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Question

InDesign CS3: Plug-in problem

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
August 21, 2009
7 replies
187895 views

I am trying to open a file that was created by another company. It's telling me that InDesign cannot open the file and that I need to upgrade my plug-ins to their latest versions, or upgrade to the latest version of Adobe InDesign. It shows in this "Cannot Open File" dialog box a list of plug-ins that are already in my list of plug-ins in the "Configure Plug-Ins" dialog box. My question is, how do I upgrade my plug-ins to their lastest version?

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jennifer gallegos

Participant

I am trying to open an indd doc in cs3, and the doc was also created by a different author using cs3, however i can't open the doc due to missing or outdated plugins. There are 2 screens that appear, one with a shorter list, then a second screen with a much longer list of about 25+ that are missing. Where and how do I locate these missing plug-ins? Thanks for your help!

BobLevine

Community Expert

It was NOT created in CS3. It was created in a later version of InDesign.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

So, now the question is when did you have CS2? Do you still have access?

There are now a number of options. Upgrade to CS5 (as outlined way back in the thread). The bad news is that's going to be expensive. There is no upgrade from CS to CS5, so you need to buy a full license package, either ID alone, or a suite. If you still qualify for education pricing there's no doubt that's the best deal, and you should be able to purcahse through your school from someplace like JourneyEd.com. If you have CS2, though, and don't qualify for eduction pricing, that is the oldest version eligible for upgrade pricing (you don't have to have it installed, as long as you have a serial number or your media), and I would upgrade now rather than waiting if you can swing the cost. It's a LOT cheaper to upgrade than to start over.

Option 2 would be to download the CS2 trial. If it's never been installed on this computer youwill have 30 days to work with it, and you can open these files, export to Interchange format (.inx) and those files will be openable in your current installation of CS. It won't work, though if the trial was ever on the machine unless you format the hard drive and reinstall the OS.

Option 3 is to smile nicely and ask us to do the conversion for you. I'm willing to do up to around a dozen files, but not a hundred. We could split the load, though between a bunch of the regulars if there are a large number.

Hope that give you some clarity...

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nobledesignmedia

Participating Frequently

Peter, you are a godsend. I'm stunned. If these files were always CS2 files then I must have been editing them with this v.3.0.1 that is currently running as this is the absolute only inDesign I've had since before I can remember and these files, as you now see, were edited right here where I sit as recently as this time last year.

Very confused by how I worked on these files with what I had and yet now, can't. I'm hanging by a thread (so to speak) to see if I can follow options for the best possible choice given what you've found. If I understand you correctly, the only way to (hopefully) open these CS2 files is to somehow get CS5.

#1 choice: Since the current disks I own were an education suite I will have to see whether there are any education suite upgrades with CS5 for best pricing.

#2 choice: if there are none available, then I will have to choose to purchase a full version of CS5 out-of-pocket for US$699, which would be a real blow as that is a huge amount of money. I'm getting priced-out of these tools altogether as I will be needing my first After Effects shortly. And making that worse is that I'm not sure buying CS5 would get these CS2 files to open. Do you know whether they would?

#3 choice: I could take the book and try to reverse engineer the page layouts using the v. 3.0.1 I have here, hoping that that version will export/create suitable pdf's for my first-rate printers to work with. Which now that I think of it was likely the initial cause of my seeking out the CS5 trial in the first place. I vaguely recall something made me start seeking the upgrade--it wasn't just for sport.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

If the other files are also CS2, as I suspect they are, they were never edited in the version 3 you currently have installed. The file history can't lie about things like that an it just can't happen (as you are seeing). Are you absolutely positive you don't have CS2 someplace? The 2010 dates and the 4.0.5 patch level imply that the software was installed and fully updated at some point.

The only currently marketed edition of Adobe products through regular reseller channels is CS5, but your files will open in any version from CS2 through CS5. Be very careful, though, about purchasing an older version. The auction sites, for example, and many web pages offering older versions, are filled with counterfeit disks or copies that cannot be registered. Many, perhaps most, users are unaware that if they upgrade they cannot transfer the older version to a new user unless they also give them all of the other versions in the upgrade chain and completely remove the software from their systems. The must also supply a license transfer form (available as a download from Adobe). Educational software cannot be transferred at all.

As I said, an educational license is the best deal. It's relatively inexpensive and you get to continue using the software after you graduate or leave school, and can upgrade to a regular commercial license for a future version just like any commercial user. It's how I purchased a lot of my own software years ago. The downside is that you have to qualify, and that means being a student or faculty member at an accredited secondary school, and yes, they do ask for proof.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Do you know haow to send a Private message? Cilck on somebody's name to go to their profile and you'll see an "actions" box on the right side of the screen. That's where you'll find "send a private message."

