Relink to images with different extensions....in subfolders.

[quoz]

I might be asking for the moon...

To avoid bogging down while working. we have documents linked to low-res JPGs on our smb network. When it comes time to print, we make a temporary copy of the document and relink to high-res PSDs in order to make a print PDF. The "Relink to Folder > Match Filename but this Extension" is perfect except... most of our thousands of high-res images are in individual subfolders.

Right now our individual users search for and copy high-res images (might be 60+ for one document) temporarily to a single folder on their desktops and relink to that folder with the "extensions" option on... Ugh.

I found a cool script on YouTube to search subfolders, but does anyone know of a script to both relink to images with different extensions AND search subfolders?

Thanks.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

If you work on a PC - my ID-Tasker would be able to fulfil your needs - it's not free but it can help you to eliminate a lot of other mundane clicking. 

Instead of relinking to a new folder - it could copy from new location to the same location of the original, low-res file - and then relink. 

Unless you want to link to your server and you don't need to make final package? 

IDT can also - after relinking - export PDF(s) automatically - with specified profile(s). Then upload them to a specified folder on your local server or FTP - your FTP or your printer's FTP. 

And if you have a lot of files to process this way - you can just load them on the list to be processed - and either get a coffee or leave it overnight. 

Would you like to receive confirmation via email? Or monitor progress through a website? 

If you need anything else IDT to do - just let me know. It can't make a decision "this photo will look better on the left and cropped to a square" - but anything else isn't a problem. 

[quoz]

Wow, your script sounds amazing! (Frankly, so do your overall skills.) Well, we're on Macs. 😞 I'll elaborate just in case you or someone else can still help. I should have mentioned that initially; my bad. (Friday-before-a-holiday brain.)

Ideally we'd link to high-res our server, but when we try that with our high-res it really bogs down--hence the step of copying them to our desktop. If your script is able to search folders on our smb network, locate high-res in subfolders and then copy them down to a DESKTOP FOLDER instead of the same location as the low-res, that would be cool. That's what we're doing manually now, and it's time-consuming and prone to error--all just to create an X-4 for printing.

I should mention that we're on Mac Ventura, Adobe InDesign 2023, and our image are on a smb network managed by IT. mentioning this because we've already found we can't seem to use Spotlight to search since we upgraded to Ventura. Again, a Mac thing. Thanks for responding.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Thanks. What I've described is just a tip of an iceberg. 

Any chance you can have a dedicated PC connected to your network - with CC installed? I'm pretty sure it would be well worth it - considering how much time you could save. 

Anyway, do you have low-res AND high-res photos in the same location on your server? 

Or a different solution - two locations on your server - in one, low-res PSD files - in the other one - hi-res versions - with exactly same names, in exactly the same folder structure. 

Then, you could just relink from low-res to high-res - and then either export PDF or create local package first - InDesign will copy all linked files locally - and then you can export PDF.

Low-res PSD files - when flattened - won't be much slower than low-res JPEGs.