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


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9 hours ago, AdrianB said:

I'm happy to report that this script was really good,

I too wondered if there was a way to batch process all INDD to IDML. Possibly someone could write a tutorial "how to" for script handicapped mac users?

Also, is it possible to use "search" folder as source (that way you could list all your INDDs in one place) and make the script to export to original location?

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23 minutes ago, Fixx said:

I too wondered if there was a way to batch process all INDD to IDML. Possibly someone could write a tutorial "how to" for script handicapped mac users?

Did you look at the page? You don't script anything, it's all in one dialog where you choose your settings.

The only thing you need to do is add the script to the correct folder. This page has a very clear and helpful instruction of how you do that for a Mac user (but don't download the script from that page, it's a much older copy, take the script from the original source).

23 minutes ago, Fixx said:

Also, is it possible to use "search" folder as source (that way you could list all your INDDs in one place) and make the script to export to original location?

You don't get a list of the files but it exports them in the same folder as the original, that's is what I was testing and it works. Make sure to check the "include subfolders" and leave the output empty. It's all very clearly described, again, just read the instructions (my emphasis) : 

Tick Include subfolders to process all subfolders of the selected folder. To keep the converted files in the same folder as the source files, leave the Output folder field empty. If you do specify an output folder and include subfolders, all files are placed together in that output folder.

 Really, it's an amazing script, just try it yourself on some test files first, until you get the results you want. 

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11 hours ago, AdrianB said:

Did you look at the page? You don't script anything, it's all in one dialog where you choose your settings.

The only thing you need to do is add the script to the correct folder. This page has a very clear and helpful instruction of how you do that for a Mac user (but don't download the script from that page, it's a much older copy, take the script from the original source).

You don't get a list of the files but it exports them in the same folder as the original, that's is what I was testing and it works. Make sure to check the "include subfolders" and leave the output empty. It's all very clearly described, again, just read the instructions (my emphasis) : 

Tick Include subfolders to process all subfolders of the selected folder. To keep the converted files in the same folder as the source files, leave the Output folder field empty. If you do specify an output folder and include subfolders, all files are placed together in that output folder.

 Really, it's an amazing script, just try it yourself on some test files first, until you get the results you want. 

This is a great solution.  I have a question. Sorry if it’s been answered. 

Does this script need InDesign to convert the files to idml? I’m thinking it’s obvious that it does. So it would need the version of InDesign (or later version) to open and convert. 

This is a very important discussion because I and I’m sure many others hesitate to upgrade to CC not only because of the monthly cost but more so because you will end up with thousands of CC files that can only be opened with APublisher if the are converted. That’s a lot of work. Too much work. This makes it much easier to change to APub. Convert, End your adobe subscription, done. No need to buy a month down the toad when you find you need to open a new file. 

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13 hours ago, BLKay said:

This is a great solution.  I have a question. Sorry if it’s been answered. 

Does this script need InDesign to convert the files to idml? I’m thinking it’s obvious that it does. So it would need the version of InDesign (or later version) to open and convert. 

Yes, it does need InDesign to run. The whole script is run from inside InDesign (this page shows how it works, but use the script from the more updated source). But it works well with old version of InDesign, thankfully.

I have CS5 and I have no intention of upgrading to CC. But InDesign CS5 won't run forever as macOS evolves. That's why I've been looking for ways to convert my old .indd files to future-proof IDML that Publisher one day will be able to open.

As a bonus, the script can also be uses just to batch convert my pre-CS5 .indd files to CS5 files if I wanted to. (Everytime InDesign CS5 opens an older .indd file it will convert it and [converted] added to the title, and you get a dialog about save when you close it.)

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On 5/10/2019 at 2:32 AM, AdrianB said:

Since support for IDML is coming, but not .indd, I looked into the possibility to export all my old .indd files to IDML. This is generally useful for future-proofing anyway, since I won't be able to run my old version of InDesign (CS5) forever.

I'm happy to report that this script was really good, it did everything I was hoping for. There was some trial and error and some issues (I have to delete batch_convert.txt for every run) to get there but eventually I got it to search folders and subfolders for any .indd file and export it as IDML, and it worked. 

