Indesign IDML in Publisher not perfect

[skyking]

I worked on a book (300+ pages) a few years ago in InDesign CS5. The author wanted to do a second printing with some changes. I figured great I'll export the InDesign file as IDML and import it into Publisher. The import worked fantastic; however, slight changes were made in either leading, spacing, etc. See the attached pages. One from Indesign and the other in Publisher. You will see how it pushed some lines out. This happened all throughout the book witch made me revert back to InDesign to make all the edit updates. No complaint but wondering more why this happens even though it appears all the text settings were correct (from InDesign).

Thanks

Jim K 

[Fixx]

Because InDesign has paragraph composer on but Publisher's H/J works only row by row?

[jmwellborn]

@skyking  I believe it is a tracking issue.   I found that when I imported books written using InDesign into Publisher that everything came in perfectly except for instances when I had used special tracking in InDesign.   I don't remember the exact nomenclature in InDesign, but I think it was something to the effect of "Normal" "Narrow" or something to that effect.  If you will compare (line by line) your two examples you will see that several lines don't end with the same words.  In my case, I experimented with changing the tracking values in Publisher (Character Panel) until I arrived at a satisfactory compromise.   You can open your Character Panel, and then with your text tool, highlight a group of words and then adjust the tracking value until they more closely resemble the InDesign document.   I had one book of 302 pages which I retyped from a book published in 1854.  The original had no index and no chapter breaks.  It was also necessary for historical accuracy, that each page started and ended with the very same words as the original.  I also created a new 54-page index for it in my version.  When I imported the IDML into Publisher the results were originally catastrophic because I had used special tracking to make sure that every page had the same number of lines and the same words.   I found that in my case for the most part I could "select all" and change the tracking value.   Occasionally I had to go to a specific page and adjust it manually.

This is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it should help.   I hope!!  

[wonderings]

You should not be expecting a perfection conversion going from Indesign to Publisher, there will be issues, some small, some large, but they will be there and you will need to check and watch for this. 

[skyking]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and answers. Jmwellborn’s reply is excellent and I will go back and do what he has done. I want to this book in publisher incase we have to do a third printing with any additional changes. I do realize the transfer won’t be 100% and I have had luck with 100% transfer for some things.

Thanks again

JimK