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[IDML Implemented] How can I open Indesign (indd and idml) Files in Publisher?


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2 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

Serif has already stated that their plan is for Publisher to open InDesign IDML files eventually, but the question of opening INDD friles is till undecided apparently.

They, Serif, likely will never open INDD files directly. It would be a moving target as Adobe changes the file specs often.

Serif might be able to create a routine that can go a long way around the INDD issue. But I doubt it would be worth the hassle. Best to plan on a script or plug-in that can open ID files and create a package with them which can also create the IDML automatically. There are free scripts (I've posted one such link) that can simply walk through a folder structure. Set it to work over a weekend or two.

Mike

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Yes, that's right. All the more reason that should Affinity Publisher have the ability to open INDD files, it would gain even more customers. Quark is now offering a huge reduction in price to encourage Indesign users to switch to Xpress from Adobe's CC subscription rip-off, and many of those prospects would find Affinity Publisher much more attractive not only for the price, but also for the ability to open the INDD files. In my opinion, it would be a missed opportunity on Serif's part not to offer that capability.

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I repeat; CS5 still works on the latest Mojave. In case of trouble, remove app-icon from dock & replace after opening + give photoshop access via control panel.

I find it a bit unfair to put Affinity Serif under the obligation to have perfect compatibility with Adobe, something Adobe can’t manage themselves. When your work was finalised surely you made a pdf.  If you want to transfer text, click in the text and export to rtf. Open the rtf, copy text, then paste in Pub and assign new paragraph styles to your text. Surely one can place pictures via the links folder. I don’t understand the need. You either have a work in progress, or you’re starting something new. 

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Just now, Gaffer said:

Yes, that's right. All the more reason that should Affinity Publisher have the ability to open INDD files, it would gain even more customers. Quark is now offering a huge reduction in price to encourage Indesign users to switch to Xpress from Adobe's CC subscription rip-off, and many of those prospects would find Affinity Publisher much more attractive not only for the price, but also for the ability to open the INDD files. In my opinion, it would be a missed opportunity on Serif's part not to offer that capability.

I hesitate to say Never, because that statement has a way of biting one in the butt. So Serif could write the routine to open INDD files but it requires an InDesign Server license they would have to always have to keep current that, behind the scenes, opens the native INDD files (which requires an upload and download). The net effect, though, is that what is really served to the receiving application is an IDML file.

There will not be (not for years to come) true parity between ID and APub's native capabilities. This will also affect APub's IDML capability whenever that occurs.

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7 hours ago, MikeW said:

They, Serif, likely will never open INDD files directly. It would be a moving target as Adobe changes the file specs often.

Serif might be able to create a routine that can go a long way around the INDD issue. But I doubt it would be worth the hassle. Best to plan on a script or plug-in that can open ID files and create a package with them which can also create the IDML automatically. There are free scripts (I've posted one such link) that can simply walk through a folder structure. Set it to work over a weekend or two.

Mike

Where have you posted the link? This forum is 14 pages long now. Finding your link would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

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Hmm, I'm not familiar with and don't use InDesign, but what's about tools like this here ...

... which claims to read InDesign files and export to PDF etc., does that work?

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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I'm seeing two sides here when it comes to opening InDesign Files. 

1. The side saying A Publisher should open INDD files because InDesign opened Quark files. 

2. The side saying Publisher will never open INDD files because INDD files are impossible to open with anything but InDesign. 

My thoughts on this are: the 1's saying it should be opening INDD do not understand that Abobe has made this impossible because as some have said, they move the bar with each version of InDesign or just make it impossible. 

So in my view this discussion is done.  You either buy Publisher and make PDF's or IDML files of your Indesign files or you don't buy Publisher and stick to Adobe forever.  

Quark obviously did NOT make their files unreadable until later versions--- after v4 I believe. Asleep at the wheel. That said, Adobe would surely have NOT mad the same mistake. 

I am one who would love to open INDD files. But that is not going to happen unless some wiz makes and keeps on making updated translation software. I feel sorry for the CC people because they cannot open their files unless they pay Adobe again. CS users can just go open a file they need and save as PDF or IDML. Which I know is not perfect, nor even good enough for some here. I found the PDF opening pretty damn amazing myself. For my needs and my files.  Note: I have probably 10 or 20,000 files. Maybe even 50,000 by now. I haven't even thought of the count until just now.   

Another thing I just noticed. Adobe Premeire had a version called RUSH. I think it's new. $10 mth.  First they had Photoshop for $10 mth. Now RUSH.  Are they working on InDesign Lite? 

I know I can rent InDesign for about $28 canadian per month depending on the exchange rate.  Too much.  Dropbox, Issuu, CRM, Cable, Cel bill, Electric, gas, insurance.... it's just all adding up too much. Everyone wants to get a monthly piece of the pie and the pie is now eaten. 

I like Publisher so far. I've had to remake ads when I switched from Ready,Set,Go to InDesign, so I know what it's like and it wasn't that bad. Then again what's your time worth?  $69 for Publisher for about 12 to 18 months.. upgrade for ? $30?   Just guessing.  Or $360 a year for InDesign? Of course we need Affinity Photo or Photoshop. 

Come to think of it I wish my version of InDesign opened PDF's. Does CC open PDFs?  So Publisher already has one feature that Adobe does not. Unless you use Illustrator which I hate. I find Acrobat a bit better, but still not good. 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Hmm, I'm not familiar with and don't use InDesign, but what's about tools like this here ...

... which claims to read InDesign files and export to PDF etc., does that work?

