Importing Microsoft word documents that already have paragraph styles

Question

Hello. I have been trying to figure out how to do this for months, this was taught to me many months ago but for some odd reason when I tried it myself it didn't work . I have my paragraph styles all set up in my indesign document. I have to import text that another person is giving me. The document that this person is giving me is a Microsoft word document. Someone showed me that you can customize the document in microsoft word, with styles for example: Selecting a part of text and customizing it (making it big and bold for example), then naming that style Heading, and then doing the same for lets say...a subheading. Well after you save the document (the microsoft word document), you are able to import the word document into your indesign file and it's supposed to override the styles from Microsoft Word and customize itself with your own paragraph or character styles that you already have in your indesign document, as long as the name of the styles are the same as the ones you had in microsoft word(which in this case would be heading and subheading). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Convert Word styles to InDesign styles
Here's the info you need. I found it in the InDesign Help section. I needed it, too. The "Show Import Options" is a little box in the lower left hand corner of the screen that comes up when you choose the file you want to place in InDesign. It's easy to miss.
While importing a Microsoft Word document into InDesign or InCopy, you can map each style used in Word to a corresponding style in InDesign or InCopy. By doing so, you specify which styles format the imported text. A disk icon appears next to each imported Word style until you edit the style in InDesign or InCopy.
Do one of the following:
To add the Word document to existing text in InDesign or InCopy, choose File > Place. Select Show Import Options, and then double-click the Word document.
To open the Word document in a stand-alone InCopy document, start InCopy, choose File > Open, and then double-click the Word file.
Select Preserve Styles and Formatting From Text and Tables.
Select Customized Style Import, and then click Style Mapping.
In the Style Mapping dialog box, select the Word style, and then select an option from the menu under InDesign style. You can choose the following options:
If there is no style name conflict, choose New Paragraph Style, New Character Style, or choose an existing InDesign style.
If there is a style name conflict, choose Redefine InDesign Style to format the imported style text with the Word style. Choose an existing InDesign style to format the imported style text with the InDesign style. Choose Auto Rename to rename the Word style.
Click OK to close the Style Mapping dialog box, and then click OK to import the document.
Marilyn