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Allan Moraes
Allan Moraes
Participant
July 5, 2023
Answered

Open more than one document per session (in Open > Recent)

  • July 5, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 425 views

Hello,

I've made this request at the Adobe InDesign Feature Requests but for no avail, and nobody answered nor voted for my request. So I'm posting this problem here so that I can find a solution.

I'll basically repost the text I wrote last year on InDesign Feature Requests:

I copydesk book files using InCopy. The book comes to me in chapters, 1 chapter per file (usually 8), each in a separate subfolder. I work on each book/chapters for several weeks, so I have to close/open them several times a week (and turn off my computer every day, of course). I know there must be a way to merge these documents into a book or something like that, but that's not the point here (I have to accept this workflow and manage it as best I can). Also, I'm not talking here about file tabs, of course (I open several documents in tabs using the workflow I've just mentioned). The point is that there should be a way of opening more than one file at a time without me having to click Open Recent > [choose file] for each chapter/file I have to edit (if there's already a way of doing this, I would be very thankful if someone could tell me), just like in Windows Explorer/MacOS files management; but, as we all know, we can only open one file at a time, then wait for the file/chapter to be opened for editing and then doing the same with the other remaining files/cahpters:



Workflow details: as I always work with book chapters (usually 😎 that are stored in different subfolders; that is, it is not possible to go to a single folder/directory, select the eight chapters that I will edit and open them whenever I need to edit these chapters (and I always need to have the 8 chapters open because I need to standardize terms, acronyms, etc. in all of them, saving time). Needless to mention, obviously I can't move the files I'm going to edit into the same/single folder as those files contain links to images and other details that prevent me from considering such a solution.


I'm an exclusive InCopy user (I'm a copyeditor, not a designer), so any alternatives (including opening/editing such files in InDesign or similar possible solutions) are out of the question. It is also worth mentioning that, as a professional copyeditor, I receive many books per month to be edited over the course of weeks (so that, over the course of days, as I said, when turning the computer off and on, I have to open each of the chapters one by one each time); so it's not a one-time problem.

I recognize that opening more than one file at once already demands a high computer/RAM processing, and opening 8 files/tabs may require a longer 'initialization', but an option that allows selecting, in 'Recent files', more than a file for them to be opened sequentially would be of great help.

If this option doesn't exist, it would be very helpful a new feature for opening more than one document at a time (for example, by selecting more than one file in Open > Recent or something like that). This would save me a lot of time (and procrastination-induced time wasting).

Regards,
Allan

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine

Creating a smart folder in Bridge is a piece of cake. From there you can just open the files.

 

There is nothing wrong with OneDrive for this. I've used it quite a few times to collaborate but what I don't understand is why these files aren't shared there instead of using WeTransfer. Seems like a silly thing to do when just saving them into a shared folder will do.

 

Getting this as feature request is not at all likely to happen. Mostly because it's more of an operating system issue than anything else. On Windows you could search File Explorer for INDD files and open them from there.

1 reply

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 5, 2023

Why use open recent when you can just use file > open and select as many as you want? If they're in different folders you can use a smart folder in Bridge and open them from there.

Allan Moraes
Allan MoraesAuthor
Participant
July 5, 2023

Hello, Bob
Thaks for the quick asnwer. 🙂

Thats exactly my problem: the chapters are in different folders:

 


I was afraid I would have to use something else (as Bridge) to find such a solution for my problem. I've never used Bridge and have no idea how I will manage this. Hope it's easy and intuitive. Also, I don't use Creative Cloud as my cloud storage for these files. I have to use (for many different reasons) OneDrive, and the files I edit using InCopy are sent to the inhouse designers/copyeditors via WeTransfer (as a .zip file). Hope I don't mess up something using Bridge/OneDrive (I've had some problems with OneDrive sync function recently); but I think I have no other option (and I think that such a feature as I requested — Open Recent [select more than one file] — would be very helpful).

Thaks again for now.

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 5, 2023

Creating a smart folder in Bridge is a piece of cake. From there you can just open the files.

 

There is nothing wrong with OneDrive for this. I've used it quite a few times to collaborate but what I don't understand is why these files aren't shared there instead of using WeTransfer. Seems like a silly thing to do when just saving them into a shared folder will do.

 

Getting this as feature request is not at all likely to happen. Mostly because it's more of an operating system issue than anything else. On Windows you could search File Explorer for INDD files and open them from there.

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