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Remove broken link to Word doc

Participant ,
Dec 10, 2018 Dec 10, 2018

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Hello,

I've ran into the broken link problem in Indesign (13.1). I have a single Word doc of a book linked into an ID file. The layout has been completed and all looks great. But ID says the link needs to be updated. I update the Word doc link and the entire layout is ruined.

Embed Link and Link Options are greyed out in the Links panel. I tried previous suggestions:

There are no locked layers

A suggested script to delete parents deletes most of the doc contents.

Track changes is off

Trashed preferences, reinstalled.

Saved to IDML, open, resave to ID file

I've done embedding with other ID files, deleted the original Word doc, and it worked fine.

This is only a single linked Word doc. Is there a way to delete the link and move on? The layout is complete, all I need to do is clear the error.

Thanks!

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Community Expert ,
Dec 10, 2018 Dec 10, 2018

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Right click the link in the links panel and choose unembed link.

Then with no files open, check your preferences and disable "create links when placing text and spreadsheet files.

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Participant ,
Dec 10, 2018 Dec 10, 2018

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Therein lies the problem - the unembed link option is unavailable. The book is already laid out but it's still attached to the original Word ms. Once I update the link, the formatting is trashed. Any ideas?

Screen Shot 2018-12-10 at 7.44.03 PM.png

Screen Shot 2018-12-10 at 7.45.02 PM.png

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Community Expert ,
Dec 10, 2018 Dec 10, 2018

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That's showing as a missing link. In a case like this you may just be better off ignoring it. Won't hurt anything.

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Participant ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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I did ignore it a few years ago but it caused problems with a book revision. It's frustrating when something like this gets stuck.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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Why are you linking to Word files in the first place?

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Participant ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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I link to the Word file to integrate manuscript updates as they are made. This helps along the process when there are still edits to be done. It's pretty handy when you're pushing a schedule.

However, I made the mistake of letting the design get too far along and didn't catch the layout being left linked. I should've checked the INDD file myself along the way to catch this.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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If this is your typical workflow I strongly recommend you look at Wordsflow from emsoftware:

http://emsoftware.com/products/wordsflow/

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Participant ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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Bob - That is some pretty nice software, thank you.

I assume others wait until the manuscript is perfect before going into layout? I'd like to see someone else's workflow if they can share it.

Sure wish I had a solution to this particular file. We'll work through it with copy and paste but it'd be better to have a solution that removes the link like my sample test files did.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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If IDML doesn’t clear it up, leave it alone. Nothing is going to happen if you don’t update that link.

The other possibility going forward is looking into InCopy.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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Hi elellilrah ,

it would good to know why "Embed Link" is not available.

Just tested this with a doc file from Word, placed it linked, deleted the doc file and still I can see the menu command "Embed Link" ( "Verknüpfung aufheben") not grayed out.

German InDesign CC 2019 14.0.1.209 on WIndows 10 Pro:

EmbedLinkMenuAvailable-1.png

What you also can try on a duplicate of your InDesign document:

1. Copy all text of the linked story.

2. Do a new text frame, paste in the text.

3. Remove the text frames of the linked story.

Then the link should be removed as well.

Regards,
Uwe

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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I would export to IDML and try that, too. But I wonder if it's not a DOC vs DOCX thing. Still shouldn't happen.

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Participant ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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Yes, it definitely shouldn't happen. I did have this happen several years ago and ended having to do the copy/paste maneuver. The formatting doesn't come in perfect. It has to be tweaked.

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Participant ,
Dec 11, 2018 Dec 11, 2018

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I did try a temporary Word document and the Unlink works perfectly. There's something wrong with how the Word file was linked in. This happened a few years ago to me. I ignored the error but ran into problems when we had to update the book.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 21, 2024 Oct 21, 2024

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I am having the same problem as you have had and am now needing to update the publication. Did you ever find a sollution to this problem?

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