Adobe InDesign/formatting

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Expert: - 8/31/2011


Question
dictionary
dictionary
i have a raw dictionary (please, see the attachment)in doc file.
i want to format it

  About – (word style should be red in color)
     This dictionary is about words.
     You can learn about many things  (description in black )
     in this dictionary.
     Preposition( it should be italic in green)

  Above-
      Above is opposite to below.
      The Earth is below the sky. The sky
      is above the land we live on.
      Preposition   

As,you can see when i placed the doc file in indesign it is totally unformatted with one or more returns. Now, when i am taking 2 paragraph style with nested style.but it is taking for every alternate line even not recognizing the description area
as in description section is not a paragraph but using returns
so. please give me step by step process to achieve the desired format without retyping it all over again.

Answer
Place the doc file in InDesign as one story. Create a paragraph style for the description text, making sure you make the character color black. Create another Paragraph Style for the word style, change the character color to red and make any other changes you wish. It can be based on the description paragraph style so it will start with the same attributes.
Make a third paragraph style for the Part of Speech, it can also be based on the description paragraph style but with Font Style Italic under Basic Character Formats and the Character Color green.

Open the story in Story Editor. Select all and make it all the description paragraph style. Go to Edit>Find/Change... and select the GREP tab. For Find What: enter \r\r. (end of paragraph, end of paragraph, wildcard any character). In the Change Format box select your Word paragraph style and click on change all. You may have to manually change the first entry. Change the Find What to .\r\r (wildcard any character, end of paragraph, end of paragraph) and in the Change Format box, clear it by clicking on the trash can and then select the Part of Speech paragraph style. Click on change all. You may have to manually change the first entry.  

Glen Demers

Expertise

I am a Prepress Technician for Best Printing Online and can answer any question about preparing your InDesign document for print.

Experience

20 years working in prepress
Prepress technician for Best Printing Online
Education/Credentials
Some college training in printing and have attended numerous seminars

Education/Credentials
Some college training in printing and have attended numerous seminars

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