ID only imports the first word of a 233 page word file (a novel)

Question

Folks!
I've tried the old FIle-Place  make a text box and shift+enter..... and I ONLY get the first word of a 60,000 document.  Why?
I need help ASAP!

Answer 1

There are a lot of possibilities causing the problem, probably it is caused by some formatting done in Word.
What text styles are used in Word? Do they have some break options? Repair them in Word.
Are text boxes/frames used in Word? Remove them in Word.
Is in Word some kind of break inserted (section, page, column, …)? Remove them in Word.
But also important:
When you import the Word file, do you select the import options during import? Do it!
In InDesign is a character style selected before importing, before choosing the text tool? Don't.
Because we don't know the source of the Word file it is hard to tell you what it is. A huge problem are Word files which have been converted from PDF or other programs.
I would try to get rid from any Word imported formatting. Imported styles from Word I would never use in InDesign, I import them often, but I have my own styles predefined in InDesign. After importing I delete step by step the Word formatting. I know, I could map the Word Styles to existing InDesign styles, but in my experience some unexpected things are happening when the Word file comes from someone else than me, because a lot of people have only limitted knowledge when it comes to Word styles and document structure.