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valentinb76073838
Participant
April 26, 2019
Question

Indesign replacing text content with cloud placeholder

  • April 26, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 195 views

Hello everyone,

we got a pretty weird problem here at the office. A co-worker (who doesn't work here anymore, which might not be an important information, but at least she can't really help me out here) created a CC-Libraries folder containing all styles for paragraphs, textboxes and so on - containing placeholder content -  for a whole magazine-production.

So when setting up a new layout, the layouter now just drags and drops elements out of the CC-library into the new layout and they then get filled with editorial contents. This worked fine with one production but now (that she's gone) I suddenly had the problem, that in some finalized layouts, when I open the file, some textboxes (or in some files only a few) with the little cloud-icon that originate in the cc-library-master would suddenly just be overwritten with the placeholder text of these text-box elements. When our new layouter would open the same file, all textboxes would be perfectly fine. When she would generate a PDF out of that file, it would also have everything where it should be. My PDFs would still contain placeholder contents.

I later found out that the new layouter didn't really got invited to the same cc-library-master, but manually installed the master-library-file into the cc-library-panel.

So while I was using the library-master that I shared with the ex-co-worker, the new one wasn't really linked to this. This theoretically would sound like the perfect origin for my problem, if the indesign files wouldn't also show up fine in indesign of other co-workers who don't have the cc-library at all.

So I tried logging out of the library, reinstalling everything, I asked the new layouter to invite me to her library, I installed the library also manually like she did. But despite at some point coming to a point where Indesign would just end in a crash-loop forcing me to reinstall everything, I still see the placeholder-text.

I'm really not sure, what we can do, so every help is very welcome here.

I could ask the new layouter to also reinstall everything and relink the library again and so on, BUT as this could end up with her also having the same problems, I wanted to see what you guys might come up with.

Thanks in advance for every help,

cheers, val

    2 replies

    B
    Barb36631678joo0
    Participating Frequently
    November 11, 2025

    Have the same exact issue. What is the purpose or point of libraries if not to hold named text styles? Cannot think of a single situation where I want the copy to be linked across documents in THIS way. Even if there was a sweeping copy change, I would not want it automatically replaced in every old file; it would get picked up with overset text and sent off to print nonethewiser, etc.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    November 12, 2025

    Hi @Barb36631678joo0,

     

    Thanks for sharing your experience. I tested a similar setup on my end but couldn't reproduce this behavior, so I'd like to understand your environment better. Could you please confirm which version of InDesign and operating system you're using? Also, let me know if you're working in a managed environment like a workgroup or domain, or on a personal setup.

    It would really help if you could share a short screen recording showing your workflow and how the linked text from the CC Library is behaving, so I can test the same sequence and check this further with the team.

    For more details and reference, please check this HelpX article: https://adobe.ly/4p2IH03.

     

    Looking forward to your update.

    Abhishek

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 26, 2019

    Hi Val,

    I guess that the texts are placed and linked.

    So if they are updated, e.g. when some details are changed like formatting by double-clicking the text asset in CC Library the linked text is not only updating the formatting but also its contents. Means, the placeholder text.

    Regards,
    Uwe

    V
    valentinb76073838Author
    Participant
    April 26, 2019

    Hi Uwe, thanks for the answer; this is a helpful insight and I will try around with the behavior and updating process of linked elements. But the main-issue isn't necessary that certain contents are replaced by the placeholder text, but that it only happens to a few people including me. I borrowed an old computer with an indesign license to see if I can work on that one, but weirdly it shows me the same behavior with the blind texts in the textboxes. On other computers like the one of the layouter or of some editors it looks perfectly fine.

    If it would be replaced by placeholder text in general, I would just say that as you said it got overwritten by the previous state. But why is it only overwritten for a few users?

    The reason why this is really annoying is, that I need to create PDFs of the whole production and have to look on which pages there is this placeholder-issue occurring, then mail my co-worker (who works remotely) which pages are infected, she then would create PDFs of these pages, send them to me to then add them to the master-PDF.
    It's a painfully frustrating workflow when you know it could be so much faster if it would just work.

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