How can I save an InDesign template so someone else can edit (a picture and some text) who doesn't have indesign

[stephaniel34570423]

Is it possible for me to save an InDesign document or export it so that someone without the program is able to edit it? They want to keep a template and just swap out the photo and text. How can I do this?

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[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

It depends on what programs they do have. Recent versions of Acrobat allow for some editing of pdfs that have been made from InDesign documents but It's been my experience that text replacement is rather unreliable as far as actually doing much more than editing and/or replacing small areas of text. I wouldn't recommend it as an alternate page layout program. You can move around images and copy and paste images in from other documents. If you do try this make the pdf a pdf/X-4: 2010 with an Acrobat 8/9 compatibility (pdf 1.7).

Generally, when I've experienced a request like this it usually winds up being recreated in Microsoft Word since that is the program that most non-graphics people seem to all have. In those cases the documents had to be recreated in Word based on the InDesign original which really did defeat the purpose of using InDesign in the first place.

If you can provide more information about what programs the people you're dealing with have it would be a lot easier to help you.

[amaarora]

Hi,

I would like to add that without InDesign/InCopy, no program can open and edit .indd, .idml, .indt, .idms files.

Like Bill suggested, you can export template as pdf and get them edited but then you would have to incorporate each and every change back to InDesign manually..

-Aman

[Lisa Maxwell Art Director]

I have had very good results editing as a PDF, assuming you have version 8 or later of Acrobat Pro. You have excellent options for managing the whole document. There's just a little getting used to the interface.

[Bill Silbert]

The reliability of the editing really depends on how complex the layout is. For small changes it is fine but since the end result of the original question seems to be for people who would not usually be working in a page layout program it seems that editing in Acrobat might be more troublesome than they are perhaps ready for.

[THanke]

Is there a way to upload a locked design template (made in InDesign) somewhere online for them to drag and drop new photos into it like in Canva?