syncing and missing links in a shared Cloud Document

[christina_hands]

I'm sharing a working document with a colleague. All files and the InDesign doc are in a shared CC-folder. If he places new files in the document I see it as a missing link. I have to relink it to the same file in the shared folder as the path says. But then, he has all the missing links. 

We are working on 2 separate accounts.

We've already worked the similar way on another project and it's never been an issue.

Is there a way to make the links work. Relinking 300 files is no fun!

[BobLevine]

Where is he placing them from? You can run your mouse over the missing link and InDesign will show you where it's looking for the file.

He should copy them to the links folder first and then place them.

[christina_hands]

Hi, thank you for you reply.

As you can see it links first to the users folder.

Those are separate articles and multiple clients provide their own feedback/input on their part.

Unfortunatly it's not possible at this stage of the project to put the links all together in one folder.

Any other suggestions to optimalise the workflow?

[BobLevine]

I'm sorry, but I've given you the best advice you're going to get. If you want to work like this, you're going to both need full access to these files. This won't change no matter how you work...local network, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive...all participants need access to the links.

[BobLevine]

BTW, since I see you're placing InDesign files (something I personally would never do for a variety of reasons) you'll need access to anything linked to them, too.

[christina_hands]

There's a good reason why we're placing indesign files instead of pdfs.

1 - you can immideatly edit them if a client has any remarks.

2 - I always have last version of the file already placed. So I'm sure that the design the third party has approved, is actually placed in the final document.

The only counterpart so far. We have to gather the linked images at the end. And when next year the client says, we want to use the same picture again - at least I have it's name and know where to look for.

It's about 200 articles this time. How would you work in this case? Tips are welcome.

[BobLevine]

Again, you both need full access to all assets. I can't stress that enough and it appears that this is not the case here. That includes links to the placed InDesign files AND the fonts.

I'm sorry, that's the best I can do here. As I said earlier, I don't like this workflow for the very reasons we're seeing here. You need a parent folder where ALL assests are going to reside and both you and your partner need to be very maticulous in not placing any assests from outside that folder. Every placed InDesign should have the same structure for the INDD file and its links.

Good luck.

[Creamer Training]

If you get a Microsoft Office subscription, you can install for up to 5 users and get 1 TB of storage. Both of you could log into the same OneDrive account. You can do something similar with a Google Drive but you won't get as much storage. 

If the placed InDesign files are similar to ads, have you considered using Illustrator files? You can imbed the graphics if necessary or save as PDF with editable AI files. Plus, you get more graphic design options than InDesign gives you. 

[christina_hands]

We haven't considered using Illustrator for the ads. That might be a good idea to fix the links and make it possible to edit. Thank you for your tip!