Collaborate on InDesign magazine between Mac and PC with no server

[Alan36391784u42k]

Greetings! I compose and store a magazine on a PC with Windows 10. The publisher/editor uses a Mac. We've learned to use the Review comments, but it would be easier for him to access and edit the magazine himself on his Mac. We do not use a server, but we have, of course, Internet access, as well as Google Drive and Dropbox. In the past, I've made a PDF of the magazine and used comments in Google Drive and Dropbox but, again, it would be better for both of us to access and edit the document. I'm sure the answer is within previous community posts, but I'm not familiar enough with ID options to understand them. Thank you!

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

Package the project and transfer to shared cloud location . Reverse and repeat.

You can streamline such a process if you carefully synchronize resources and settings at each end, but for projects smaller than an encyclopedia, it takes little time to Package and upload it, which makes it a complete, standalone resource.

There is no — repeat, no — collaboration method that will let you actively share the same fileset, even with careful avoidance of trying to access things at the same time (which lock files help with, but don't entirely prevent), without an active network server you share. In theory the cloud server platforms allow this; in practice, the frustrations and horror stories make me say never never.

Especially across platforms, which is usually a minor point in this era. The variations in networking protocols alone, outside of that fully configured network connection, can be problematic.

[BobLevine]

Package it into a Dropbox folder. Share the folder and make sure you both have any smart sync features turned off.

The only thing that won't sync is the InDesign lock file so it's essential for you both to communicate so you don't both open the file at the same time.

The only other caveats are to be sure that you're not using any illegal characters in the file names and only use OpenType fonts.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Alan36391784u42k 

If just to edit text - maybe InCopy will be better?

You still need to pack files, etc. - but you won't have to worry that he will move/delete something by accident.