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Question

PDF Conversion: Is Adobe really so clueless?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
June 14, 2024
13 replies
4028 views

I needed to open an Acrobat PDF in InDesign- THEY ARE BOTH ADOBE PRODUCTS. The fact that it's 2024 and InDesign cannot open an Acrobat file is bad enough. But what's worse is that they're bragging about a "new Beta feature" that "converts PDFs to InDesign". But get this: only if the PDF was created in InDesign.

It would be comical if it were so mind-numbingly indicative of the total lack of effort that Adobe puts forth these days. There's "resting on your laurels" and then there's this.

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rob day

Community Expert

THEY ARE BOTH ADOBE PRODUCTS

Should InDesign be able to open and edit a Photoshop file?

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

I know, right? Would you believe iTunes — to this day — cannot edit a Hypercard stack?

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

I don't know if this will decrease your anger but I thought that you might like to know that there is a third party plug-in available from Markzware that will convert a PDF into an editable InDesign file. Check out https://markzware.com/products/pdfmarkz/ for more information.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

that will convert a PDF into an editable InDesign file

Just emphasizing the verb and underlying process here. You can convert nearly any format into any other, including printed pages back into a live InDesign file with styles... but "open [for direct editing]" is a very limited process with every creative app I know of.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Few apps directly "open" any other file formats. Many, however, can convert, import or 'place' quite a few in the regular course of things.

That you cannot open a PDF in InDesign as an editable document should surprise absolutely no one who understands complex doc formats. You can, however, open them more or less directly in Illustrator, and place them as complex graphic elements in ID. A more direct conversion/import process has been on the books for a while but ain't here yet and is likely to remain limited for quite some time.

Sorry you've been inconvenienced.

(And ETA: PDF is a standard loosely implemented by many companies. There is no special reason an Adobe product should be able to open PDFs created by substandard apps and streamlined implementation of features. Like so many things, they are far from "all the same.")

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