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A
Anonymous
April 4, 2017
Question

External drive backup for mac and windows

  • April 4, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 767 views

Hi

We are writing a book and have a contractor doing the layout with indesign.  Since the book is pretty far along, we want to get a copy in-house and our contractor is having trouble getting a backup onto an external drive (which she could then mail to us).  She is a mac person and we are windows people.  I don't know the software for anything so I'm hoping that someone can provide me a link or step by step to forward to the contractor. 

Thank you in advance for help.

Regards,

George

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    MJ Haider
    MJ Haider
    Participant
    April 20, 2017

    On Mac you can take a backup using Time Machine software. It's an inbuilt software included with your Mac. For that you need a hard drive at least same the size of your Mac, but it's better if it's twice the storage capacity of your Mac. You can take help through this link http://www.howali.com/2017/04/how-to-back-up-mac-to-external-hard-drive-time-machine.html to take back up of your book using Time Machine.

    Regards,

    MJ Haider

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 6, 2017
    1. Use dropbox.
    2. Require that the contractor uses only OTF fonts (or TTF). Other mac-only font type can cause you to have problems.
    3. Require that all files have the correct extension added. Many Mac user don't use them.
    4. Forbid the contractor to use any other letter than a to z A to Z 0 to 9 and - _
      Never use /.:\ or any other extended character in the file's or folder's or directory's name as this can cause huge interplatform problems.

    5. At the end the contractor has to package the file with all assets of all hidden content and also save an IDML and a PDF/X with bleed for you.
      A
      Anonymous
      April 6, 2017

      Thank you for the reply, just the answers I was hoping for.

      best regards

      M
      Migintosh
      Legend
      April 5, 2017

      Unless you know how to use InDesign, getting the files won't do you much good. If you just want to see what the designer is doing, have her export a PDF from InDesign and send it to you. You can view it on your Windows machine without any trouble at all, without needing any additional software. From there, you have several options if you want to offer editorial suggestions.

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      April 5, 2017

      Not clear what part is proving difficult. Is it the art of packaging an InDesign file for sharing (Ask us about packaging)  Or the art of using a disk on both Mac and Windows (Ask us how to use exFAT)?

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      April 6, 2017

      Your contractor just needs to do a "Save As", and select another location for the InDesign document, they can also "Package" the InDesign files and save or send them to you. You would need a CC account to access the TypeKit fonts.

      As mentioned PDF is the easiest for viewing, but can't easily be changed.


      A normally setup PC disk can't be written by a Mac and a normally set up Mac disk can't be read by a PC. So you first need to format the disk as exFAT; now both of you can at least use the disk. The contractor should package the design to make a new package on their hard drive, then drag that to the external disk. You will need the SAME release of InDesign so make sure you know what was used; if it is older than CS6 that is not available.

      Do not accept a PDF alone, you won't be able to edit your property.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 4, 2017

      It’s 2017!

      Mac and Windows play nice together. Put all the files into a Dropbox folder and be done with it.

      A
      Anonymous
      April 5, 2017

      Thank you, good suggestion.  I'll see if our contractor can do that. 

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