InDesign Backwards Compatibility in CS5 an MAJOR issue

[Cynthia Ryan Graphic]

I am a print designer who works in InDesign. I bought CS3 Design Premium in late summer of 2008. Shortly thereafter CS4 came out, but after just having forked out a big chunk of change, I decided against upgrading to CS4 right away. Recently I considered upgrading but then heard CS5 was coming out so I decided to postpone the upgrade and wait for the new software. I've just checked out the trial version of CS5 InDesign and after speaking with Adobe Support have come to the conclusion that I can't upgrade to CS5. Why? BACKWARDS compatibility to CS3. The previously offered export features that supplied a path for backwards compatibility via an .inx file are gone.

I design freelance for a lot of different customers and once the design is complete, I have to deliver the InDesign file along with all associated fonts ad images to my clients. Most of my clients are still on CS3. If I upgrade to CS5 I will instantly not be able to work for 2/3 of my clients, as I will have no means by which to save a file backwards to CS3. I was informed by Adobe support that I would need to buy CS4 and CS5, as I could save my CS5 file in the IDML format and open it in CS4 and then I could save the file from CS4 as an INX file and open that is CS3. ARE THEY INSANE??? First off that requires keeping 3 version of InDesign up and running on my machine all of the time and secondly, why should I have to buy CS4 when I'm paying an additional fee to upgrade to CS5 because I didn't upgrade from CS4? This is so screwed up that it has to be an oversight---please tell me there is a patch in the works!!!

PS- I've never posted to a forum before, so if I have broken any rules of forum etiquette or offended in any way, I offer my apologies now and if I (and the Adobe Support staff I spoke to) have overlooked something, please enlighten me!

[BobLevine]

You don't need a progress bar when it's being done in the background. You can open the background task panel or watch the little icon in the control panel but why you'd want to do that rather than getting back to work is a mystery to me.

Bob

[John Hawkinson]

You don't need a progress bar when it's being done in the background. You can open the background task panel or watch the little icon in the control panel but why you'd want to do that rather than getting back to work is a mystery to me.

So, I'm very confused what the "win" is with the background export feature.

For me, when I export to PDF, I do that because I need to do something with the PDF file, often on a deadline. That means ftp it to a printer, copy it to a flash drive, or email it to someone. So I am waiting for the export to finish and I want to know the millisecond it is done (well, ok, not that fast. But definitely I want to know faster than a second).

I guess that's not how other people work?

I'm still stuck on earlier versions for complicated reasons (but of course we have CS5 here because we keep up with maintenance because otherwise we'd be in a world of hurt...), so I haven't actually tried the background export. But from everything I've read including Adobe's lauding of it, it seems like an annoyance rather than a feature.

How does it work in the real world?

[BobLevine]

You tell InDesign to launch Acrobat when it's done and then you use the send to feature in Acrobat to email it to someone.

Bob

[Peter Spier]

@ John,

The "win" is that while you're waiting for that 100 page PDF to export you can now finish the ad and a P.O. you need, too.

[Guest]

Select in your export a PDF preferences to open the PDF when it is complete. Though in my experience, ID slows down so much when exporting large files in the background that you might as well switch to another app to work. You won't get much else done while ID is supposedly crunching that PDF in the background. (I need to add that I have recently discovered that live preflight is the biggest culprit, here. Turn that off and ID quits lugging down so much.)

For the most part, the background export doesn't bother me, except when it doesn't work properly (in fact, it was one of the new features I was excited about). Part of my problem is that ID CS5 has been remarkably unstable for me. On simple documents, I have no problems, but the more complicated the document, the more likely ID is to crash or lock up.  With the PDF export, sometimes it just doesn't work--gets stuck somewhere along the way. The little x to cancel doesn't work, and it keeps you from closing the document.  I find in such circumstances that I have to just force quit ID. But I've had a great day if I don't have at least 2 crashes or had to force quit ID at least once in a day. I have to agree with one of the other rants that Adobe seems to be releasing apps that are just not stable enough for the real world or have not been adequately beta tested. I've felt like a beta tester on CS5 rather than a paying user. I've already reported 2 reproducible bugs and have suspected two or three more that I'm unable to figure out exactly how to reproduce. The epub export bug for intrabook hyperlinks is a really puzzling one to me. Why so obvious a bug that destroys the functionality of a major feature has not been fixed is beyond me. I'm backsaving to CS4 to create epubs. I've been using ID since version 1 and have never had so many problems with an ID version.  I'd offer myself as a beta tester, but I guess I'm currently paying for that privilege.

Regarding backwards compatibility. This has always been the way ID has worked. It surprises me that it catches so many people by surprise. Though I do have to say that having to work continously between three versions just to get my work done because of all the bugs in CS5 does make it a bigger annoyance than usual. I'm used to saying "bye bye and good riddance" to previous versions when I install the latest and greatest, but not so with CS5.  CS4 still has to be opened to get my epubs to export properly and that means backsaving--which for book files can become a real PAIN. Most of my older files I just open in their native CS3 rather than face any issues I'll probably run into with CS5--because I always have to do the roundtrip to IDML with older files since ID will not let you delete a missing plugin from a file. Major annoyance there. It's not realistic, in my mind, to require previous version files to be roundtripped that way just to do a simple update. The application should do it automatically when opening older version files.

Just thought I'd add my rant to the topic today. I've been getting progressively more annoyed with CS5 as I've worked in it (which is since it shipped). Now I've run into an a truly annoying bug with updating InCopy files in a complex document (ID just crashes). After I have to roundtrip that baby on over 1000 documents over the next year or so, I'm going to be truly annoyed. I guess I wouldn't be so upset if it actually looked like Adobe was fixing the bugs. If I wan't a long time ID user who usually raves about the product, I would probably be throwing in the towel on Adobe right now and looking for another layout solution.

