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LScarle90552464
Participant
August 17, 2017
Answered

Working between a Mac and PC

  • August 17, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 15845 views

Hi,

So, at work I use at Mac.

For remote working I need a laptop. If I went with the Microsoft Surface book will I be able to open my InDesign files I have created on the Mac on a or do I need a Mac Book Pro?

Thanks in advacne,

Chantelle

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer John Mensinger

Running like versions of InDesign (or any CC app), you should have no problem working cross-platform, as long as you have the same fonts available on both systems. Open Type fonts are essential to such a workflow.

4 replies

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
August 15, 2019

kd299305  wrote

What is an NAS drive so that I can see if this is a capability we have? What you explained about how your designers work is exactly my goal.

NAS = Network Attached Storage.

It's really just a small "box" (about the size of a shoe box) that houses one or more hard drives. Takes the place of a larger file server, which is a full-fledged computer with many hard drives. A NAS is simplier and easier to set up, and certain brands are very compatible with handling files from both Macs and PCs.

It's a personal cloud server..."personal" because the NAS is onsite at your place, not on someone else's server in the cloud. You retain all of your information.

We use the Synology brand called DiscStation. The software to run and maintain it is provided by Synology. What is NAS | Synology Inc.

Everyone on our team logs into the NAS the same way you would to a server. Our remote people use an additional piece of software to connect to the NAS, usually a VPN (Virtual Personal Network). After logging in, everyone has access to any of the files on the NAS. Just click to open the InDesign file. Everyone always has access to the latest version. Nothing to download to desktops or upload back to the NAS...the files are just live "there" on the NAS.  Been doing this for 7-8 years.

Whether you're on Windows or Mac, you open and save files to the NAS the same as you would to any internal file server. Select the drive and folder, and save or open the file. It's quite seamless.

The IT department at your organization should be able to set up a NAS for you, or designate a drive on the regular file server for your files. Allowing the telecommuters to access them via remote would require VPN software on their systems and protocols on the server to allow them to access the server remotely. That's not a big deal today, given that more than half the working population telecommutes at least one day per month.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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TheMudKid
Participant
October 21, 2019

We just incorporated macs into our workplace and have all of our Indesign file assets stored on a server where our individual Indesign documents link to. When the macs open up the Indesign documents, the files aren't "mapped" the same way and we have to fix broken links, then when saving and someone on a PC opens up the document, their Indesign can't find the links because of how the Mac has saved the path to the links and have to be re-linked again. How do you all work around that?

    D
    defaulte0bjwipyja3r
    Participant
    January 26, 2022

    @TheMudKid I am facing the same issue - the path linking to the OneDrive folder location is different on a Mac (Macintosh HD / Users / OneDrive) than on a PC. I can't work out a way around this, that would allow others working on PC to open up Adobe files without relinking everything each team.

    Has anyone had experience with this?

    JonathanArias
    JonathanArias
    Legend
    August 17, 2017

    Issues will come in typefaces, they are not all created equal. having a font manager is of most importance to truly control your type and different forms ( opentype, truetype, postscript).  Typefaces are the variable here that will disrupt the cross platform set up you are talking about, not adobe indesign software.  I personally stick to opentype. Font folio 11 from adobe is a dream to work with. If you can get the company to buy it for you, you will have nothing but easy streets ahead.

    hope this helps.

    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 17, 2017

    The files created with Creative Cloud InDesign will work cross platform between Mac and PC. The only real thing to watch out for is fonts. If you use only Opentype fonts you should be OK as they were created to be cross platform. Truetype fonts on Mac and PC may have the same names but they will not usually work correctly cross platform.

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 17, 2017

    Windows TrueType is crossplatform.

    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 17, 2017

    In my agency we have had many problems trying to use Truetype Windows fonts cross platform with Mac especially with the Microsoft Office programs.

    John Mensinger
    Community Expert
    John MensingerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 17, 2017

    Running like versions of InDesign (or any CC app), you should have no problem working cross-platform, as long as you have the same fonts available on both systems. Open Type fonts are essential to such a workflow.

    kd299305
    kd299305
    Participant
    August 14, 2019

    I am having some really frustrating issues with using InDesign between PC and Mac. We used opentype so fonts hasn't been an issue but when I open the file on my Mac, I see lines of text that are a different color than the rest of the document, things that were re-formatted using the PC are not showing up as re-formatted when opened on the Mac (even after saving as a new file name) and applied character styles are gone and instead my paragraphs are showing that we have overrides applied which typically does not happen when using the character style to format the text. Every time I open the document I've been working on today it gives me a missing fonts dialogue and even after going through and replacing all of them with the intended font, it seems to revert back when it is saved to Creative Cloud and re-opened elsewhere. I convinced my team to switch to InDesign from Word to create these very long documents and I am pretty embarrassed about how poorly the experience has been. I have read so many things that say with the newest versions of InDesign and through sharing the files with Creative Cloud, this would be a seamless process. Any ideas as to why we are having so many struggles? Sort of related to that, is it typical to have the document display differently when previewed using the Web Creative Cloud app vs. when opened in InDesign? Thanks!

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 14, 2019

    Not a big fan of creative cloud storage. I prefer Dropbox and Onedrive as proven entities.

    Please post screenshots showing the issues.

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