InDesign

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Paste text

If the insertion point is not inside a text frame when you paste text into InDesign, a new plain text frame will be created. If the insertion point is inside a text frame, the text will be pasted inside that frame. If you have text selected when you paste, the pasted text will overwrite the selected text.

Paste text from another application

  1. To preserve formatting and information such as styles and index markers, open the Clipboard Handling section of the Preferences dialog box, and select All Information under Paste. To remove these items and other formatting when pasting, select Text Only.
  2. Cut or copy text in another application or in an InDesign document.
  3. If you like, select text or click in a text frame. Otherwise, the text will be pasted into its own new frame.
  4. Do one of the following:

    • Choose Edit > Paste. If the pasted text doesn’t include all the formatting, you may need to change settings in the Import Options dialog box for RTF documents.

    • Choose Edit > Paste Without Formatting. (Paste Without Formatting is dimmed if you paste text from another application when Text Only is selected in Clipboard Handling Preferences.)

You can also drag text from another application and drop it into an InDesign document, or you can insert a text file or word-processing file into an InDesign document directly from Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder. The text will be added to a new frame. Shift-dragging removes the formatting. The option you select in the Clipboard Handling section of the Preferences dialog box determines whether information such as index markers and swatches is preserved.

Adjust spacing automatically when pasting text

When you paste text, spaces can be automatically added or removed, depending on the context. For example, if you cut a word and then paste it between two words, a space appears before and after the word. If you paste that word at the end of a sentence, before the period, a space is not added.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or InDes > Preferences > Type.
  2. Select Adjust Spacing Automatically When Cutting And Pasting Words, and then click OK.