents - EXPORT it to text and save it that way for you - then your client can read it in Word...

Word is the answer. As jpad notes, find a solid MS Office person to help you.

You can make editable text fields in Acrobat Professional that they can use to insert their own information using embedded fonts. I’ve worked on such a project where a B2B client inserts their own phone number at the bottom of a PDF using an editable text field.

It appears in this menu: Tools/Advanced Editing/Text Field Tool.

While my initial instinct would be to suggest Acrobat Pro as well, it’s not cheap either. I’ve set up a few templates in Word to be filled in by clients — if you set them up using fixed-height table cells, you can actually do some pretty good work with them.

Hello!
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060922085201340&query=ind...

I just tried the above (Clauses’) trick. I very nearly worked. I had an InDesign document with Freight Sans Book, and although it said the right font in the Word formatting palette, it still looked like TNR. I changed the font for the text and now it looks the same. A very useful tip, thanks!

Brad’s suggestion seems the most logical to me. I’d suggest that route as well.

Interesting read, Claus, thanks!

At my day gig, we often use PDF background images (converted to EPS files) inside Word for letterheads, forms, etc. Works great.

—Michael.

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// love what you do or do something else. //
Michael Ebert — graphic designer, jazz saxophonist, horror movie devotee
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If the client wants it in Word then do whatever it takes to give it to them in Word.

If you supply them something which requires a new program installation and learning then you will be the one they blame when anything does not work as it should or the way they are used to, even if it’s their own stupid fault.

Has anybody run into this problem: I created a Word template for a designer with a header and footer from her letterhead, which I did in Quark. I converted them to jpeg to place in the Word file. When she opens the file the header and footer are greyed out. They look fine when you print them, but is there a way to make sure they appear black in the file on screen?

What sort of View is she using? If it’s Normal, you won’t see it at all, but in Page, they will appear as light grey. To be honest, I haven’t played around with the other options, but one of them might have them in black.

It is more than a little disconcerting for clients when things like this happen, and we get stuck having to explain “it’s not you, it’s the program....” ;-)

Pattyfab, I think it’s supposed to be a feature, not a fault.

Elements in the Header and Footer will not be visible in Normal View. They will appear greyed in Print Layout View but will appear correctly in Print Preview.

If you want imported pictures to appear correctly while editing the document you could...

Insert > Picture > From File > Then right click on the imported picture > Format Picture > Layout > Select ’Behind Text’ > Advanced > Picture Position > Select Horizontal and Vertical ’Absolute Position’ and specify distances to the right of and below ’Page’.

This should stop the picture moving around with the text, but it does mean the user could move or resize it. Maybe there is a way it could be ’locked’?

Jon, thanks. I tried your suggestion above and it worked. It looks like the client would have to do a lot of fancy stuff in order to move these elements, so hopefully they will remain fixed in the doc.