Thanks for the links. I read some of the referenced text to get an idea how the script works, then the how to install scripts page to figure that out. I downloaded the script and installed it, as per instructions. This will come in handy when the time comes to convert my InDesign files to IDML. Of course, this script will do so much more. Quite an ingenious piece of work. Given how many people will need to convert their files for use with Publisher, when it can handle IDML, this script will need to be more broadly described, and referenced. Look forward to further enquiries.

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1 hour ago, Whitedog said:

Thanks for the links. I read some of the referenced text to get an idea how the script works, then the how to install scripts page to figure that out. I downloaded the script and installed it, as per instructions. This will come in handy when the time comes to convert my InDesign files to IDML. Of course, this script will do so much more. Quite an ingenious piece of work. Given how many people will need to convert their files for use with Publisher, when it can handle IDML, this script will need to be more broadly described, and referenced. Look forward to further enquiries.

Btw, Peter is a member here. If he pops into this or other threads related to his scripts, be sure to say Howdy.

This far he has been mostly interested in APub's grep capabilities. He has literally written the book on grep as regards ID.

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4 hours ago, MikeW said:

Btw, Peter is a member here. If he pops into this or other threads related to his scripts, be sure to say Howdy.

This far he has been mostly interested in APub's grep capabilities. He has literally written the book on grep as regards ID.

I did not know that, nice! Not only has he made an awesome script, he has maintained and improved it for 16 years, that is very impressive!

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Thank you for the reminder to Batch convert. I look for ".indd" and converted all indd into idml. Great!

My workaround (as CS6 will not more be supported by Apple in the next System updates) is now: affinity photo, affinity designer and xpress.

Xpress 2018 opens idml with paths and the magazines and books with all chainings quite good. I guess affinity publisher is the same good as xpress ( i do not need this internet things in xpress), but not for me, as there are too many old, useable datas. But lets see.

 

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We do all of the work for Sony in our country so our studio needs to not only open overseas assets (all are InDesign) but also supply open files - and everyone requires InDesign.

We're getting increasingly sick of Adobe and like what we've tried from Affinity so far. But if we're going to switch, we absolutely need the ability to export to .idl as well as import.

I've seen a lot of discussion on importing so sorry if exporting has been covered or is the works.

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As far as I know, there is only one application that can round-trip IDML, the commercial version of Viva Designer. I use it for a couple companies but not for the IDML export capability. 

I haven't looked lately but Scribus might as well. I think they added IDML import anyway. 

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Hence I really cannot see at this stage AP making much of a dent in the professional market whatever folks think of Adobe and I'm certainly no fan of them. If you have clients sending you *.indd files they're not going to suddenly change their habits to supply *.idml. After all, they are the clients.

So for now AP is for the hobbyist, occasional user or where you can just supply *.pdf. Just my thinking but in the same way that Photoshop is overkill the fact is that it is considered as the market leader and if that's what clients require then unfortunately you have to go with the flow at this stage or risk upsetting those that indirectly pay your rent.

Maybe at some stage AP will be fully accepted but for now we're just going to have to bite the bullet unfortunately and in my view I think that's how it's going to be for the foreseeable future.

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4 minutes ago, mb6391 said:

Hence I really cannot see at this stage AP making much of a dent in the professional market whatever folks think of Adobe and I'm certainly no fan of them. If you have clients sending you *.indd files they're not going to suddenly change their habits to supply *.idml. After all, they are the clients.

So for now AP is for the hobbyist, occasional user or where you can just supply *.pdf. Just my thinking but in the same way that Photoshop is overkill the fact is that it is considered as the market leader and if that's what clients require then unfortunately you have to go with the flow at this stage or risk upsetting those that indirectly pay your rent.

Maybe at some stage AP will be fully accepted but for now we're just going to have to bite the bullet unfortunately and in my view I think that's how it's going to be for the foreseeable future.

The vast majority of the files I return are only PDFs. The majority of the time when I receive ID work, I am handed the Packaged files, which these days have an IDML as part of the packaging process. I don't do too much in the way of cute PSDs. I don't use text in an image file (generally). Anything that supports PSD export can be used for what I do...even then I am more likely just to supply the exported finished TIFFs or JPGs.

