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.

[Peter Spier]

I don't store my files on dropbox (but some of our other experts do and highly reccomend the practice) so I can't say file paths will transfer seamlessly, but I believe that they will, and other than that, yes, your files should open without issue on either platform.

As to your comment that InDesign doesn't work well on PC, I've been Using it for production on PC for more than 20 years (starting with version 2.0 for production), and never experienced the kind of trouble you describe, nor is it a common report on the forums other than when there is a sytem configuration issue. 

I would actually have to say that with more current versions there are actually more reports of problems such as you describe reported by Mac users than PC.

This forum is actually a fountain of trouble-shooting expertise if you want to use it. Give us details about the version of your OS, InDesign, the symptoms and any error messages you get, and if it is repeatable, happens only with old files, or only new ones, what you've tried to corect the problem, or anything else that might offer a clue. 

[PeterD-NJ]

I'm using Windows 11, whatever latest version Microsoft pushes out every week or every month; the updates are automatic. InDesign is on 20.5 x64 but I've been having these problems going back to the CS4 days.

This is really the only document I work with that experiences problems. I did not create it in InDesign; I created it in QuarkXPress 4.11 back in the late 1990s. It was converted to InDesign on my wife's Mac about 2012 I want to say (a work colleague had a plug-in that did it), and I've been in InDesign ever since. This represents about 30 years of work so it's not something that could ever be re-created from scratch. I suspect there are all sorts of gremlins under the surface that I have no way of finding, and they ALWAYS seem to manifest when I create the print PDF exports (600 dpi rendering, bleed/slug and crop marks added). But the program will crash randomly and unexpectedly just whenever it feels like it.

[Peter Spier]

Converted files can be problematic, especially when you keep updating through various versions of Indesign.

Have you ever exported the file to .idml. the opened that and worked from there? That would be a VERY wise move.

I would also advocate that you break the file into parts, perhaps by chapter, and use the Book panel to organize and combine them. Among other things, there's far less risk of losing everything this way, and your files will be smaller and faster.

[BobLevine]

I've been using InDesign on Windows since 1999 and I've been active in these forums since then. I would have hoped by the year 2025 people would start recognizing all of this for what it is...tools. The updates to Windows are done on the first second Tuesday of every month.

Most of the complaints from Windows users are due to under powered machines (and with Apple producing lower end computers now, we're seeing the same thing, not to mention buggy O/S launches).

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

There is a difference between how a Mac stores file paths as compared to Windows, so you might see some need for relinking

[Peter Spier]

Brad @ Roaring Mouse Does that address web addresses as well?

@PeterD-NJ the good news though is that if relinking IS required, it could be fairly painless if your links are all in only one or two folders

On Another note:

>> I'm the author of a very long, complex book (215 pages, full color, 625 MB when open).  That seems overly large to me. I've done three editions of of a book approaching 400 pages with hundreds of photos and the combined total file size for all the included .indd files (I use the book feature for long docs like this to break the project into manageable chunks which run faster) is under 70 MB. I would bet that you probably have a lot of old change data that is useless left over from soing simple "save" operations rather than Save As whcich forces a re-write and discards useless junk, and possibly a lot of pasted or embedded graphical content that would be better linked. Those are the kinds of things that can actually lead to the sort of file corruption and poor perforamnce that you describled.

[BobLevine]

I've done this via Dropbox and OneDrive on quite a few occasions with no problems. Make sure you have no illegal characters in file or folder names.

[PeterD-NJ]

What are Mac's illegal characters? Since everything I do is created on a PC I'm guessing it's more a problem going Mac to PC than PC to Mac. I just use regular alpha-numeric file names (2026 Edition - FINAL would be a typical filename).

[leo.r]

What are Mac's illegal characters? I just use regular alpha-numeric file names (2026 Edition - FINAL would be a typical filename).

By @PeterD-NJ

Your filename convention is fine. Mac's illegal characters are : and /, but it's best to only use alpha-numeric file names just like you do anyway to avoid issues that can be encountered with third-party software, web, cross-platform issues etc.

[Randy Hagan]

Nothing is seamless about moving files between platforms. With Adobe InDesign or most any other program. But with preparation, you can minimize any impact when moving files between platforms.

