InDesign Backwards Compatibility in CS5 an MAJOR issue

I've written a blog post which explains a bit on the technical points of back saving here:

http://in-tools.com/article/whats-with-back-save-to-earlier-versions-of-indesign/

Done, If you missed your cahnce, send me a PM and I'll think about letting you post, but not anything that's been said already.

At risk of being beaten sounly about the ears, I'm inclined to lock this thread at this point. I don't see much new or enlightening content being added. Does anyone think that would be incorrect?

Speaking as the person who started this post I must say that Bob Levine, through this post helped me find a solution (buying CS4 and getting the complimentary upgrade to CS5). He also explained how I might time my upgrades, buying the next version up late in the developement cycle and then get a complimentary upgrade to the latest version, to allow me to get all versions of the software while upgrading only every other version. Even as a very small business where I am not making a lot of money, I can live with this because I can now plan for the cost of the upgrades. I still have to use different versions of the software for different clients and I occasionally have to save a file backwards through exporting it to .inx or .idml, but I honestly don't know of anything out there that can compete with what Adobe has developed. The software is outstanding -- I simply couldn't run my business without it.

Thanks for all of your help with this Bob.

Why does this thread appear in two different places.

I don't even bother with font managers anymore. No need for what I do.

At Bob: Yikes! Do you have all your fonts loose in the system folder? I would go nuts seeing a list 10 miles long everytime I opened a file. As it is, seeing 4 flavors of Helvetica and Times everytime I boot into ID in the morning makes me want to thrown my fontbook at someone.

Had a few moments to catch my breath and scrolled through some of this thread. Has some legs. And I love a good argument as long as I'm not in it.

I had originally planned on getting CS5 over the summer but nearly 6 months in from release date and I've yet to receive one CS5 file so I decided to hold off until CS6 comes out if I can. I work in CS4 and occasionally CS3. Still have CS2 and CS on one machine though I haven't opened them in years. Too chicken to delete them and have something go bonkers on my machine. I have tons of friends and acquantance in the business and no one bats an eye when I say give me a PDF or backsave it to 4. I only know 2 firms/freelancers that even have CS5. In fact, I've never seen CS5 running in any of the agencies, print shops, freelancers I do business with. Maybe CS5 is similar to the Paul is Dead thing. Only more expensive.

Personally, I don't see why you can't save back at least one version. As long as the designer is aware that the process isn't perfect why couldn't you open a CS5 file in CS4? And I'm willing to bet the vast majority of folks not using CS5 don't particulary need the ebook features yet. If you've designed a straightforward brochure with text and images, why shouldn't it open in an earlier version of ID without it giving you a BS warning prompt that it can't open the file? In effect, there's nothing to lose because you haven't used any or very few of the new and improved digital effects. After all, I can open illustrator files in CS, CS2, CS3 or CS4 without too much going wrong. And before everyone tells me AI is built different. Who cares? If I have a business card with text and a piece of clip art that I can open in any version of AI, I should be able to open my ID business card with text in any version. The argument doesn't hold up. I can open AI and PS files in any version but the workhorse program is too comples from version to version to go up and down when opening files? Are PS and AI simplistic crap?

Like many, I'm a one man shop. I bring in/contract out to freelancers as needed. I have an extremely hard time justifying the expense for multiple seat licenses every other year. Not to mention that if I upgrade, my freelancers have to. The reality is that CS4 has sold poorly and CS5 as well. Maybe the time has come to lengthen the upgrade timepath to make the investment more palatable and cost-effective. It was actually easier from a learning standpoint when the product releases were staggered. ID would come out, you'd get comfortable with the new features, then down the line AI would come out, you learn that, etc. Made keeping up with the applications much easier. When all the products are dumped in your lap at once, it's really hard to give them all the attention they need to learn and implement new features. Years ago, I would have said, yeah, makes more sense to release a suite at one time. One box with all the apps. One shipping cost. But there are no more boxes (I belong to print provider program and CS is a download) and hasn't been any manuals for nearly a decade so the biggest cost factors have been reduced considerably. I wouldn't mind paying for my upgrade and having the apps roll out piecemeal. But that's me. Not the end of the world getting everything at once.

Cynthia,

I am having the same issues. I don't care what "the InDesign" guy or anyone else says in trying to justify running three versions of a single application. You're a freelancer not a service bureau (do these even exist anymore?). If all their logic were true, then why can you back save Illustrator files so successfully? The simple fact of the matter is this: Adobe bought their only real competition at the time (Macromedia), then shut them down. Now they can create whatever package/upgrade/pricing structures they want to keep stockholders happy and profits up, users be damned.

Adobe products have become fat, expensive and a pain to use. Their customer service is terrible. They are following in Quark's footsteps that allowed InDesign to knock them off the page layout throne. It's only a matter of time before a leaner, meaner graphics suite appears driven by hungry forward thinkers.

Good luck,

MO

Hi I'm currently in college in the UK and in college and the mac's that are used in the college I go to currently only have CS3 on them, the only problem is that my home computer has adobe CS5 on it I rarely have have access to CS4, which makes keeping up to date with the assignments that require the use of InDesign almost impossible. what I don't is why there isn't a plug-in that will allow saving in a CS3 compatible file format in CS5. as something as simple as that would save me a lot of hassle when it comes to getting my work in.

I totally agree.... it's sad --- feels like they don't care because they've cornered the market. I am a small studio owner and what the small business owner has to pay out really limits people working on their own. It's all boiling down to a handful of large companies getting richer and the small to mid size business man being squashed out. What's their end game.... Adobe is large enough to make backsaving work.

Adobe initially introduced INX file format with an idea of portability. So, CS3 users have INX as their portable InDesign format.

Since INX was not well structured. It required some repair. Later, CS4 brought the new well structured format called IDML for the same purpose of portability.

So, we have 2 different portable formats INX and IDML between CS3 and CS5. I think this is causing lot of issues around.

Hopefully, going forward CS5/CS6 should provide backward compatibility through IDML.

-Radha