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C
cmoke73
Inspiring
February 23, 2018
Answered

Smart Object from InDesign

  • February 23, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 6347 views

Hi!

By preparing a newsletter I use (in a master document) smart objects. They can be edited in Illustrator. Its okay, but when I have a prize like "only 12,99 $" I need the possibility to work with character styles inside a paragraph style. Like: make the first four characters of this paragraph like this, make the next two characters like that ...

That's why I want the object to open in InDesign. There are more possibilities to work with text.

Is this feasible?

regards!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Conrad_C

Because Photoshop does not read the InDesign file format directly, there's no way to directly import an InDesign file as a Smart Object.

The closest you will get is by using Place Linked on a PDF file of the InDesign document:

1. Export the InDesign document as Adobe PDF.

2. In Photoshop, choose File > Place Linked, select the PDF and click Place.

3. If it's a multiple-page PDF file, you can now select which page you want.

4. Place the page. It is now in the Photoshop document as a linked PDF Smart Object.

When you want to update the text in the linked PDF Smart Object:

1. Open the InDesign file that generated the PDF.

2. Make your edit.

3. Export the PDF the same way you did before, completely replacing the earlier version. (If nothing else has changed, this should be as quick and easy as pressing the Export shortcut, pressing Enter/Return, and confirming the overwrite of the same file name.)

4. Switch back to Photoshop. Photoshop will automatically update the pages you placed when it notices that the linked PDF has changed.

No, it isn't as easy as opening directly from Photoshop back into InDesign, but at least you don't have to do anything in Photoshop, since it will automatically update the linked PDF.

2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
February 24, 2018

Because Photoshop does not read the InDesign file format directly, there's no way to directly import an InDesign file as a Smart Object.

The closest you will get is by using Place Linked on a PDF file of the InDesign document:

1. Export the InDesign document as Adobe PDF.

2. In Photoshop, choose File > Place Linked, select the PDF and click Place.

3. If it's a multiple-page PDF file, you can now select which page you want.

4. Place the page. It is now in the Photoshop document as a linked PDF Smart Object.

When you want to update the text in the linked PDF Smart Object:

1. Open the InDesign file that generated the PDF.

2. Make your edit.

3. Export the PDF the same way you did before, completely replacing the earlier version. (If nothing else has changed, this should be as quick and easy as pressing the Export shortcut, pressing Enter/Return, and confirming the overwrite of the same file name.)

4. Switch back to Photoshop. Photoshop will automatically update the pages you placed when it notices that the linked PDF has changed.

No, it isn't as easy as opening directly from Photoshop back into InDesign, but at least you don't have to do anything in Photoshop, since it will automatically update the linked PDF.

C
cmoke73Author
Inspiring
February 26, 2018

Hi Conrad. Thanks for the hint.

Yes, that could be a solution if one works with the object once a month. I have searched for a quick (and accurate) way to handle prize-changes in the newsletter. Even when somebody new is working with the master-documents, to offer an easy way to work with them: just leth them mark the whole text and typeing the new content, without care about formating.

That´s like the prizes looks like:

Of course it also works with Illustrator (I do not want to do it in PS because it's supposed to stay one object, background and text), but then you have to change the elements one by one: first "only" then $ and then cent.

It's not a tragedy, just a small part of the workflow I wanted to optimize.

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 23, 2018

Newsletter as in digitally distributed or printed?

Character Styles exist in Photoshop so why Smart Objects in the first place?

C
cmoke73Author
Inspiring
February 23, 2018

Is digital, but it doesn´t matter. You can´t combine character styles in a paragraph style by Photoshop or Illustrator (nested styles). Like in InDesign:

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