• Filename — Mac filenames can include characters that will absolutely scramble use, or be rejected, on the windows platform. Generally, the illegal characters will correspond to command/programming actions on the Windows platform. This counts not only for InDesign files themselves, but also for any graphics/content files that are linked to them. You can learn about which filename characters are verboten on the Windows platform through this link.
• File Packaging — Moving InDesign documents between platforms works most smoothly when your working with InDesign package folders. Package folders contain all the placed graphics the system can find, and all fonts (ideally, OpenType fonts, see below) used in the InDesign document. If the system you've moved your InDesign document to doesn't have those files stored on your system, the packaged links will recognize and correct any deficiencies.
• Fonts — Copyfit between Windows and Mac versions of Postscript and TrueType fonts will vary. Interestingly, in most cases I've found that the Windows platform does a better job at packing type than the Mac platform. The Postscript issue has been minimized as Adobe apps and both the Mac and Windows platforms are obsoleting use of Postscript fonts. TrueType fonts will still be an issue. To minimize conflicts, I strongly suggest using only OpenType format fonts. They pass cleanly between platforms, and the copyfit is virtually identical — I use the hedge word virtually because there is always an exception to the rule, but in this case it's exceedingly rare.
• Version Control — it's always easier, if you're using InDesign .indd/.indt files, to move files between platforms using the same version of InDesign. If you're using different versions of InDesign between your Mac and Windows platforms, be sure to include .idml interchange format files in your InDesign document package folder. While they're not absolutely flawless, .idml files let you pass a file format you can use to "reconstruct" your .indd/.indt document from if you have unforeseen issues with version control between differing incarnations of Adobe InDesign between platforms.

For what it's worth, I move InDesign files between platforms regularly. As long as I address the concerns I outlined above, I have very few issues moving between Mac and Windows systems with InDesign content.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[PeterD-NJ]

I see a couple of potential gotchas here for me. The first is that I use some specially-designed True-Type fonts. Most of my body copy is a blend of OpenType fonts (Univers family, Minion family, and some classic legacy fonts like Tekton, Gill Sans, etc, but four of the TT fonts were custom-made for my work and the designer is no longer on the green side of the grass. Those are irreplaceable. Plus a couple of wingding fonts for symbols and Highway Gothic, which I don't think is available in OTF (at least it wasn't last time I looked).

The other issue I'm just not sure about is what you addressed in packaging. My workflow every year is after I go to press, I package everything into a new folder, which I rename for the following year. That then becomes my working folder. In December I will package up the 2026 Edition into the 2027 Folder, and that will be where my .indd files, fonts, libraries, and Links folders will reside. But will the absolute paths cause a problem? In Windows it's C:\Users\peter\Dropbox\Book Files\2026. If I buy a Mac, the absolute path will conform to Mac filename hierarchies. How does InDesign handle this? And likewise, what about UNC paths for previous years' files stored on a NAS drive? I would ideally like to be able to access everything on either platform. My main computer will always be a PC, but for editing the InDesign files, the mac may be better suited for the task.

[BobLevine]

Windows TrueType will work just fine on a Mac and just because it has a TTF extension doesn't mean it's not OpenType which has two "flavors;" TrueType and Type 1.

As for the folder names, IME, it's seemless between the two platforms. I've never had a problem going back and forth.

Finally, why do you think for editing InDesign files the Mac would be any better? Listen, these decisions are yours to make but you seem to have a bit of prejudice here. As I said earlier, they're tools...nothing but a means to an end. 

[PeterD-NJ]

My wife had worked with InDesign (and before that, Quark) for 25 years in a major publishing house in New York. She's never used a PC, and her whole department was Mac-based. Other than some recurring font packaging issues on their server that she never fully explained to me, her machines were just 100% reliable. She'd often bang out a dozen books a day, flowing them into signatures, and so on.

Meanwhile, for the past few years my PC chokes on my work. InDesign typically crashes 2 or 3 times a day when I'm working 10+ hours straight on it in the spring and summer, and the piece de resistance  was yesterday, when I was generating the 260 Mb PDF for the printers. Not only did InDesign hard-crash, but it corrupted the file, almost making me miss my press window. Neither Photoshop nor Illustrator give me these kinds of headaches, and the few times I've tried playing with video editing that was fine too. But InDesign just doesn't like to run on my system, and I'm willing to buy whatever type of computer will allow me to work without risk of crashing and file corruption. I agree, the computer is a tool. Snap-On vs Icon vs Matco. A 10mm socket is a 10mm socket for the most part. At this stage of the game a modern Mac and a modern PC, with similar components, should be indistinguishable to the end user other than the U.I. And yet, my wife's Mac just chuggs along perfectly whenever she does layout work, and mine craps itself 3x a day. The machine is less than a year old.

I do save to .idml on a regular basis and it doesn't help.

[Peter Spier]

Have you tried installing InDesing on your wife's Mac and seeing how the file behaves?

[PeterD-NJ]

That's on the docket for the next couple of weeks. I'm just too busy with my own work at the moment to experiment. We did try it briefly, but the fonts just didn't work and graphics were missing, etc. I gave her access to my master Dropbox folder. It found the .indd file ok, but not the links or fonts, apparently. It was about a 15 minute test and when it didn't work I just walked away and went back to my side of the office <grin>.