However, if/when I do need to supply finished ID or AI files, I do the whole thing in ID. There is no good way of blindly supplying IDML without at least opening them in ID and fixing stuff. So might as well just use ID for those jobs.

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So if like myself you need to occasionally use ID then you may as well use it full time.

I like AP and would join in the high fives if it managed to break the Adobe 'monopoly' but for now I cannot see any advantage to changing if I need to fire up ID from time to time. May as well just keep using it. Maybe one day......

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1 hour ago, MikeW said:

I haven't looked lately but Scribus might as well. I think they added IDML import anyway.  

See these more or less workarounds related to that theme ...

☛ 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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2 hours ago, mb6391 said:

Hence I really cannot see at this stage AP making much of a dent in the professional market whatever folks think of Adobe and I'm certainly no fan of them. If you have clients sending you *.indd files they're not going to suddenly change their habits to supply *.idml. After all, they are the clients.

Well, we get packaged assets which always have the .idml file included but I hear you.

It's a bummer though, so far (after just a few hours) the Affinity team have done a friggin' awesome job!

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If, in working with clients and collaborators, one must accept and return native Adobe CC files, there is no alternative but to remain captured as an Adobe toolset renter. And in that case, as lovely as the Affinity Suite is, there is no point investing money or time into it. This is the major obstacle facing Serif and its prospective customers who would love to switch.

Seamless file exchange between the Affinity Suite and the Adobe Suite is the holy grail here. Achieve that and creatives would abandon Adobe for Affinity in droves. Fail to achieve that and the market for the Affinity Suite is severely limited to hobbyists and those professionals whose workflow is entirely closed and internal.

 

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4 hours ago, mb6391 said:

So if like myself you need to occasionally use ID then you may as well use it full time.

I like AP and would join in the high fives if it managed to break the Adobe 'monopoly' but for now I cannot see any advantage to changing if I need to fire up ID from time to time. May as well just keep using it. Maybe one day......

I mainly use QXP for layout. I mainly use an Xara application for vector. I mainly use Photoline for bitmap. But I have ID CS6 and AI CS6 too. And for a few clients I'll subscribe for one or two months if needed.

In 2012, my layout work was about a 60/40 split, ID/QXP respectively. That ratio is now about 80% QXP. Maybe higher.

I do very little collaboration. What I choose to use is mostly up to me.

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16 hours ago, mb6391 said:

So for now AP is for the hobbyist, occasional user or where you can just supply *.pdf.

I think it is actually a reasonable strategy to specifically target that crowd at the start. Although there are some advantages to Affinity Publisher as compared to InDesign, and some things it does better, the fact is still that it will not yet be a mature product even when 1.7 is released, and understandably so. I don't think we can expect it to be truly a "professional" solution from the outset. For the hobbyist crowd, what it does provide is an exceptional value when considering the asking price.

Serif has mentioned before that they need to get it to a point where it provides enough value for a segment of the market so they can start selling it to fund continued development. Truly, they have to start somewhere.

For my part, I fully intend to buy a copy for my personal work from the very outset. On the other hand, I will not be recommending to my boss that we make the switch from InDesign for our professional work, not yet. We are a small operation, and I think we can make the switch sooner than others who need to have InDesign collaboration. Nevertheless, there are still some quality of output issues. For me, the most notable is the lack of a multiline composer, which results in justification being higher quality in InDesign than Publisher. But they can't do it all at once. InDesign import is another such example.

So in my case, they will get money from me as a hobbyist at the beginning as they work toward eventually pulling in more and more pros, such as me in my professional capacity.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I couldn't read every page and comment here but just wanted to add a voice regarding IDML support: yes please, looking forward to it! INDD would be even better but I can live with IDML. I've been hanging on with Adobe Illustrator and Indesign CS6 but could be out of luck when I have to upgrade to the next MacOS (it has to happen eventually). CS6 is super long in the tooth and feels like going in a time machine each time I open them. I still have to use photoshop and am not that upset about that but I would really like to kick everything else Adobe to the bin (I'm a photographer, formally print designer and otherwise use Capture One).

