Book (INDB) requires specific Save-As, every time?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I know there have been posts about this but I can't dredge any up.

When I close a Book (INDB), InDesign insists on treating it as modified/converted file and a new name or a confirmation to overwrite the existing one. Has this always been the behavior? Is there a point to it, or is it simply an overlooked glitch in file handling?

(v20.1/Win11, but I've encountered it since at least v19.x. Don't recall the last time I worked with a Book project, so can't say if it occurred in any prior/less recent versions.)

[Barb Binder]

I work with lots of books and I haven't seen that behavior., James.

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Thanks, Barb. I didn't think it was normal behavior... off to try all the usual fixes. Not too big a hassle but I am working with two Book projects right now and it's one of those pea-under-the-mattress things. 🙂

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Creating a wholly new book from scratch solved the problem. The cause might may have been corruption from adding files last worked on across the last couple of ID versions.

[Barb Binder]

Plus, if you opened the book file in a new version, you would need to do a save as because it would be converted even though it wouldn't say that.

FWIW, I work on a lot of repeating projects and find it easiest to just create a new book file before adding the chapters. I end up losing time trying to reuse a book from the last version. I established this practice a long time ago, and I'm not even sure now what was slowing me down.

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It happened (expectedly) when I updated ID. No problem. But it kept happening, and I finally opened and re-saved all the component files in case it was a old-version among them that was causing the behavior. Nothing fixed it until I created a wholly new Book. I ass/u/me some bit or toggle was stuck or corrupted by the update and perhaps the asynchronous updating of component files. But I did work through all the usual fixes before asking here  —the confirmation that it wasn't supposed to be that way pointed to the solution.

And yes, most projects really don't need a Book file until the last stages. Probably not useful or efficient to try and maintain a Book through all the early development phases of the component chapters.