InDesign Links?

[Barton Workman]

An InDesign feature that seems completely aribitrary and unnecessary is the links.

Now, whenever making a text-only update on an existing InDesign file, it cannot be converted to PDF unless or until these links are re-established even if I don't touch the images or logos in the document. 

This is just one page, doing this on a multi-page document is extremenly time consuming and seems

completely unncesssary.

What is this all about?

Is anyone in San Jose paying attention? 

BHW

[Steve Werner]

It's not that you can't make a PDF when the links are out-of-date. It's just that any images in the file which are unavailable will be reproduced using the low-resolution placeholders. There is now way to get the full resolution image without relinking to the original source.

[Barton Workman]

Not sure I understand what links are "out of date" means. 

Even if I work on this document on a daily basis, which I do, how are links falling out of date?

What's the workaround on this?  Can these links be turned off somehow?

BHW

[Steve Werner]

I should have said Missing. InDesign can't fine the original that the link points to.

[Steve Werner]

You said "unless or until these links are re-established" which suggests that the linked image has been moved.

[Barton Workman]

So, this is a fundamental flaw in InDesign then.

When should we expect it will be corrected?

BHW

[Steve Werner]

You can tell whether it's missing or modified by looking at the Links panel. Red stop sign means missing. Yellow triangle means modified:

[Steve Werner]

That's not at all a flaw. It's essential to a proper print workflow which was InDesign was design for. It will NOT be changed.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As Steve said, the Links menu and all it represents is a key part of ID document development and management. I can't think of any outstanding bugs or significant feature requests for it.

If you are used to embedding images and other linked material in a doc, as Word does it, it's worth learning how and why ID (and most pro tools) do it this way. Complex projects often need the parts updated or modified, and keeping them separate but "linked" to a spot in the document allows this much more easily than deleting and replacing an embedded item.

If your file system and folders etc. are stable, you should not be seeing any requests to update links. ID is good about persistent linking and things like updating all links when you tell it where to find one moved file. If you are moving or deleting your image files, ID will flag the entry in the Links menu and leave a low-resolution version in place for reference—but it will alert you if you try to export or print it using that low-res placeholder.

TL;DR—once you place your images etc., don't move or delete them. They were not "moved" to the ID document, only "linked" from their separate file. Pro tip: create a separate folder for complicated projects and one or more image subfolders, and don't move things once they're dropped within that structure.

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[Barton Workman]

Thanks, this is pretty much what I've been doing for a while now.

Adobe tech supoort advised I should have all image and logo files in the same folder

with the layout.  So, I've been doing that but it doesn't really seem to have any effect

on these links. 

Sorry, I'm more of an artist, not a computer engineer.

BHW

[Creamer Training]

I hardly ever have problems with InDesign links. 

Are you working off of a server or using a cloud storage service with a "files on demand" feature?

[Barton Workman]

Nope.

InDesign is part of my ACS package.  All files, images, logos, etc. are kept on my computer,

all in the same file and could not be any more organized.

No cloud, no this, no that.  Everything right together where it belongs.

Why would I want to do it any other way?

BHW

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

In more complex environments, assets can be kept on servers, in shared cloud storage, etc. (Even I use a server in what's an essentially one-man office, for file management and backup.)

If you've linked the files and aren't moving, renaming or modifying them, ID should not give any link warnings.

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[Peter Spier]

It's possible the file modification dates are changing on your linked files do to some sort of background scan such as antivirus. This would cause them to be shown as "out-of-date" even though they have not moved or been edited.

[Creamer Training]

>>>Why would I want to do it any other way?

How would I know ahead of time how your files are organized? What's with the attitude? We are all users here trying to help others. 

Good luck with your problem. 

[BobLevine]

That statement speaks volumes. You seem to be deadset in your ways and so I wish you luck...you are going to need it.

OTOH, if you decide to open your mind and truly learn how all of this works let us know and we'll be happy to help.

[Barton Workman]

Well, I've been at this now for going on 30 years doing page layout on Quark and now In Design and have never had this issue until now.

In the dozens of calls I've made to Adobe tech support, not once has putting the files on a

cloud server been mentioned. 

All Adobe tech support has told me is that the images, logos, etc files should all be in the same file as the document.  And, so having done this, thought the issues were over. 

During screen share with Adobe tech all they seem to want to do is dissassemble the document, put it back togehter again and then tell me everything should be fine now.  And, the next day we're right back to connecting all the image and logo links again. 

I do not see the point of putting image files, logo files, etc. on a cloud when there's plenty of space on the computer hard drive. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, QXP was about third-gen layout software for me — do I win? 🙂

No one is saying you MUST put files on a server or cloud folder or anything of the kind. The most stable work plan is to keep all the files local and organized, by asset type if not by individual project. If you don't understand why shared and remote storage is used by some designers/shops, I suspect you've mostly worked solo/local. Which is fine, but you're going out of your way to diss practices that are bedrock to larger work groups, especially those who are distributed geographically.

I am having trouble parsing your exact work flow here. It is not particularly good practice to embed assets (images, etc.) in an InDesign file, although it can be done. It is best practice to keep them organized in the same folder as the document itself, and place them via linking. I am not clear if you uderstand the difference, and that might be causing some of the confusion between you, Adobe support and the community here trying to help you sort out the problems.

Again: if you place an asset and it's linked to its place in the ID file and remains in the same location (be it same folder, a subfolder, somewhere else on a local drive, on a network server OR on a cloud storage site) and it is not modified by any outside action, the link should never need to be updated or re-linked.

If, on the other hand, the file is renamed, moved, edited or even if its timestamp is modified by some outside action, ID will want to update or relink it — because that's how ID's workflow works, by design and intention.

If you are used to sticking an asset on a page and it becoming a permanent part of the Word or QXP or PM or ID file... you can keep doing that, but it appears to be giving you trouble and understanding/mastering the linked-asset model will bring a lot of benefits... including, I think, a solution to your immediate problem.

Good luck.

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[Willi Adelberger]

Here is a user to user forum. From San Jose will not be many here. And InDesign people are mostly in Seattle.

If you are always loosing the links, make a package to save all links of a file in a distinct folder. You need these links.