Sharing InDesign on Mac and PC

[PeterD-NJ]

Can I use InDesign on both a Mac and a PC to open a document seamlessly?

I'm the author of a very long, complex book (215 pages, full color, 625 MB when open). I've been a PC user all my life, but InDesign has never really behaved on any PC I've ever used, even a modern one (Ryzen-7, 128 GB, 4TB SSD). It crashes often, damages the file's contents in the process and so on. I would like to try using a Mac for production of this work, but having never used a Mac in my life other than opening my wife's Macbook Pro, I'm a bit hesitant.

I'm of the impression that the document should open cleanly on either platform, but what about file hierarchies? My document is stored in Dropbox. Will Indesign be able to see the correct paths to the document on both a Mac's file system and the PC's? I want to be able to open it on either computer, depending on where I'm working, and have the document load without error and save without problems, then when I'm on the other computer (not at the same time), open it up there and keep working.

The PC will still be my primary comptuer for everything except InDesign, but there will be times I will need to do edits and revisions on the PC when I'm not near the Mac. 

Is this doable, and if not, are there workarounds? I wish InDesign was as stable on the PC platform as Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, and Premiere Pro. Please and thanks.

[BobLevine]

There have been reports in the past of this correcting things. I'm not saying it should be permanent but it will give a road to travel.

I grew up in Livingston.

[Peter Spier]

Are those massive vector artworks embedded in the doc in some way. or linked to external files (as they should be).

[PeterD-NJ]

They are placed (Control+D) into the document, resized and positioned as needed.

The vector files are small on disk (only about 3.6 Mb), but the dimensions are massive (96" x 188"). In the book's 57 diagramatic map pages, this file is placed on about 40 pages give or take, and about 200 other much smaller .PDF vector drawings as well.

[Peter Spier]

OK, that's good.

I'm beginning to suspect your problems stem from all the cross-references. Muy works doesn't involve the use of cross-refs, but my understanding is that every text edit requires InDesign to recheck and resolve every one of them.

[PeterD-NJ]

Ugh. Unfortunately there's just no way around them. I repaginate the back every few years as I add new sections, and content moves. "See P. 141" just became "See P. 151" this year, with a few hundred similar examples.

[Peter Spier]

If I'm right that the problem is the cross-refs, switcing the platform will make no difference.

I'd like to hear from some of the other folks with more experience in cross-refs...

[BobLevine]

Agreed. A document like that is going to put a strain on any system but on high end machines, it certainly shouldn't cause a crash.

[Randy Hagan]

On the first issue, yeah, you've got issues. The only thing I can suggest, with sometimes varying degrees of success, is to try some of the online font translators to convert TrueType to OpenType fonts. If we were doing Postscript to OpenType, I could recommend TransType for converting all your old Postscript fonts into OpenType. Perhaps someone else can chime in with better recommendations of which TT-OTF converters work best.

On the second? I think you've got the right workflow but you'll perhaps need to work with it more often. Packaging the old version for use generating the next version is a solid strategy, but it's also something you'll want to do again before you move your job between platforms if you're linking new files/use new fonts for the next version of your job. As far as absolute file paths to links/fonts on your Mac/Windows systems, that's exactly why packaged jobs are so handy. If InDesign can't resolve the absolute link between a file/font used in your InDesign document, on either platform, InDesign immediately falls back to the relative link to linked files/fonts contained in your packaged folder. As long as everything you're using in your job(s) is collected within your package folder, absolute links are not an issue. Packaged job folders are your secret superpower for transferring InDesign documents between Mac and Windows systems.

Randy 

[BobLevine]

A few fun fonts facts:

Windows TrueType fonts work just fine on a Mac. With older versions of InDesign (before Type 1 died) Windows Type 1 fonts worked fine if you put them into the private InDesign\Fonts folder. So, back in the day, I always used Windows fonts to avoid any typefitting issues.

I wrote this a long time ago for InDesign Secrets which has since been incorporated into CreativePro: InQuestion: Solving Cross-Platform Font Problems | CreativePro Network You will need a subscription.