N

nobledesignmedia

Participating Frequently

Yes, thank you, just send you a link to one of the key inDesign files for a book I need to work on now. Uploaded the file to WikiSend and sent that doc link to your private message addy on this fourm---Thank you for looking!

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Further, there are no "educational" upgrades, but you are eligible to use the regular commercial upgrades. The cost of the UPGRADE to the entire suite is probably about the same and purchasing a NEW standalone license for ID only (you cannot upgrade single components of a suite package), so you really should go that route. If you still qulify for educational pricing, you can get a new eduaction license (not an upgrade) for even less. Adobe telephone reps can arrarently be pretty dumb about this.

Since 5.5 has been announced, there's a reasonably good chance that if you buy CS5 now you'll qualify for a "free" upgrade (you have to pay a small fee for the disk) when 5.5 is released, if Adobe continues with past practices.

N

nobledesignmedia

Participating Frequently

Very kind of you, Peter. If buying something/anything would gain me access to my files I would do it right now. But even if I plonked down for the full Production Premium Suite I'm convinced it wouldn't resolve this.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Are you on Mac? This is one place where Windows is apparently clearly superior. The icons mean nothing. The Mac OS simply shows the icon for the last version installed for all files unless you have installed Rorohiko's Soxy utility, and both Windows and Mac will open the file in the last installed version if you double-click the filename (again, unless you have Soxy). You DON'T want to try to open old files that way becasue they will open in the wrong version, but even if you do, the should open as Filename(converted) and would require you to actively save as the old file name to overwrite the old version, again, something you should NOT do.

Did you TRY opening the files in CS3 using the File > Open command? What happened?

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I don't think anyone was trying to patronize you, just point out that it is impossible that thes files were not saved from CS4 or later. Did you perhaps at one time install a trial version?

If you want to post a link to one of these files, or send it to one of us in a private message, one of us will be happy to read the file history for you, and even convert it back to CS3.

I

ISJ HPacheco

Participating Frequently

Thank you Peter. No need. They will be easy to recreate. I was really just curious. (I have never installed a trial version.)

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Well, as we've been saying, there's absolutley just no way these files could need the world ready or conditional text plugins without having passed through a version of ID that includes them. I'd love to be able to send you a file history on one of these. It might give you a clue about what happened.

So you understand what the file history records, find an old file that you can still open, then hold down the Ctrl key on Windows or the Cmd key on Mac while choosing About InDesign from the Help (Windows) or InDesign (Mac) menu and you'll get an expanded "about" dialog. The lower left box in that dialog will show you a complete list of every time the file was opened and saved since creation or conversion, on what OS, and in what build of InDesign, and whether the file was converted from Pagemaker or Quark, or from a .inx or .idml file, or even if it was recovered from a system crash.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Exactly which plugins are listed? It's hard to believe that you are getting a message for plugins you say are installed. Jongware has has already covered the usual scenario...

Jongware

Community Expert

ConditionalText.rpln and WorldReady.rpln, by any chance? If so, the document has been created in InDesign CS4, and cannot be read by CS3.

These plugins are an integrated part of InDesign and cannot be upgraded by themselves. So upgrade to CS4, or ask the other people to save the document as Interchange doc (INX). Beware that the new (and very useful!) features of CS4 will be removed by either the downsave or by CS3 itself when you open the document.

(And another point is that the paragraph composer has been updated for CS4. Merely opening an INX will not re-format the existing text, but any text edit -- any at all -- will force CS3 to reformat it.)

T

TLuvJ23Author

Participant

Well, the first dialog box that opens is "Missing Plug-ins" and it lists the Conditional Text and World Ready plug-ins, but it asks if I want to open the document anyway, so I choose yes. Then the "Cannot Open File" dialog box pops up listing AppFramework, Indexing, XML, Generic Page Item, Package and Prefllight, Image, Maser Page, INCopy Shared, etc.

I thought it was possibly created in InDesign CS4, but the info for the document says CS3. So, that's why I was confused. There is a .inx file which is new to me. I wasn't aware of what that was, but I guess if the document was created in CS4, then they would have to export it to a .inx for me to work with it.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

It's a CS4 file. The second list is the standard plugins, but the CS4 versions depend on the two missing plugins you mentioned first.

.inx, with the previously mentioned caveats is the best you can do unless you upgrade to CS4 (which is a good investment if you use this professionally -- the increased productivity and new features will pay for themselves very quickly).

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