WOW.. I just downloaded this. Markzware will be our saviour. 

EDIT: WOW.. I just used it and it's .... useless 

But, Markzware might still come up with something.  The script mentioned by Whitedog might be the best way. Just buy a big hard drive. 

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34 minutes ago, BLKay said:

 $69 for Publisher for about 12 to 18 months.. upgrade for ? $30?   Just guessing.

I paid US $50 for each of Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher just over 3 years ago and haven't had to pay for an upgrade yet to either of them.

We will probably need to pay full price again when 2.0 comes out to keep up-to-date, upgrade pricing is unlikely because of how the app stores work.

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3 hours ago, BLKay said:

Question for you. How often has Affinity upgraded Photo and Designer? I mean with features, not just fixes. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_Photo

Wikipedia has a version history covering the biggest features. Affinity Photo started in version 1.3.1... so we had three upgrades until now with number four as 1.7 currently in beta.

Windows 10 Pro x64 (1903). Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.60GHz, 32 GB memory, NVidia RTX 2080
Affinity Photo 1.7.2.471, Affinity Designer 1.7.2.471, Affinity Publisher 1.7.2.471

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17 minutes ago, Ulf Jay said:

Not offering indd export and import is like offering Openoffice without doc or xls compatibility. Or a car that runs on hydrogen. 
It's THE crucial feature for anyone who is yearning for a way to escape the Adobe extortion machine. 

If you don't like it, please use Quark instead.

Also, you may login to Adobe's forum and say to them: "I'm not going to use your apps because they don't have Affinity suite export/import files".

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
15” Dell Inspiron 7559 i7 Windows 10 x64 Pro Intel Core i7-6700HQ (3.50 GHz, 6M) 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600 MHz (8GBx2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5 500 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD UHD (3840 x 2160) Truelife LED - Backlit Touch Display
32” LG 32UN650-W display 3840 x 2160 UHD, IPS, HDR10 Color Gamut: DCI-P3 95%, Color Calibrated 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
13.3” MacBook Pro (2017) Ventura 13.6 Intel Core i7 (3.50 GHz Dual Core) 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB 500 GB SSD Retina Display (3360 x 2100)

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or on the other hand you could say how come my Chevy transmission won't fit in my Ford?   Yet with PDF reading and IDML it is kind of like magic, the Chev can work in the Ford with a bit of work.  Amazing really. 

I'm just playing devils advocate here... not trying to fan any flames.  I am one who still opens Quark Files that are sent to me in Quark 4, with InDesign. Saves me about 10 minutes work every week for 15 years now. 780 x 10 minutes is 130 HOURS !!! HOLY CRAPPPPP!!!!!   

Okay I agree... somebody make Affinity Publisher open Quark 4 AND INDD files. Markzware to the rescue? 

130 hours.  frigggen amazing how that can add up.  That's it, no more Facebook for me. haha

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On 1/24/2019 at 5:11 PM, BLKay said:

WOW.. I just downloaded this. Markzware will be our saviour. 

EDIT: WOW.. I just used it and it's .... useless 

But, Markzware might still come up with something.  The script mentioned by Whitedog might be the best way. Just buy a big hard drive. 

I have used IDUtil for a few months now, and would say not its quite useless, but certainly not all it's purported to be (or maybe I just don't know how to use it to full advantage). I mainly have used it to preview old ID files. Just be sure you have "always save preview images" enabled in ID, and set to save more than one or two preview pages. It IS, you know, a free app; so I suppose we shouldn't expect too much.

I wonder if it's not just designed to drive people to his Web page and commercial apps. Not that that's wrong, but perhaps could be termed "disingenuous." Of course, I'm not an app developer dependent upon people paying for them, so one might say I'm biased. 

Mac OS High Sierra (by choice—won't "upgrade" until forced to), MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018), 2.9 GHz Intel Core i9, 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, Radeon Pro 560X 4096 MB, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB, two 43" 4K TVs for monitors. 

+ a 2008 Mac Desktop and a 2008 MacBook Pro 15", both of which still work great, but are just slow, comparatively.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/24/2019 at 11:11 PM, BLKay said:

WOW.. I just downloaded this. Markzware will be our saviour. 

EDIT: WOW.. I just used it and it's .... useless 

But, Markzware might still come up with something.  The script mentioned by Whitedog might be the best way. Just buy a big hard drive. 

Never bought or used any Markzware product, but I see they do have ID <-> QX translators. Maybe it's not too much to hope they add ID <-> Affinity as well. And maybe even QX <-> Affinity. You're looking at $200, so somewhat more than Affinity Publisher itself is likely to cost, but if it worked it would be a really useful tool. https://markzware.com/products/id2q/

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On 11. Februar 2019 at 4:54 PM, AleMello said:

Hi, Gabe. How is this going? Any news?

Gabe does not know, even Serif does not know. What we know is that Serif only has plans for idml. But it seems that we have to wait a long time.

Affinity Publisher will not support .INDD files but will be able to import IDML files.

We will be able to import InDesign IDML files but not .indd files. The feature is being written but we don't have a timescale yet.

 

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1 hour ago, Oval said:

Gabe does not know, even Serif does not know. What we know is that Serif only has plans for idml. But it seems that we have to wait a long time.

Affinity Publisher will not support .INDD files but will be able to import IDML files.

We will be able to import InDesign IDML files but not .indd files. The feature is being written but we don't have a timescale yet.

Well, I'll wait. I'm very satisfied with Publisher evolution. Serif is doing a wonderful job. I'm sure they'll do the best. ;-) 

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