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morbith138
morbith138
Participating Frequently
May 25, 2018
Answered

Broken Links after Packaging (was "indesign 2018")

  • May 25, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 4450 views

Hi everyone,

i have an issue with absolute paths to links from a indd file. Im not sure if this existed in previous version, or maybe i havent noticed, but its very annoying.

So,

this is my problem.

When i package the book on "Location1" (on one of my drives), the links in those files still have an absolute path.

like

link   --->   drive: bla01/2081/BookFolder/Links/someFile.jpg

indd ---->  drive: bla01/2081/BookFolder/somefile.indd

Please keep in mind  that "Links" folder is in same root folder as .indd file. That folder is "BookFolder".

That being said i didnt see at the time that i named folder 2081 instead of 2018. So as soon as i change the book's parent folder to 2018, the links get broken. So because it is a PACKAGED book, shouldnt this "BookFolder" be independent of any parent folders. I mean the path to links from indd file should be relative, right? Like websites.  Because that "BookFolder" i should be able to move around, send it via email to other colleagues and stuff, and no meter where they or i place it, we should be able to just start working without geting brokent links. Isnt that the final idea?

Because right now, as soon is i change the parent folder to 2018, or i move the whole package to drive: bla01/someOtherLocation/BookFolder/, indesign files report broken links. And that is pretty dumb in my opinion.

Does anyone have similar issues? Or is it a featur?. Altho, i can not pathom what feature would that be. This should work just like html and css does, IMHO.

It doesnt metter what indd version it is. On all of them i get the same experience. Runing on High Sierra.

Exept when i export idml file. Then it works fine, when its opened on some other computer.

Thank you all, in advance

Morb

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer hammer0909

You can do what your asking in that you can package it and send it to other users and they can work on the file without the links being broken. I guess you could say they're absolute paths relative to where the InDesign document lives. The InDesign book panel and the links panel for that matter, is looking for a specific file in a specific path for those files. However, if the folder that contains those files exists in the same folder as the InDesign file, then it will find those links even though the path has technically changed. As long as those subfolders and the file names are the same, it should work. Feel free to add that additional subfolder and relink the files. From then on it should work. But you can't continue to change the file directory path because the files links will continue to break. Make sense?

4 replies

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2018

We had another discussion about renaming folders and files and I will repeat what I said then. Do not rename folders. Do not rename files.

You named it wrong? Delete the package and repackage it. End of story.

That would have taken you way less time than the amount of time that’s been spent here.

Now, if I’m misunderstanding (which is entirely possible) you’re going to need to do a much better job of describing the issue including some screenshot so we can get some visuals.

morbith138
morbith138Author
Participating Frequently
May 26, 2018

here is quick video of what is my problem.

But when i send you zipped BOOK folder, it should work, right? So basicly why path on my computer can not be changed, and on yours it can. This is basicly what is bugging me.

thank you all.

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2018

I'm using email so I didn't see the video until after I sent my previous response. Doesn't really clarify what you did, though.

hammer0909
Community Expert
hammer0909Community Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2018

InDesign doesn't have relative links like web sites do. Not exactly anyway. When you change the name of the folder from 2081 to 2018, InDesign is looking for a folder called 2081 regardless of what you named it to. Now if the InDesign document is in that 2018 folder, all your links will be fine. That however is not good file management. An easy way to fix this is to select all of the missing links in the links panel and choose "Relink to Folder". Choose the new 2018 folder and all of your links should be good. They should also be fine now when you send this package to other users because InDesign knows where to look.

morbith138
morbith138Author
Participating Frequently
May 26, 2018

Chad, thanx for answering.

Then What is the point of packaging the book if all the links will remain to have the absolute path. Absolute path means, that if i send you a packaged book folder zipped, when you unzip it, open any indd file, path to the link has to be absolutely the same as on my computer. Which is wrong.

Because you should able to unzip it on your , let say, desktop and start working. That is fundamental idea of packaging book for print.

That means indesign file will only look for "LINKS" folder and as long as that "LINKS" folder is located in the same folder as .indd file, all shoould be good. Right? That is called realtive path linking.

Yo wrote:

"Now if the InDesign document is in that 2018 folder, all your links will be fine."

So "BookFolder" with 170 separated .indd files are in that "2081"folder.  And no, as soon as i change it to 2018 links get broken.

And i also need to nest this book folder into one more folder. But as soon as i do, all links get broken as well. And they shouldnt.

And i have 175 separated personalized documents and i i should update each and everyone of them, or run some script to do it for me every time i wanna move the BookFolder localy? And at the same time, you dont have to do it if i send it to you zipped. That makes no sence to me at all.

morbith138
morbith138Author
Participating Frequently
May 26, 2018

morbith138  wrote

Then What is the point of packaging the book if all the links will remain to have the absolute path.

...

And i have 175 separated personalized documents and i i should update each and everyone of them, or run some script to do it for me every time i wanna move the BookFolder localy? And at the same time, you dont have to do it if i send it to you zipped. That makes no sence to me at all.

Hi Morb,

As users, we can only explain how InDesign works. Adobe maintains a bug report/feature request list that is read by the engineers and ideas are voted on by users.

Please post your request here: Adobe InDesign Feedback

Best,

Jane


Hi Jane,

i know, i am sorry if i seemed dissrespectful. It wasnt my intention.

I know also how indesign works, i have been using it for 10 years now. But i never experienced that untill i upgraded to High Sierra and IN2018. And i dont know, where to start my search in figuring it out.

So basicly im was trying to explain what is happening to me and to see if im wrong crazy or someone has the same problem.

Thnx

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 25, 2018

Did you choose to update the links in the packaged folder?

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