[moo1212]

I can't understand it why it should not be compatible.

I am a student and must look to remain compatible with other students, because we have to co-operate in many projects. And not every student can buy a new version to himself.

A file format can be extended and be compatible to basic functions. Why does Adobe not do this?

[BobLevine]

Did you not bother to read this entire thread? It's all in there.

Bob

[moo1212]

I did, but I can not understand it.

Once is okay,

twice is okay,

but each version is not compatible. This is a very, very bad habit and frustrated every customer.

[BobLevine]

If it was every customer, these forums would be flooded with complaints. While I understand the frustration, the evidence points to a very small number of people that have been horribly inconvenienced.

Bob

[moo1212]

But that should not be a reason not to be compatible!

I think there are many, many more which frustrated.

Not everyone writing in a forum, or register here.

I have CS5 since one day and am shocked that it is not compatible.

Other companies manage it well. So why not Adobe.

I like the products very much, but I do not know how to solve my problem without buying at least two versions.

Many of the students I work with have CS3, CS4 or CS5.

Sorry, I am a student and not a millionaire.

[Jongware]

Most InDesign users must be millionaires, because most seem not to have a problem with this. I'll make a note to check my bank account.

1. It has never been said ID is not backwards compatible. ID can save one version down.

2. Adobe has a student discount program. Especially for the non-millionaires.

3. Any collaborative project, using one version, is going to be difficult. You need to make totally sure everyone has his/hers files up to date. Throwing in different versions makes it even harder.

Let me try an analogy. This project ... does it use more than one font? Are you only using Windows fonts? What if one of you has a Mac? DId you all license every font that did not came for free with the computer?

[Eugene Tyson]

Yeh ok.

We're at a stage now where there are loads of versions of indesign. InDesign is wonderful, we all love it. But at this stage some need backward compatibility. Which is fine... I have no issues with that.

It seems such a simple thing I guess people don't understand the ramifications.

[bsnebold]

This whole nonsense about "Adobe can't provide a save as CS3/CS4" option because of text reflow is rubbish. You can export a CS5 file as a pdf (a different file format) and you can even open and edit it in Acrobat Pro. Adobe chose now to put resources against it and that's all there is to it. CS5 seems to have no problem opening up files from older versions of InDesign and I haven't noticed any text reflow.

[Peter Spier]

bsnebold wrote:

CS5 seems to have no problem opening up files from older versions of InDesign and I haven't noticed any text reflow.

It doesn't show up in that direction until you start to edit the text.

[bsnebold]

So in other words you have the same compatibility issues in either direction. Which makes my point just as valid as before. There is a real world need, given the nature of the business that this software is designed for, to be able to save down to a previous version of the file. The user can be warned of possible text reflow issues and missing features, but at least give them the functionality.

[Cynthia Ryan Graphic]

I agree. How do we go about conveying this to Adobe and get enough

other designers on-board to get the developers attention?

[Eugene Tyson]

Get as many people as you can to fill out the feature request

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

[Cynthia Ryan Graphic]

Ok- I asked for the feature ( backwards compatible two versions and a

warning box letting you know which version of InDesign file you are

opening if not the current version) and am encouraging all the other

designers I know who have an issue with this also to do the same. If

there are enough of us, it seems it will have to be seriously looked

at (hopefully for CS6.)

[Joel Cherney]

Well, I'm 100% on board for meaningful error messages. I couldn't care less about the backsave, but the absence of error messages that actually tell non-experts something about what is going on are always advisable.

(New in CS6: The number of "Where do I get these plug-ins?" posts to the Adobe Forums declines by a third! Wow!)

[Jongware]

(New in CS6: The number of "Where do I get these plug-ins?" posts to the Adobe Forums declines by a third! Wow!)

Not really. Only if Adobe finally "updates" CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, and CS5 to gracefully reject CS6 files, with aforementioned "meaningful error message" saying something straight-up such as "This document is from a newer version".

The major version number is and always has been in the very first 1K of data in each InDesign file, on the same place.

[Eugene Tyson]

Yeh a warning is a fair ask.

And I also think it's a fair ask that if you double click a file to open it that it opens in the version it was saved in.

Those are the things I asked for in the Feature Request

[Peter Spier]

Joel Cherney wrote:

(New in CS6: The number of "Where do I get these plug-ins?" posts to the Adobe Forums declines by a third! Wow!)

Sorry, that won't happen until the release of CS7 when the CS6 warning "this file was saved in a newer version of InDesign and cannot be opened in this version" finally kicks in.

[KVL_NY]

If it's any help, I have CS5 and CS4, and I use both for different purposes and clients.

If I know a client is on CS4 or CS3, then I'll start the workflow in CS4.

If I'm not collaborating or if the client is on CS5, then I'll work in CS5.

But honestly, I am finding CS5 to be pretty unstable, and it's crashing and hanging a lot.  CS4 is perfect.  CS5 is buggy.

I don't mind at all working in CS4 in the interum.

[aart_depaartment]

That's great! Unfortunately...CS4 isn't even available for purchase (unless I go on Ebay or something) so all I'll have is 3 and 5. BUT I've been doing some testing, and it looks like 3 actually is working on the new Mac G5, so perhaps it's not as terrible as I feared.

Best,

Nicole

[Eugene Tyson]

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-InDesign-CS4-OLD-VERSION/dp/B001EUBUR2/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1278066268&sr=8-7

CS4 is still available to purchase.