Making a copy of a book with everything linked properly

Question

I make technical documentation in InDesign, and very often I need to make a separate copy of an existing book to use as a template for a new project. The fact that this is very difficult makes InDesign a joke of a software. Let's be specific:
I can use "Package for print". That makes a copy of the book, documents, links, and fonts, and seemingly does what I need. Except that the cross-references still point to the original documents. So I would need to update every cross-reference manually. And as far as I can tell, there is no way to automate this using a script. Then I encountered a solution that if InDesign can not access linked content, it will look around the book file and automatically relink to it. Great, that is exactly what I need. Except I need to make the original "disappear" to use this. So if I copy a template from a folder I only have read access to (so I can't change the path to the original), but need to make a copy on the same network drive (so I can't just disconnect it temporarily), the way to go is:

1) Package for print to a local drive

2) Disconnect from the network

3) Open the book and open every document in the book so that everything relinks

4) Reconnect to the network

5) Cut and paste the book and all documents/links to the new location on the network

6) Open the book and open every document in the book again...

7) Curse loudly for everyone in the office to hear (yes, this is mandatory)

If anyone has a better way, I would love to hear about it. I did my best to test things and search online for a solution, so I am convinced there is none.

Why is there no way to trigger the relinking manually instead of having to make the original not accessible? All the necessary functions exist, if only they could be packaged into a new function: "make an independent copy".

Eugene Tyson · Answer

Hi Adam,You’ve nailed it InDesign doesn’t really have a “make independent copy of a book” feature. Cross-references in particular are absolute and don’t reset automatically when you duplicate a book. That’s why you keep seeing them point back to the old files. A few things you can try:Relative paths: If all the files in your book are in the same folder, packaging to a local drive and then moving that folder often lets InDesign relink automatically. The problem is that cross-references are document-level, not link-level, so they don’t behave as nicely.Scripts: There isn’t an out-of-the-box script that will “repoint all cross-references to this new folder,” but it is technically scriptable. A script could loop through cross-references and update them to the new file paths, but you’d need to build or commission one.Some people export the Book to IDML, then reopen from the new folder. That breaks absolute links and forces InDesign to look locally not elegant, but cleaner than disconnecting the network.Third-party plugins: Tools like EasyCatalog or dedicated book-management extensions sometimes make handling this workflow easier, but they’re not cheap. Unfortunately, your “disconnect the network” method is pretty much the hack most people end up with. You’re not wrong to call this a design gap it would be hugely useful if Adobe added a “Make Independent Copy” command that reset cross-references.

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