Participant

Question

Exported PDF to Word document and it saved over my INDD file?!

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
March 11, 2025
3 replies
269 views

I was working on a document for my job and had the most bizarre experience happen.

I had a translation INDD file that was saved as a PDF. I opened the PDF and did a standard File>Export>Microsoft Word and saved as a .docx, believing it would save a separate word file. I didn't get any prompt(s) that suggested it was saving OVER the INDD file. I went to open the INDD file and it was gone?! Only the PDF and word document remain. I've scoured my files, trash bin, everything, to no avail.

Is the INDD file gone for good now? Did I actually somehow save over the INDD with a word document?

Please, can anyone tell me what happened and if there is a way to fix it?

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Did you happen to open the INDD before you exporting the PDF to Word? Are you sure the INDD file had content to begin with?

I just tested the overwrite on Windows 11 and Mac Sequoia--it's practically impossible to overwrite one file type with another, even with file extensions turned off.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Sillygoose73Author

Participant

I did not have the INDD file open before I exported it, but the INDD definitely had content. I can't figure out how/why my INDD file would have disappeared suddenly.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Again, how did you receive the INDD file?

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

The bad news is that any file saved over one of the same name is essentially lost, except to very deep sector-level file recovery techinques.

But you're not clear here — I don't see how FILENAME.DOCX could be "saved over" FILENAME.INDD. Only a fairly bizarre combination of actions and errors could create such a chain of events, and usually, apps append their own correct file extension no matter what you specify in the Save As field. (That is, FILENAME.INDD would be saved as FILENAME.INDD.DOCX.)

I'd have to check, but it's just possible your PDF reader — you don't say if it's Acrobat or another tool — allowed you to click on FILENAME.INDD as the destination and then wrote its output to that name, without correcting/adding the DOCX suffix. Even then, it would have (or should have) popped up a warning about overwriting an existing file.

And that doesn't explain in any way how saving a file of one name, which had nothing to do with converting a PDF to a DOCX, could result in that file being deleted.

I am not saying you aren't describing exactly what happened, but I can't think of any combination of application actions that would result in the chain of events you describe. At some point, the wrong file, or filename, or Yes/No option must have been chosen. If you can't find the INDD file somewhere other than that folder, and don't have any backup to work with, you're going to have to reconstruct it from the PDF and/or DOCX.

————

┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋

Sillygoose73Author

Participant

Yes, I agree that only a bizarre combination of actions and errors could have resulted in saving over the file. I use Acrobat Pro for PDFs and have never had this happen in the 7-8 years of using InDesign. I figured the case may be I have to recreate it unfortunately, but had hoped otherwise. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Exporting the PDF to Word would not have affected your InDesign file. I suspect you saved over it somehow.

If you had the original INDD file, why didn't you export that text to Word (assuming that was your end goal)?

How did you receive the translated files: email, file transfer, server, etc.? They would all still be available (service might need a backup recovery).

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Sillygoose73Author

Participant

Typically, I understand that exporting wouldn't have affected the Indesign file. I've never had this happen though. I didn't export from InDesign because I typically don't need to export anything to word, so I didn't realize that was an option. The original file would have been sent via email from before I started at the company, so I don't have access to whoever the original email went to.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded