How to convert an InDesign document to a Word document

There is no option to export an Adobe InDesign document to a Microsoft Word document. You must first export the InDesign document to PDF and then convert the PDF to a Word document either in Acrobat or Word itself. This is most likely to be of use for a short document with a “graphical” layout.

1. From Adobe InDesign export the document to an Adobe PDF document.
   File > Export > Save as type – Adobe PDF (Print)
2. From Adobe Acrobat DC (NOT Adobe Reader) export the PDF to a Microsoft Word document.
   File > Export To > Microsoft Word > Word Document.
3. Open the Word document in Microsoft Word.
   File > Open. 
   Alternatively, open the PDF directly in Word, although this is not likely to be as successful as exporting from Acrobat.
4. If you’re lucky the Word document may look superficially like the original document but the lack of styles, headers and footers, tables of content etc. mean it probably won’t function terribly well.
5. Try editing the document in Word and watch it fall apart. Worse still, trying adding new content.
6. Contact David Price at Office Templates to “reverse engineer” a proper solution in Word that includes:

• styles for characters, paragraphs and tables
• colour and font themes
• headers and footers
• tables of content
• linked content controls mapped to XML
• ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar customisation
• VBA macro commands
• … and more