INDESIGN CC TEXT TAGGING PROBLEM

Question

I currently import text primarily from Filemaker which tags the data then manipulate it in word so that when brought into Indesign, the styles sheets set are put to the text once we have included the heading of <ASCII-MAC>. We have just upgraded to creative cloud and now we dont seem to be able to import any text at all. The most I can do is bring in the text as a word document therefore no styles allocated and useless tagging codes showing. Example of the text we used to import from word as text only:
<ASCII-MAC>
<pstyle:Title>
The Economics of European Integration
<pstyle:Subtitle>
Limits and Prospects
<pstyle:Affiliation>
Miroslav N. Jovanovi , United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Geneva and University of Geneva, Switzerland
<pstyle:Text>
‘In this well-researched, comprehensive account of the development of the European Union (EU), Jovanovic presents details of the progress made toward economic integration and considers aspects of the political future of the EU, e.g., the impact of the recent admission of ten additional member nations. . . A valuable resource for individuals interested in, and courses dealing with, international economics of the history and politics of modern Europe. Highly recommended.’
– G.T. Potter, Choice
It is of paramount importance that European firms, investors and countries, take into consideration the implications, changes and opportunities of European integration in their decision-making processes. This is reinforced by the fact that the EU has been continuously evolving and enlarging. This textbook is one of the first to cover the subject of the economics of the EU, including all 25 member countries as well as several other potential candidate countries.
<pstyle:Contents>
Contents: Preface  1. The Origin, Evolution and Prospects for the European Union  2. Monetary Integration  3. Fiscal Policy and the Budget  4. Common Agricultural Policy  5. Competition Policy  6. Industrial Policy in Manufacturing and Services  7. Trade Policy  8. Spatial Location of Production and Regional Policy  9. Capital Mobility  10. Mobility of Labour  11. Social Policy  12. Environment Policy  13. Transport Policy  14. Eastern Enlargement  15. Conclusion   Bibliography Index
<pstyle:ISBNs>
2005
944 pp
Can anyone offer any help as this is now preventing me from doing anything.
Thanks

Answer 1

The correct format is:
<ASCII-MAC>
<vsn:9>
(ie, the text encoding in one line and the ID tagged file version in the next)
You ended up with an empty text frame because the your source file has "Classic Mac" linebreaks. InDesign CC requires that tagged files have Unix linebreaks.
As far as I know, MS Word doesn't offer the option to choose the line endings of text files (at least my old Mac Word 2004 doesn't). If your version allows that, you're set. If not, you can open your file in a text editor that enables linebreak options, like the free Text Wrangler or its paid big brother BBEdit. Alternatively, you can use a utility like LineBreak ( https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12045/linebreak ) to do the conversion in a convenient drag-and-drop operation.
Another advice: don't put the paragraph style tag in one line and its correspondent paragraph in the next line. Your original sample:
<pstyle:Title>
The Economics of European Integration
<pstyle:Subtitle>
Limits and Prospects
when imported as is, will ended up with unnecessary blank lines. This happens because you're telling InDesign to:
apply the paragraph style Title,
insert a paragraph return
insert the string "The Economics of European Integration"
insert a paragraph return
apply the paragraph style Subtitle,
insert a paragraph return
insert the string "Limits and Prospects"
insert a paragraph return
The blank lines you'll see in the final result in ID are caused by the paragraph returns that exist in your tagged file, right afther the paragraph style tag (highlighted in bold above).
The proper usage follows:
<pstyle:Title>The Economics of European Integration
<pstyle:Subtitle>Limits and Prospects
By formatting the tagged file this way, you'll avoid those extra blank lines.
Hope it helps.