I haven't read through all of the features yet but if it's not there xml import (in regards to data merging) was really important for me: but indesign was a bit convoluted in that regard. I used to build catalogs with it. Direct database link to something simple like excel would be better. Formatting xml without the right tools is a pain (I had to take excel files full of product data and turn them into xml that indesign could use and it was 100% trial and error — still easier than doing it with Illustrator was).

In response to all this talk about Indesign being the industry standard — it's pretty funny to read. I remember clearly when it was all Quark and Indesign wasn't taken seriously at first. I jumped in around 2001. I remember that Quark was quite expensive by comparison at the time and some of the new features in indesign were great (transparency, opentype, PSD, etc. there was more, can't remember now), funny how things change (it was Quark taking over from Pagemaker before that too).

Edited by Reginald R McReggieson
spelling error
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  • 2 weeks later...

I also long for the day when I can stop using the last Adobe product I use: InDesign as I've already made the leap to Affinity Designer and Photo. For me that would require the ability to import IDML and/or INDD files as I need to move over my collection of work if I am to finally cut the parasitic cord to Adobe.

As an aside: that is shocking to me that MacOS is just going to kill support for CS6. I'm on Windows 10 and I hope that doesn't happen yet though I'm wondering if I should make a virtual machine image to keep for the future. Adobe CreativeSuite isn't worth the money they gouge for it that's for sure...

Edit: Oh I meant so say - thanks for the link to that script and super thanks to the awesome work of the maintainer. What a godsend!

Edit 2: I've donated to the script maker and of course I forgot to mention I already preordered Affinity Publisher as I'm confident it will get there - I'm just excited!

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Just some early results from me and comments after reading some of this thread... having migrated from Quark to InDesign years ago, I found at that time that converters didn't really do the best job. If you are talking about handing files back and forth and you think you are going to do that between different applications, it's a waste of time. Converting should be a one way thing really.

Anyway, what I've found is that Publisher does a great job of opening PDFs. I always had a habit of saving PDF versions of all projects (that's how we would do proofs anyway). Today I opened a 32 page full colour publication from a PDF. It was good enough that I could probably just tweak or make necessary changes and go to press. If I wanted to fully regain layout functionality, I would need to recreate master pages, styles, and re-link columns and text boxes back into stories. Not that hard really.

When we went from Quark to InDesign for our magazines I just created a new template in InDesign from scratch, including master pages, text and object styles. That was a good time to clean up our styles and layout, and didn't take that much time.

So for me I've come to realise that I don't actually need to open my InDesign files. I have the PDFs for existing work, and so far either Designer or Publisher has been able to open them to use as necessary.

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Dear OzNate,

 

thank you for sharing your thoughts. That is true what you argue.

But one point is missing there: the >linking of  the pictures<. 

Normally the pictures go from Folder to folder and disc to disc over the years. And where do you get the names of the pictures? 

Finding these pictures is easy with search, but this takes some work and time!

Anyway, the way with PDF is great. AS CS 6 will be soon not more supported by Apple, so I am in a hurry. I also test Xpress2018, as it opens Idml (often quite good) and promises for 2019-edition to open all Indesign files. Lets see.

I mostly use affinity Photo and Designer, as they work quite good. In one case I have to use Photoshop: On converting special PDFs and EPS Files. 

And still I could not find a replacement for these converting tasks. 

Best wishes

Josef from Bavaria

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57 minutes ago, Moon12 said:

But one point is missing there: the >linking of  the pictures<. 

Normally the pictures go from Folder to folder and disc to disc over the years. And where do you get the names of the pictures?

Usually, we export/archive our work, and this create a new folder with the file and subfolders for fonts and linked images, PDF, IDML, etc.
This is what we used to send to the printer in old days, and what we archive on CD, DVD, external HD, cloud… before deleting the working files to get room for other works on our HD.

If you've done this, you should be able to get back all your linked files for a specific file in a specific folder in your archives, if you need to re-import them, no need to search around.
If you don't need to modify them, you can keep the images as they are, embedded in the APub file after opening a PDF.
And if you want, there's an option in the Resources manager to "link" the embedded images: it will export all the embedded images in the folder you choose. (Those images lost their original names, their new names are document_name_01.tif to document_name_n.jpg).

 

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