Feature Request: Publisher should open pre-2014 .indd files without conversion to .idml

[Atlas Games Webmaster]

My understanding is that pre-2014 .indd files are actually pretty much the same format as current .idml files. I'd like to request the feature that Publisher be able open them without conversion. Note, just changing the .indd extension to .idml on such files doesn't work.

Edited January 27 by Atlas Games Webmaster

[Atlas Games Webmaster]

Tested on Publisher 2.0.4, Mac desktop 10.15.7 … "File type is not supported"

Edited January 27 by Michelle Nephew

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Michelle Nephew said:

My understanding is that pre-2014 .indd files are actually pretty much the same format as current .idml files

If you open one of them in a text editor, do you see XML format data? If not, they are not "pretty much the same as IDML".

[MikeW]

All .indd files are binary. They need exported as .idml files. 

.idml files are a zip archive containing. xml files. 

[Atlas Games Webmaster]

When you Save As to IDML in today's InDesign, the option is listed as "InDesign CS4 or later (IDML)".

So my thinking is that it seems CS4 can read IDML as a native pre-2014 INDD file … even though IDML was only used for library files when CS4 was published. The INDD format likely changed when Adobe moved to Creative Cloud, even though it uses the same file extension, thus the need for IDML for backward compatibility.

So, I know any part of my assumptions could be wrong here. But I'm looking at having to convert several hundred files from pre-2014 INDD format to IDML to move from Adobe to Affinity, and I'd rather not if the solution is just to ask for a new import feature. So it doesn't hurt to ask?

 Screen shots are attached of a  pre-2014 INDD file's code when opened in BBEdit, since you asked about that.

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, Atlas Games Webmaster said:

Screen shots are attached of a  pre-2014 INDD file's code when opened in BBEdit, since you asked about that.

Thanks. As @MikeW mentioned, much of that is binary. It is, therefore, not like IDML, and is not in a format that Publisher would be able to understand.

[MikeW]

There is a free script that can convert folders of InDesign documents to .idml

[Atlas Games Webmaster]

Can you point me at that, MikeW?

[Alfred]

15 minutes ago, Atlas Games Webmaster said:

Can you point me at that, MikeW?

I’m not MikeW (obviously!) but Peter Kahrel’s free scripts are readily available online.

https://creativepro.com/files/kahrel/indesign/batch_convert.html

[walt.farrell]

30 minutes ago, Atlas Games Webmaster said:

Can you point me at that, MikeW?

Forum hint: If you're trying to "tag" someone so they'll be notified (assuming they have their options set for notification) you can quote something they wrote, or you can type an @ character and then start typing their username. You'll get a dropdown list of matching names, and you can then select their name from the list. That will then display as a highlighted field, such as @MikeW and if they have setup their forum options to be notified, they will get a message or alert of some kind.

[loukash]

22 hours ago, Atlas Games Webmaster said:

The INDD format likely changed when Adobe moved to Creative Cloud

Just recently, I had to check someone's layout for prepress errors. He uses CC 2022, I have CS5.5. I had no issues to open his IDML files in CS5.5. (Or even in Publisher, for that matter.)

22 hours ago, Atlas Games Webmaster said:

 Screen shots are attached of a  pre-2014 INDD file's code when opened in BBEdit

The first XML bit was added by MacOS. As you can easily see, those are the last used printer settings.
The second bit is XMP metadata.

The actual INDD layout data always was in a proprietary binary format.