I will probably need a couple of full 10-hour days of screwing around with things before I know if it will work, but before I spend that kind of time I wanted to ask here if what I wanted to accomplish was viable. Note that I will need BOTH platforms to be able to function with the file — obviosuly not at the same time.

[BobLevine]

All I can tell you is that with two properly configured machines and with Dropbox also configured properly (do not use cloud-only settings that download files on demand) it is seemless. Beyond the few platform specific things such as file naming using InDesign crossplatform, in my experience, is just as seemless as using it on the same platform.

[Randy Hagan]

I don't know the configuration or software kit of your Windows setup, so I can't freely comment on why your Windows system is choking on your work. But I can tell you that I've been moving graphics files between Mac and PCs for nearly 40 years now. It used to be a profitable business center for me when that was a hard thing to do. Now, it's so easy that I have no issues moving between Macs and PCs with InDesign documents.

Similarly, I can't totally sleuth why you're having problems working with InDesign on the Windows platform. I don't doubt in the least that you are experiencing your issues. But by my experience, and that of my multiple clients, we do not. There may be occasional surprises, of course. But they very rarely are due to moving files between platforms, and virtually never are due to limitations of Windows versions of InDesign compared to what can be done on the Mac.

I will say, though, if you're working with single file InDesign books with hundreds of pages and lots of color illustration, you'd be better served to break that single file down into smaller, chapter/section-sized chunks and stitching them together using InDesign's book functions. On either platform. If you're not taking full advantage of these capabilities, you can learn more about them by following this link, then going through the follow-on links from that help page. 

It's truly incredible how taking full advantage of what InDesign's book functions can do will make your life easier, in so many ways, if you're into long document InDesign production.

Randy

[PeterD-NJ]

The format of my book is such that it would be impractical if not impossible to do at this point. There are probably close to 500 cross-references and internal hyperlinks, and I'm constantly switching between pages. Diagramatic maps on pages 14 and 15 link to closeup "to-scale" maps on six other pages later in the book and are referenced on probably 5 or 10 others.

This is *NOT* a linearly-written work of literature with defined chapters. It's a book of illustrated maps, with links hither and yon within the structure. It's sold in PDF format and print, and the PDF has internal links up the wazoo. Tearing it apart and trying to reassemble it into a format I've neither seen nor worked with before just isn't something I ever want to try, to be brutally honest. I used to have it split into three parts back in the Quark days and that in itself was an absolute nightmare; going to one master file allowed me to work far better.

I will say that when I use InDesign for simpler documents, pamphlets, ads, etc, it behaves as it should, but then again, they aren't 600 Mb in size handling massive vector artwork files and about 10,000 text frames. So there's that 🙂

[BobLevine]

Out of curiosity, can you tell us the system specs for your Windows and Mac machines?

[PeterD-NJ]

The PC is Win 11 Pro, 10.0.2620 Build 26200. Motherboard is a Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro, CPU is an AMD Ryzen 7, 9700X 8-core @ 3800 MHz, BIOS 3.7. 128 GB of physical RAM, two 2TB M.2 SSD drives (and numerous spinning iron for non-related storage, old videos, one level of backups, etc). Video is an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 with 4 GB of VRAM. It was built in early November 2024.

I don't have a Mac yet. My wife's is a laptop about 4 or 5 years old. I have no idea what's in it or on it. We both run the latest InDesign (she still does a bit of freelance work on it). I don't know the password to it and I don't go snooping <g>.

[BobLevine]

Certainly a well stocked machine. It should be screaming fast (but you already knew that).

Any third-party InDesign plugins especially font managers?

[PeterD-NJ]

Nope, and I don't even know what those are to be honest. The machine is used for a ton of other stuff as well, but normally I only have four browser windows open (with an ungodly number of tabs on each), Outlook, InDesign, and Illustrator running, and that's about it. Yes, the specs are good and it does what I need it to do quite nicely, except for ID. Even closing ID takes about 2 minutes from when the document closes until the app goes away. Its windows dont' resize easily, I cannot save InDesign's window positions between sessions, library files I always use never stay pinned and sometimes don't open...little nonsense like that. Somehow there are unused colors I can never get rid of in that document (yes, I've tried the usual methods many times without success) and other annoying gremlins. I can live with all of those, but I cannot live with spontaneous crashes in the middle of my work before I've had a chance to save, and the resulting corruption of the files. I've reset prefs every few months, opened the IDML and saved-as, opened the saved as, and it still happens.

[BobLevine]

How about third party antivirus software? Firewalls? Anything like that?

And just for giggles, try disconnecting from the internet. 

BTW, the NJ in your screen name? Location or something else? Only asking because I'm in New Jersey.

[PeterD-NJ]

Just Malwarebytes, that's it. Haven't tried disconnecting, but that's also impractical and I don't see it changing anything to be honest. Yes, I'm in north Jersey (western Essex County).