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Peter Villevoye
Community Expert
Peter VillevoyeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 7, 2016
Answered

InDesign CC 2017 files opening directly in CS6

  • December 7, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 11366 views

A course attendee who followed an InDesign training in a version CC 2015, would like to open their files in InDesign CS6 (which is good enough for her work). Of course, we could have saved a separate IDML file or created a package (with the IDML automatically included in the folder).

But as I recall correctly, from a certain version on, InDesign CC went on to save IDML resources into the native INDD file itself ! So the InDesign CC file should open directly in CS6, prompting the obvious warning that the conversion might omit certain newer features. I just tried it and it works. But I can't find a trace of this new behavior in any Help resource or New Feature list. (I'd like to refer the user to a URL explaining the procedure.) Am I dreaming, or... ?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Laubender

    Peter Villevoye wrote:

    … But as I recall correctly, from a certain version on, InDesign CC went on to save IDML resources into the native INDD file itself !

    Hi Peter,

    no. That's not the case.

    What's going on is that a CS6 v8.1.0 (maybe also CS6 v8.0.2) licensed and running under Creative Cloud and at least with OSX 10.7.5 or higher is able to call a special service that is tied to an InDesign server on Adobe's server farm somewhere on the net where the newer version file is opened by InDesign server in the background, an IDML is written, the IDML is opened with your CS6 and saved with your CS6 to your convenience.

    This service—called Simple Saveback—can only reached with a fully licensed CC app ( for at least InDesign, I think).

    FWIW some details:
    So if you even have a license for CC and running InDesign CC and CS6 on an old OSX 10.6.8 the service will not work, because there is no CC app for OSX 10.6.8 available. The old Adobe Application Manager on OSX 10.6.8 is not able to connect to the service.

    Regards,
    Uwe

    2 replies

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    December 7, 2016

    Peter Villevoye wrote:

    … But as I recall correctly, from a certain version on, InDesign CC went on to save IDML resources into the native INDD file itself !

    Hi Peter,

    no. That's not the case.

    What's going on is that a CS6 v8.1.0 (maybe also CS6 v8.0.2) licensed and running under Creative Cloud and at least with OSX 10.7.5 or higher is able to call a special service that is tied to an InDesign server on Adobe's server farm somewhere on the net where the newer version file is opened by InDesign server in the background, an IDML is written, the IDML is opened with your CS6 and saved with your CS6 to your convenience.

    This service—called Simple Saveback—can only reached with a fully licensed CC app ( for at least InDesign, I think).

    FWIW some details:
    So if you even have a license for CC and running InDesign CC and CS6 on an old OSX 10.6.8 the service will not work, because there is no CC app for OSX 10.6.8 available. The old Adobe Application Manager on OSX 10.6.8 is not able to connect to the service.

    Regards,
    Uwe

    Peter Villevoye
    Community Expert
    Peter VillevoyeCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    December 7, 2016

    Wow !! Thanks for these two insightful replies.

    This is really something. With Ian's reply I realized "Oh no, it's that first subscription version of CS6 again". But with Laubender's reply explaining the nuts and bolts behind this behavior, I had a very rare jaw-dropping and eye-popping experience...

    So: it's not a feature, it's an online service !

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 7, 2016

    Hi Peter,

    I would wish, that InDesign someday would save a double layered document where IDML is included as a second layer of information. Technically no problem I'd think. Then the Simple Saveback Service would be obsolete and InDesign versions back to CS4 should be able to open any InDesign document higher (with all consequences of course). But for the old versions that would also mean a small addition in functionality to detect the IDML in the data stream of a document file…

    Regards,
    Uwe

    I
    Ian Blogs
    Inspiring
    December 7, 2016

    It is explained here:

    http://indesignsecrets.com/cs6-update-opening-newer-cc-files.php

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