Resolved Indesign/Change multi-selection of fonts

[eyoungren]

This is a feature in QuarkXPress. You can select multiple fonts in the usage list and then select one font to change ALL those selected fonts to the one you choose.

Since 2013 when I fully moved over to InDesign I have been unable to do this using Find Font.

I CAN select multiple instances of a font and specifiy the new font, but InDesign will only change the FIRST instance of a font.

Here is an example below…all these instances of Times Bold need to be changed to Helvetica Bold. But I can only do it one at a time.

That's a real PITA when I have many instances.

I have specific reasons to not be using style sheets in this particular instance and I know I could probably just find/change the font, but that seems to be even more work.

Does anyone have a solution or is this one of those instances where QXP is better than InDesign?

 

[organicCPU]

Looks strange to me, that there are 6 or more instances of the same font. I've never seen this in ID CS6. Replacing several different fonts with one other font is no problem. Could it be that there is some font cache problem or too many Times New Roman Bold styles with the same font name installed? Maybe you could upload a sample file (CS6 or idml)...

 

[eyoungren]

Looks strange to me, that there are 6 or more instances of the same font. I've never seen this in ID CS6. Replacing several different fonts with one other font is no problem. Could it be that there is some font cache problems or too many Times New Roman Bold styles with the same font name installed? Maybe you could upload a sample file (CS6 or idml)...

Well, typically this happens with Word files that I get for our legals. I believe it's multiple character styles rather than paragraph styles. And I'm using a very simple document to import it (a template). The idea is to make the changes I need to make within this template (which does not get saved), copy the text and then place it in our legal document formatted.

This avoids bringing over multiple Word styles and colors that I don't want cluttering my legal document.

 

[organicCPU]

Tried to replicate the issue with no avail. Made a test doc and docx in LibreOffice containing multiple identical and mixed character styles. Then Drag'n'Drop the doc and docx files directly into new ID document's text frames. Word formatting was kept and like expected due to formatting some fonts with additional bold and italic styles, there were several font styles missing, but not a single font style showed up multiple times.

Selected all fonts (the missing and available ones) in the Find Font dialog and replaced them all at once with Minion Pro Regular (installed on system). Works without issues.

Could it be some special version of Word file (PC or Mac)? I could try with MS Word 2016 PC or Word 2008 Mac, but it most likely seems to be weird formatted word files you're trying to import into ID that are causing the issue. To track the issue down, I think we'd need to find out under which circumstances Word files are generating multiple instances of same fonts in ID.

Other not very likely ideas:
Could it be the ID template? Did you try this with an empty ID document, too?
Did you try wiping all font caches, especially those of ID, manually or with FontNuke or maybe with the help of Suitcase that I believe you're using?

 

[eyoungren]

Tried to replicate the issue with no avail. Made a test doc and docx in LibreOffice containing multiple identical and mixed character styles. Then Drag'n'Drop the doc and docx files directly into new ID document's text frames. Word formatting was kept and like expected due to formatting some fonts with additional bold and italic styles, there were several font styles missing, but not a single font style showed up multiple times.

Selected all fonts (the missing and available ones) in the Find Font dialog and replaced them all at once with Minion Pro Regular (installed on system). Works without issues.

Could it be some special version of Word file (PC or Mac)? I could try with MS Word 2016 PC or Word 2008 Mac, but it most likely seems to be weird formatted word files you're trying to import into ID that are causing the issue. To track the issue down, I think we'd need to find out under which circumstances Word files are generating multiple instances of same fonts in ID.

Other not very likely ideas:
Could it be the ID template? Did you try this with an empty ID document, too?
Did you try wiping all font caches, especially those of ID, manually or with FontNuke or maybe with the help of Suitcase that I believe you're using?

When I get into work today I will see about posting up the relevant files.

Some background:
• Word files are sent to the person who processes our legals. Typically these are done on PC by people working for lawyers, city government or small businesses. That can mean a wide range of Word versions. Typically we get DOCX though. Notices of Hearing, Summons, Notice to Creditors, etc.
• Files are processed on a PowerMac G5 running Word 2004. Any styles in the Word file are left alone.
• Files are then placed on server (Windows 2012 server).
• I have a 8.5" x 11" INDT template document with guides laid out for 1 column, 2 column and 3 column width for our newspaper. This allows me to size down any tables that are imported to the correct column width. The template has one master text frame and other than our legals styles has no other styles.
• When I import these documents into the template I have it set to convert any Word styles to our Legal styles. I'm using Adobe CC 2017 on a Mac Pro running OS X 10.10.something and the template was created from scratch.

This last bullet point may be the problem. Due to the variety of outside documents we receive it's never possible to guarantee a direct one to one conversion of styles. Asking the person up front to format the documents so this could happen would only result in additional load upon her and a mess on my end, culminating in phone calls from lawyers wondering where all their bolding and italics went.

I then make sure the text is 5pt with 5pt leading, black, with black underlines. I remove any hyperlinks and I trash all Word styles imported telling ID to retain the formatting (because I need the bolds and italics). I then change the fonts. That's where the problem comes in.

Once I have it all formatted only then do I copy it and paste it into our main legal document.

If I did a direct import I would have a list of styles and colors several miles long because no one who sends these documents to us ever uses the same style twice or names them the same. As anything in the legal document goes into the main newspaper document at some point this can cause serious problems.

 

[organicCPU]

If you upload or PM me a sample Word and possibly a sample template file converted to IDML, I'll try to replicate the issue with Adobe CS6 on macOS Sierra. If ID's Find Font -> Change All doesn't work correctly because of some unusual Word formatting, we could try to make some conversion script to clean Word files before importing. If I understood you right, you're using File -> Place -> Show Import Options -> Customize Style Import to initially import the docx files, right?

 

[macuser453787]

This last bullet point may be the problem.

Could be. The only time I remember seeing multiple instances of fonts in the Find Font window is after placing PDFs, which sometimes show multiple instances of the same font name.

In your screen shot it shows 6 instances of the Times New Roman Bold font. Is that a fairly typical length? If so, can you select one instance at a time and click the "Change All" button for each instance -- instead of clicking "Change/Find" for each instance?

Or did I misunderstand you and that's what you're already doing?

 

[eyoungren]

Wanted to mention I figured out what was going on.

The INDD document in question did not have one particular InDesign character style that I was referencing when importing the Word document. Consequently, it seems to have thrown out all these additional font references as a reponse.

Appending in that character style from our legal INDD document to this INDD document fixed this. Now when I import Word files there is no more font fragmentation.

Stupid me!

 

[macuser453787]

Wanted to mention I figured out what was going on.

The INDD document in question did not have one particular InDesign character style that I was referencing when importing the Word document. Consequently, it seems to have thrown out all these additional font references as a reponse.

Appending in that character style from our legal INDD document to this INDD document fixed this. Now when I import Word files there is no more font fragmentation.

Stupid me!

You ought not put yourself down like that. We've all made mistakes. I've noticed over the years that troubleshooting issues tends to come down to finding the simple things. And you did that, it just took some time.

 

[eyoungren]

You ought not put yourself down like that. We've all made mistakes. I've noticed over the years that troubleshooting issues tends to come down to finding the simple things. And you did that, it just took some time.

Hey thanks!

It was more of a tongue in cheek thing.

I set this formatting document up and I was very particular about it - except when it came to that ONE character style I just plain spaced out on. It's the classic forehead smacking "Doh!" type thing.

I just have to manually fix it in all the locations it's in until my workflow catches up around it.